the crowns hollows

chapter 7

Kael could hear his own heartbeat.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The men outside the hidden passage were getting closer.

One of them stopped directly in front of the wall.

Kael could see the shadow of his boots through the narrow gap between the shelves.

Lyric stood beside him with her silver blade drawn.

Neither moved.

Then the man spoke.

"I know you're in there."

Kael's fingers tightened.

The shadows around his boots moved again.

They weren't behaving like shadows anymore.

They were gathering.

Coiling.

Waiting.

Kael looked down.

A thin black strand had crawled from beneath his heel.

It moved across the floor toward his hand.

He instinctively stepped away.

The strand followed.

Kael's breathing stopped.

Lyric saw it.

"Don't fight it."

Kael looked at her.

"What?"

"Don't fight it."

"You just told me not to let it take control."

"I know."

"Those are contradictory instructions."

"I've noticed."

The man outside struck the wall.

BOOM.

The hidden passage shook.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Kael's mark burned.

He grabbed his wrist.

Pain shot through his arm.

The black lines beneath his skin spread.

Wrist.

Forearm.

Elbow.

Then higher.

They moved like veins filling with ink.

Kael clenched his teeth.

"Lyric."

"I know."

"It hurts."

"I know."

"What is happening?"

"I don't know."

"You're becoming really unhelpful."

Despite everything, she almost smiled.

Then the wall cracked.

A fist punched through.

Kael stumbled backward.

The hand that emerged was covered in black armor.

Not metal.

Something organic.

The fingers were too long.

The nails curved like claws.

The man pulled his arm back.

Lyric raised her blade.

"Get ready."

The wall exploded.

Books flew through the air.

Wood splintered.

Dust filled the passage.

Kael threw his arms over his face.

A figure stepped through the wreckage.

Tall.

Broad.

Wearing a dark uniform.

His face was hidden behind a smooth iron mask.

Two more men appeared behind him.

Lyric moved first.

She lunged.

Her silver blade struck the masked man's chest.

A flash of white light exploded through the room.

The man staggered.

But didn't fall.

Lyric's expression changed.

"Run."

Kael didn't.

He looked at the man's chest.

The silver blade had cut through his coat.

Beneath it was black skin.

Not armor.

Skin.

It rippled.

Then healed.

Kael's stomach turned.

"What are they?"

"Later!"

The masked man grabbed Lyric by the throat.

Kael moved.

He didn't think.

He simply moved.

His hand shot forward.

Something inside him answered.

The shadow beneath his feet exploded outward.

Black tendrils slammed into the masked man.

He was thrown across the room.

Lyric dropped to the floor.

Kael stared at his own hand.

"What did I just do?"

The shadows were still moving.

They crawled up his arm.

Kael tried to pull away.

They didn't stop.

Instead, they slipped beneath his sleeve.

The mark spread across his shoulder.

His skin tightened.

Kael screamed.

Something was changing inside him.

Not outside.

Inside.

His bones felt wrong.

His muscles contracted.

Every joint in his body seemed to loosen and reform at the same time.

Kael dropped to his knees.

Lyric grabbed his shoulder.

"Kael!"

"Get away!"

He pushed her back.

His voice sounded distorted.

Too deep.

Too rough.

The room spun.

He could smell everything.

Dust.

Blood.

Rain.

Metal.

Lyric.

The men.

And something else.

Something beneath the floor.

Something ancient.

Something that smelled like cold earth and death.

Kael gasped.

His fingers curled.

His nails darkened.

Then lengthened.

He stared at them.

"No."

His forearm began to change.

Black lines spread beneath the skin.

The skin itself hardened.

Not into scales.

Not into armor.

Into something that looked almost like bone.

Smooth black plates emerged along his forearm.

They weren't symmetrical.

One was longer than the others.

Another curved around his elbow.

They grew organically, as though his body were building armor from the inside.

Kael tried to tear one away.

Pain exploded through him.

He screamed.

Lyric grabbed his wrist.

"Stop!"

"Make it stop!"

"I can't!"

"You said you knew!"

"I said I knew about it!"

"Then do something!"

Lyric looked into his eyes.

For the first time, she seemed genuinely frightened.

"Kael..."

"What?"

"Your eyes."

He blinked.

"What about them?"

Lyric took a step backward.

"Look at the wall."

Kael turned.

A polished piece of black metal reflected him.

His eyes were no longer entirely human.

His pupils had become narrow.

Vertical.

A faint silver glow surrounded them.

Kael stared.

His breathing stopped.

"No."

He touched his face.

His skin was still his.

Mostly.

But beneath it something moved.

A subtle shifting.

Like something crawling just beneath the surface.

Kael looked at Lyric.

