bChapter /bb189 /b

    April POV

    Sitting here in the med bay, I’m surrounded by silence. To start with anyway.

    Then it begins, it’s a whisper beneath my skin at first. To begin with I think it’s the sensation of me healing, of my wolf reiming the parts of me that Rnd had tied to ruin. The bruises are already going, fading with every passing moment. The deeper wounds are slowly knitting back together and the bone–deep ache from the torture is bing something that’s almost dull and manageable.

    I’m stronger than i was when they found me, strong enough to sit up, and strong enough to breathe without pain now. I’m also strong enough to notice that something isn’t right, maybe not wrong? Or maybe something is wrong?

    The buzzing beneath my skin doesn’t fade as I heal more. If anything, it seems to grow louder the more I heal, and the strongerb! /bbe.

    To begin with, it sits along my spine, it’s a faint electric almost that thrums. It rises and falls in time with my pulse, but it doesn’t stop there. Slowly, it creeps outward and begins humming through my veins, pressing against my ribs and curling low in my belly. It feels like something stirring from sleep. It’s not part of me, whatever it is, I know that instantly. It doesn’t even belong to my wolfb, /bbut it’s familiar in a way that makes my stomach twist.

    I sit up fully and my heart pounds harder as the pressure builds. My hands tremble slightly when I reach for the edge of the nket before pulling it aside as I swing my legs off the bed. My feet hit the floor and the sensation intensifies. It’s maic, not in a painful way though, almost like a thread wrapped around my heart is being tugged forward. There’s something out there, I don’t even know what it is, but it’s calling out to me.

    The med bay is quiet. Eryx left hours ago after kissing me softly and whispering that he’d be back soon. I didn’t ask where he was going, or what he was going to do. I was too exhausted to think straight, or to think about asking how long he would be gone, but now I wish I had. Because whatever this is, whatever’s pulling me out of this bed and into the cool, dark hallway, it doesn’t want to wait.

    My palm presses against the wall as I begin to move slowly through the corridor. I’m half–afraid that my legs will give out, but they don’t. If anything, I feel steadier the closer I get to the open door at the far end. The air around me shifts suddenly, bing cooler and heavier, but it’sced with something sweet and rotting at the same time. It smells like night, like damp earth and magic rolled together.

    When I step outside the world is quiet, it’s a quiet quiet like it’s actually loud, Crickets chirp softly in the tall grass, and the wind rustles the leaves overhead. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howls. It’s a long mournful sound that raises the hairs on my arms. The weird thing is, beneath all of that, is the buzzing, the pressure and the same pull still.

    My bare feet touch the cold stones of the main path first. I don’t notice the coldness, not real, I just keep walking. I know where it’s taking me, even before I see the thickening line of trees. I know before I glimpse the faint shimmer of a protective barrier hovering like heat haze around the edge of the Hollow

    I’ve only been in there with Eryx, and we didn’t spend long in there. I’ve heard the whispers, rumors passed bbetween /bwar healers and witches about what Hollows are and what they are capable of. They always spoke with a kind of fear that makes bthem /bnce over their shoulders when they say the name. The Hollow. A ce most of the wolves avoid, a ce that feels… balive /bband /bI guessb, /bit is alove.

    And now I’m standing in front of it.

    There are guards posted at the entrance, two of them dressed in the dark armor of Eryx’s elite. They bhaven’t /bbseen /bbme /bbyet, /bbbut /bI

    08:40

    don’t think I could exin myself if they did. Because I don’t understand what’s happening to me. I bonly /bbknow /bthat somethin inside that forest is calling me like a siren.

    My hands twitch at my sides, my fingers curling and uncurling without permission and my breath shortens. My legs are balready /bmoving before I even realize it, one foot stepping past thest gstone, toward the guarded edge.

    A hand catches my wrist, preventing me from moving, and I freeze.

    His scent hits me before his voice does. Warm cedar, wind after rain, smoke and magic. My heart skips as I turn, and bEryx /bis suddenly there, standing beside me, his grip firm but not painful, his eyes dark and searching. Just like that, I feel myself rx, I feel at home and safe.

