The forest didn't whisper anymore.
It screamed.
Every branch clawed at me like it remembered my name. Every gust of wind felt like it carried Kaelen's breath raspy, cursed, wrong. I ran until my lungs burned and my magic flickered like a dying candle.
Behind me, the thing that wore Kaelen's face didn't follow.
That was the worst part.
It didn't need to.
Because it had planted a seed of terror in me and it knew I'd run exactly where it wanted me to go.
The Old Hollow.
A place even witches feared to name aloud.
A place that answered to blood and bone, not prayer or spell.
By the time I reached the rim of the Hollow, my hands were shaking. The sky above had turned a dull gray, like the color of dead teeth. Trees here didn't move with the wind they stood perfectly still, as though they were waiting.
The path into the Hollow wasn't a path at all it was a scar cut through a dense thicket, lined with roots that shifted when I blinked. Something brushed against my cloak. I turned sharply, but nothing was there.
Or nothing I could still see.
I touched the rune at my collarbone, the one that bound me to my coven. It pulsed faintly. Weak. Fading.
Still alive. But watched.
The air shifted.
"You shouldn't have come."
The voice came from behind.
I spun, hand glowing but it was only an old woman.
Or… something that used to be one.
Her back was crooked, her eyes a milky blue, but her presence nearly knocked the breath from my lungs. She wore a dress made of crow feathers and ash. Her bones cracked when she moved. Runes covered her skin like scabs that never healed.
"Who are you?" I asked, heart still hammering.
She tilted her head. "I'm what's left of the High Circle's first blade. And you're Seraphina Drelle. The last daughter of the Unbroken Bloodline."
I froze. "You know who I am?"
"The Hollow knows everyone," she said. "But you... the Hollow has waited for you."
I took a step back. "Why?"
"Because the curse sings through you like an old hymn. You brought him back, didn't you?"
Tears stung my eyes. "Yes. But something else came with him."
She sniffed the air. "Something ancient. Something meant to sleep. You cracked the seal that held it bound."
"I need to find the blood rune," I said quickly. "Kaelen said before it took him again he said it's the first step to breaking the curse."
The crone smiled, and it chilled me. "He's not wrong. But the Hollow doesn't just give. It takes."
"I'll pay the price."
"You already have," she whispered. "You just haven't felt it yet."
She turned and walked into the Hollow, expecting me to follow.
And I did.
The ground pulsed with life wrong life. Roots squirmed underfoot. Shadows slithered across the moss like ghosts looking for a home. Whispers brushed my ears in tongues I didn't understand, but my blood did.
It boiled.
We passed a tree that bled sap as dark as night.
Another bent low as if to weep.
Every step into the Hollow felt like being swallowed by a story no one lived to tell.
Finally, we reached a clearing that opened like a wound.
At its center stood a monolith stone, cracked, soaked in something dark. Not blood. Older. Thicker. Magic from before names.
The crone stopped. "This is the Hollow's memory."
I looked at her. "And what do I do with it?"
"Place your hand on it," she said. "But know this—once you touch it, the Hollow will remember you. Forever. There's no veil thick enough to hide you after this."
I didn't hesitate.
I pressed my palm to the stone.
The world exploded.
Visions ripped through me like fire.
Wolves howling at a split moon.
Witches burning themselves alive to trap a curse.
Kaelen real Kaelen screaming as something black poured from his mouth like smoke. A symbol carved into the back of his neck, pulsing like a second heartbeat.
The scent of ash.
The sound of a lullaby sung backwards.
And then a whisper:
"You can't break the curse... without becoming it."
I screamed and fell back.
The crone caught me. "You saw it?"
"Yes." My voice shook. "I saw it. The mark. The next rune is on him."
She nodded solemnly. "Then you know what must be done."
I looked up, heart breaking. "I have to face him again."
"No," she said. "You have to claim him. Or kill him."
The Hollow rumbled around us like it approved of the choice.
And far, far away closer than I wanted Kaelen howled.
Or whatever was still left of him.