"Am I becoming a monster?"

She didn't answer.

That was answer enough.

One of the masked men recovered.

He pulled a weapon from his belt.

A long, narrow blade covered in glowing symbols.

He rushed Kael.

Lyric stepped between them.

The blade struck her silver weapon.

CRACK.

The impact sent sparks across the room.

The masked man pushed harder.

Lyric struggled.

Kael watched.

Something inside him whispered.

Not words.

An instinct.

Protect.

Kael stepped forward.

The shadows surged.

They wrapped around his legs.

His spine arched.

Pain exploded through his back.

Kael screamed.

Something tore through his coat.

Lyric looked over.

"Kael!"

Two black structures emerged from his back.

They weren't wings.

Not exactly.

They were long, curved extensions of bone and shadow.

They unfolded slowly.

One bent upward.

The other curved around his body.

They looked almost like skeletal limbs.

Kael felt them.

That was the worst part.

They weren't attached to him like weapons.

They were part of him.

He could feel every movement.

Every twitch.

Every sensation.

The creature inside him had found another way to move.

Kael stared at his hands.

His right hand remained mostly human.

His left had changed.

Black plating covered the fingers.

The nails had become claws.

His arm was longer.

Stronger.

Wrong.

He looked at the masked man.

Something inside him wanted to attack.

Not kill.

Something worse.

Adapt.

Kael heard a voice.

Not from the room.

Inside his mind.

A whisper without words.

A command without language.

His body understood it anyway.

Survive.

The masked man attacked.

Kael moved.

Too fast.

He caught the man's wrist.

The force of the impact sent both of them crashing into the floor.

The man's blade skittered away.

Kael pinned him.

The masked man struggled.

Kael's clawed hand rose.

He could feel his body preparing to strike.

He wanted to.

A terrible part of him wanted to.

The man looked up.

For the first time, Kael saw fear behind the mask.

Then Kael heard Lyric.

"Kael!"

He froze.

Her voice cut through the instinct.

"Look at me."

Kael turned.

Lyric stood several feet away.

Her blade was lowered.

She wasn't afraid of him.

At least, she was trying not to be.

"Kael."

His breathing was ragged.

"Look at me."

He did.

"You know who you are."

Kael's claws trembled.

"You're not this thing."

The shadow around him writhed.

Lyric stepped closer.

"You are Kael Vale."

The creature inside him recoiled.

"You are Garran's son."

Kael's eyes burned.

"You are Mara's brother."

The black plates on his arm cracked.

Lyric took another step.

"And you promised your father you'd come back."

Kael stared at her.

The words reached something inside him.

Something human.

Something small.

Something stubborn.

He remembered Mara.

Her hand grabbing his sleeve.

Her voice.

What if you don't come back?

His own answer.

I will.

Kael closed his eyes.

"Go away."

The voice inside him didn't.

Survive.

Kael clenched his teeth.

"No."

The shadows surged.

Kael screamed.

Then something inside him snapped.

The transformation stopped.

Not gradually.

Instantly.

The black plates froze.

The strange limbs behind him collapsed into smoke.

The claws receded.

The silver light vanished from his eyes.

Kael fell forward.

Lyric caught him before he hit the floor.

He was shaking violently.

His clothes were torn.

His skin was covered in thin black lines.

But he was human again.

Mostly.

Lyric lowered him to the floor.

"Kael."

He opened his eyes.

"Did I..."

His voice cracked.

"Did I hurt anyone?"

Lyric looked around.

The room was destroyed.

Books covered the floor.

Shelves had collapsed.

One of the masked men was unconscious.

Another was trapped beneath a broken table.

The first man was gone.

Kael looked at his hands.

"No."

Lyric shook her head.

"You stopped."

"How?"

"You did it."

Kael laughed weakly.

"I don't know what I did."

"Neither do I."

He looked at her.

"You were scared."

Lyric didn't deny it.

"Yes."

Kael looked away.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize."

"I almost killed him."

"But you didn't."

"I wanted to."

Lyric sat beside him.

"Wanting something isn't the same as doing it."

Kael looked at her.

"That's what I told myself."

"And?"

"And now I'm not sure."

Lyric studied him.

"That's the part we need to figure out."

A groan came from the other side of the room.

One of the masked men was waking.

Lyric immediately stood.

She kicked his weapon away.

Kael tried to stand.

His legs gave out.

Lyric caught him.

"You need to stay down."

"I can walk."

"No."

"I can."

"You almost tore your own spine apart."

Kael stared at her.

"That seems bad."

"It was."

She helped him sit against the wall.

Then she approached the unconscious man.

She removed his mask.

Kael expected a monster.

Instead, he saw an ordinary man.