    “April?” he asks, his voice low and tight. “What are you doing? Why are iyou /iout here walking toward the Hollowbi?/i/bbi” /i/b

    I look past him toward the Hollow, and the pull returns with full force, making my head spin. I can barely breathe past the bcraving /b“I had toe. It’s calling to me.”

    His body stiffens and his eyes look at where I’m looking. “The Hollow?”

    I nod. “I didn’t mean toe here. It just… I couldn’t stop. There’s something in me now. It’s buzzing and pulling. It started bthis /bmorning, and now I can’t ignore it anymore. It wants me to go into the Hollow.”

    Eryx releases my wrist and takes a step back, his expression is guarded. The wind lifts his hair off his forehead, and I can see the tension etched into every line of his face. “You shouldn’t be this close to it,” he says softly. “It’s dangerous, April.”

    “You think I don’t know that? Of course I know it’s dangerous,” I whisper. “But I didn’t choose this. It’s pulling me.”

    He swears under his breath and nces toward the guards, who are now watching us with uneasy eyes but haven’t moved. When he turns back to me, his voice is quieter, like he’s trying not to startle something hidden.

    “You have to listen to me, April, and don’t think to yourself that it isn’t important,” he says. “What Rnd did to youb, /bit wasn’t just a bite. It wasn’t just a im. He gave you something. Magic. It’s why you’re healing so fast. It’s why you feel this way now.”

    Panic hits me hard. “I don’t want it,” I snap, even though ites out more like a plea. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t agree to any of this.” He’s got to be wrong, I can’t have this happening.

    “I know,” he says gently. “But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

    The silence between us stretches. I close my eyes and press my hands against my temples, trying to still the buzzing in my skull, but it doesn’t stop. It just shifts again, this time it’s stronger, like whatever’s inside the Hollow knows I’m here. It knows that I’m listening.

    “What does this mean, Eryx?” I ask, opening my eyes again. “What did he do to me? I don’t understand any of bit/b.”

    He hesitates, like he’s trying to find a way to say it without breaking something in me. “It means that you’re linked to the Hollow Queen. Her magic is inside of you.”

    Iugh, but it’s short and brittle and doesn’t feel right in my mouth. “That’s not funny.” It’s not funny, it’s actually a really bad joke, the Hollow Queen was once the most feared thing.

    “I’m not joking. It’s the truth, April.” He moves closer. “You were marked by someone carrying her magic. Tainted by it. bWhen /bbhe /bbbit /byou, it passed into you. And now she can feel you, he can feel you, maybe even reach through you.”

    “No.” I shake my head. “No, that’s not possible.” How can it be? We… I… My head shakes frantically.

    It is real. I can feel it. I feel it in the way my skin hums, in the way my heart stutters when I look toward the forest, in the way in Ro longer sure if the thoughts in my head are entirely my own.

    “Look, she’s not inside you,” Eryx says quickly, reading my panic. “At least, not yet. But this… this connectionb, /bbit /bbmakes /bbyour /bi doorway. That’s why we’re sealing the Hollow. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to stop her. You stay out bof /bbthere/b. bApril/b. stay out of there.”

    Tears sting the backs of my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. I won’t cry again. Not over him. Not over this.

    “So what do I do? Just wait and hope?” I ask. “How do I stop her? I don’t want this Eryxi” /i

    Slowly, he reaches up and touches my cheek, his fingers brush lightly along the skin where the im used bto /bburn but is now settled. “You let us help you and you stay close. You don’t go near this ce again, not without me or someone else bwith /bbyou /b

    “I don’t want to be used again, Eryx,” I whisper. “Not by Rnd. Not by her.” I thought it was over, I thought I had escaped bRnd /band was safe.

    “You won’t be,” he promises, stepping closer. “I swear to you, I won’t let that happen. I would die before I let that happen bto /bbyou /bApril.”

    The guards have turned away again, giving us space. The forest looms behind us, dark and still, but I can feel its attention like ba /bgaze pressed against my back. It’s watching and waiting.

    The Hollow hasn’t finished with me, and I know that Rnd hasn’t either. Maybe though, just maybe it hasn’t finished bwith /bbRnd /beither, which means we have time to fix this, to stop it.

    bAD /b