Josiah
The world vanished in silence as I watched.
No sound, no scent, no wind… only the cold pulse of nothing pressing against my skin. The mist thickened around me until it was impossible to see my own hands. I called for Callen once, twice… my voice was swallowed whole. The Hollow had separated us.
I turned in circles, but the mist moved with me. It wasn’t air. It was alive, breathing, whispering and shifting with unseen eyes. Then, faintly, the ground beneath my boots began to pulse. With every heartbeat, the fog glowed red from beneath, like embers awakening under ash.
Then a voice came, not one voice, but thousands, layered and hollow, as though every throat I had silenced now spoke at once.
> “Alpha Josiah… son of Pedro… heir of blood and ruin…”
My breath hitched. The mist