Mid-thirties.

Dark hair.

Scar across his cheek.

Human.

Completely human.

Kael frowned.

"He's human."

"Yes."

"Then why—"

Lyric looked at the man's neck.

A black symbol had been burned into his skin.

The Hollow Crown.

Kael felt cold.

"What does it mean?"

Lyric's expression hardened.

"It means he's part of them."

"Who?"

"The Crowned."

"Who are the Crowned?"

Lyric looked toward the destroyed shelves.

"People who believe the thing beneath Veyr isn't a monster."

"What do they think it is?"

"A god."

Kael stared.

"And they want to wake it."

Lyric nodded.

"Yes."

"Why?"

She looked at him.

"Because they believe it will remake the world."

Kael glanced at his transformed arm.

"And they think I'm part of that?"

Lyric didn't answer immediately.

Then:

"I think they believe you're the key."

Kael looked toward the hidden doorway.

"What about my father?"

Lyric's face became serious.

"We need to talk about him."

Kael pushed himself upright.

"What do you know?"

Lyric hesitated.

"Your father wasn't just a miner."

Kael stared.

"I know."

"No."

She shook her head.

"You don't."

She picked up the old black book.

"Twenty years ago, seven men entered the eastern mine."

Kael listened.

"Five disappeared."

His father's story.

"Two survived."

"Your father and Edric."

Kael nodded.

"But the official records say your father suffered a mining accident."

"That's what he told us."

"It wasn't an accident."

Kael's stomach tightened.

"What happened?"

Lyric opened the book.

There was a faded drawing of the black door.

"Your father was exposed to something beneath the earth."

Kael stared at the image.

"The Hollow?"

"Maybe."

"Then why isn't he like me?"

Lyric looked at him.

"Maybe he was."

Kael froze.

"What?"

"Maybe whatever happened to your father didn't disappear."

She touched the page.

"Maybe it passed to you."

Kael felt sick.

"You think my father gave this to me?"

"No."

Lyric shook her head.

"I think something chose your family."

A sudden noise came from beneath them.

Thump.

Kael froze.

Lyric looked at the floor.

Another.

Thump.

The same heartbeat.

The entire building seemed to vibrate.

Kael slowly stood.

The black mark on his arm began to glow.

Lyric whispered:

"It's getting closer."

"What's getting closer?"

She looked at him.

"I don't know."

The floor cracked.

A thin black line appeared between the stones.

Kael backed away.

The c***k spread.

Across the room.

Toward him.

Lyric raised her blade.

"Don't touch it."

"I wasn't planning to."

The c***k stopped at Kael's feet.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then something pushed through.

A single black tendril.

Thin.

Wet.

Alive.

It curled around Kael's boot.

He froze.

Lyric shouted:

"Kael!"

The tendril tightened.

Kael felt something enter his mind.

Images flashed.

A city burning.

A black crown floating above it.

Millions of people standing motionless in the streets.

A sky split open.

Something enormous looking down.

Then—

Garran.

His father stood in a dark chamber.

Blood covered his shirt.

He was holding the black stone.

And someone stood behind him.

A figure with no face.

Garran looked directly at Kael.

His lips moved.

Kael couldn't hear him.

Then the vision changed.

The faceless creature leaned toward Garran.

And Kael finally heard his father's voice.

"Don't let it wear you."

The vision shattered.

Kael screamed.

The tendril released him.

He collapsed.

Lyric caught him.

"What did you see?"

Kael looked at her.

His face was pale.

"My father."

"Where?"

"I don't know."

"What did he say?"

Kael swallowed.

"He told me..."

He looked down at the black mark on his arm.

"...not to let it wear me."

Lyric's expression changed.

"That's not good."

"Why?"

"Because that means he knows what you're becoming."

Kael stared at her.

"And he's still alive."

Lyric nodded slowly.

"Yes."

Kael looked toward the east.

For the first time since his father disappeared, something stronger than fear rose inside him.

Determination.

He stood.

"I’m going after him."

Lyric watched him.

"Then you're going to need to learn how to control that thing."

Kael looked at his arm.

The black lines had stopped moving.

For now.

"And if I can't?"

Lyric picked up her silver blade.

"Then eventually..."

She looked directly into his eyes.

"...it won't be you making that decision."

Kael nodded.

Outside, thunder rolled over Veyr.

Far beneath the city, the ancient bell rang once more.

But this time...

Kael heard something beneath it.

A second sound.

A whisper.

Almost affectionate.

Adapt.

Kael closed his fist.

He didn't know what he was becoming.

He only knew one thing.

He would find his father before the thing inside him found the rest of his family.

And somewhere beneath the earth...

something was waiting for him to try.