🌕 Chapter 8: Beneath the Hollow Moon
597 Words
The fire crackled low in the pit, casting gold shadows across the jagged cave walls. Outside, the wind howled like mourning wolves, but inside the hollow, everything was too still.
Kaira stared at the embers, her legs pulled up to her chest. She hadn’t spoken since they fled the ruins. Since she saw what Theo had truly done.
Riven sat on the opposite side of the fire. He hadn’t shifted since they arrived, though his muscles twitched like the wolf in him wanted to stretch — or run.
“You’re too quiet,” he finally said.
Kaira blinked, slowly. “You burned me. Back there. In the ruins.”
“It wasn’t for you.”
She looked up sharply.
He smirked faintly. “It was because of you. There’s a difference.”
She rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched. “Thanks for the riddle.”
“It’s not a riddle. It’s instinct.”
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “You called me, and I answered. I don’t know what that means yet, but I felt it.”
The bond. That strange flicker between them — heat and ache and something older than both of them.
Kaira whispered, “Do you think it’s the Hollow?”
“No,” Riven said immediately.
“The Hollow warps things. Twists them. This…” He hesitated. “This feels like truth.”
A gust of wind blew through the cave opening, tossing her curls across her face. She didn’t move to brush them away.
“You should rest,” he said. “We leave before dawn.”
“And go where? Everyone’s hunting us. I can’t even control my power.”
“You will.”
"How do you know?”
He rose, walked over, and knelt in front of her.
“Because you are fire, Kaira. You’ve spent your whole life trying to contain it. Maybe it’s time you let it burn.”
She met his gaze, and something inside her cracked.
Not in pain.
In release.
The bond pulsed, silent but electric.
He reached out — slowly — and brushed her hair back, his fingers lingering against her cheek. His hand was rough, warm, a contrast to the cool wind behind him.
Her skin tingled beneath his touch. Her breath caught.
“What is this?” she asked softly.
“Something dangerous,” he said, voice low. “And something real.”
She leaned closer. Just an inch.
And he pulled away.
“Not yet,” he muttered, turning from her. “Not until you can choose me without the bond screaming between us.”
Kaira’s heart thudded like a drum. Half in rejection. Half in something far more frightening.
Hope.
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🌑That Night
She dreamed again.
But this time, the Hollow didn’t whisper pain.
It showed her fire — a woman with flame in her eyes and ash on her lips.
Her mother.
“The flame is not your curse, child,” the woman said.
“It is your voice. Let it speak.”
Kaira woke up with tears she hadn’t realized had fallen.
Riven was already standing at the mouth of the cave, looking out at the rising twin moons.
He turned.
“Ready?” he asked.
She stood tall.
And for the first time since this all began, Kaira didn’t feel like running anymore.
She felt like becoming.
“Let’s burn something,” she said.
He grinned — a real one this time — and shifted into his wolf form, silver eyes glowing beneath the twin moons.
And together, they disappeared into the wild.
- Writer
