The Hollow didn’t sleep after the fire.
The ashes of Tiber’s body still clung to the wind, settling into the stone cracks like the final curse of an old god. But no one dared speak his name. Not after what I did. Not after what they saw.
I hadn’t meant to kill him.
I hadn’t meant to step into the circle.
But the moment I touched that dagger, something woke. Something old. Something that wasn’t entirely me—but now lived inside me all the same.
And the Hollow… it felt it.
Felt me.
Kael hadn’t spoken more than a few words since the challenge ended.
He sat alone by the edge of the bloodstone terrace, eyes locked on the horizon. Not brooding. Not angry.
Just haunted.
I walked up to him gently, putting the wolf pelt tightly around my shoulders. Tonight, the cold had teeth.
I whispere
