hapter 192

    bChapter /bb192 /b

    Eryx POV

    It hit me hard, almost instant, the moment I did it I felt it. She doesn’t need to worry now, the Hollow won’t call to her, the Queen won’t demand her. She’s safe. I did the only thing I could think of doing that would help.

    I wasn’t sure it would work, I thought for sure that there would be no way to seed, to do it, but it worked, and I can feel it now, which is proving it worked.

    iming her would have removed Rnd’s im, their bond together, but it wouldn’t have stopped the Hollow Queen, there was only one way to stop that. I used my own magic to force it out, to override it, so the moment she imed me, the magic from the Hollow Queen jumped into me, trying to stop being pushed out of her body.

    Now, it’s twisting inside of me. I can feel my own magic at war with the dark magic. And still, I feel that urge to go to the Hollow. This room was made to help April, not me, for me this room is nothing, it doens’t impact the feeling.

    She’s asleep, and safe, which is all I wanted. Climbing out of bed, I get dressed, and step out of the room. Everything in me screams to turn left, to go down and outside. To go into the Hollow, but I can’t, I force my body with everything I have to turn right. As I stagger down the hall, I feel like I’m been dragged back and my muscles hurt.

    “Eryx,” my mother looks up from the chair she’s sitting on while reading.

    “Son?” My father watches me. It’s going to snap, I can feel it.

    “Stop me,” I growl. My body shakes and he stares at me. Something like recognition clicks in his eyes.

    “Grab him!” He orders, and I feel it, my body getting dragged back, every ounce of my willpower gone, and no matter how much I try to move forward, I step back. But arms grab me, and I’m dragged forward, a scream escaping my lips as I’m tied down.

    It’s getting worse, it’s twisting. My body trembles and my parents stare at me.

    “What did you do?” My mother kneels at my feet.

    “Took it, I-” the words stop and it’s like I’m no longer in control of myself. My body leans forward and spits into my mothers face.

    “Eryx!” My fathers voice is loud.

    “You’re all going to burn,” the wordse out depsite me fighting them back, and my father grabs my mother and pulls her back.

    “Eryx,” my mothers voice cracks as she screams. Her hands tremble, and my father pulls her further away from me. She sobs into my fathers chest and I fight against the hold on me to try get back the control I had.

    “What do you want!” My father roars.

    Theugh thates out of me isn’t human, or if it is, it’s evil. The sound is guttural, sharp, and nothing like theughter that’s evere from me before. It rakes the air with a hunger that doesn’t belong to any wolf, let alone a son standing before his parents. I try to shut my mouth, to press my lips together and hold the thing inside, but my own jaw splits with another wild grin, and theugh spills out, cracking like a whip through the tense, terrified silence of the hall.

    My father’s magic rises in the air, a defensive wall that pulses between us and my mother. It barely seems to matter, the cold thing inside of me is pushing, spreading and threading itself into my veins and making my skin crawl.

    My vision flickers and the world tilts at a wrong angle, as if I’ve slipp from my body body and now I’m watching through a film of oil and

    smole.

    b57/bb% /b

    “You know what I want,” I hear myself say. Only, it’s not my voice, it’s old,yered, a thousand voices riding under mine. i“/iiYou /iknow my hunger. You’ve felt it breathing on your skin since the first night you were foolish enough to cross the Hollow’s threshold.”

    My father bares his teeth in a snarl, and his ws slide free as his magic sizzles in the air between bus/bb. /b“Let my son go, witch,” he growls. “You. will not find what you seek here. You won’t rise, not through him.”

    A coldness grips my spine and spreads like frost. My arms jerk against the bindings and I feel my own magic re and fight back. Only the Hollow Queen’s

    My father’s teeth bare in a snarl, and his ws slide free, magic sizzling in the air between us. “Let go of my son, witch,” he growls. “You will not find what you seek here. You will not rise. Not through him.”

    A coldness wraps around my spine, spreading like frost. My arms jerk against the bindings, and I feel my own magic re, fighting back, but the Hollow Queen’s darkness is coiling, twining, hungry for a host. I can feel her digging, searching for any weakness, any crack in my will where she can slip through and root herself deeper.

    They don’t flinch at it, my mmother lifts her chin, even with tears streaking her cheeks. “You want a vessel?” she says, her voice breaking but strong. “You want to feed, you want pain, old witch? Come out and face us, don’t hide behind my son’s skin.”

    For a long heartbeat, it’s still and I think it’s worked. The Queen’s magic stills in my body, freezing the blood in my veins, but then I feel the wild heat in my chest. My fire rising to meet the ancient hunger, refusing to yield. Pain shes through my ehad andrch against the restraints, a snarl tearing free, half mine, and half not.

    “Let him go!” my father shouts, pouring his own power into the bindings, weavingyers of protection and ancient runes. “Eryx, fight her. Don’t let her take you!”

    I want to scream to him that I’m trying, I want to scream that I’m burning from the inside. All my throat can do is choke on the shadows within me. The Hollowed Queenughs again and the sound shakes the walls.

    “You burned myst vessel,” she croons, her words dripping like poison from my lips. “You ruined my favoutite toy. So I’ll make do with the flesh of your blood. I’ll wear his skin and I’ll tear your world down. I will feast, and all you love wil lburn.”

    “No!” My mother’s cry shatters the stillness, magic racing out from her hands, silver light wrapping around me, pressing in, driving like a spear against the shadow inside.

    Light collides with darkness, and my magic screams as I join the fight, pushing, wing and forcing the Queen back. Inch by little inch. My father moves to the doorway, summoning the others, calling for anyone at all who can help anchor me and keep the Queen from pulling me through the veil into her darkness. I barely hear the stamp of feet, or the rush of wolves running because all I can do is cling to the burning thread inside, the memory of April’s touch, her im, my anchor and lifeline.

    Remember who you are! I scream at myself inside my head. Remember her, remember love, remember fire, remember-

    The Queen howls through me, a wailing shriek that splits the air and rattles every window in the house.

    “You can’t have me,” I growl, forcing my own words through gritted teeth, shoving the magic back with everyst scrap of will I have left. “You can’t have her. You can’t-”

    The Queen’s grip wavers and flickers as my families magic joins mine, I see my sister helping, and a ze of power that for a moment, just a moment shoves her deeper, back into the dark. I feel her snarl in rage, a thousand ws scraping inside of my skull.

    I hold on though, for April, for myself, for everything she tried to destroyed.

    My vision clears for a heartbeat, and I lock eyes with my mother seeing hope and terror mingled there. “Don’t give up, don’t let go,” I whisper, my own voice finally breaking through the statie. “Whatever happens, don’t let go.”

    She nods as tears stream down her face, and she presses her hands to my chest, the magic zes. My father’s hands mp down on my

    16:02 Tue, b5 /bAug

    shoulders and his power roars through me.

    We stand together, as the Hollow Queen screams and ragesb, /band I feel, for the first time, that she might not win.

    Not if I have anything to say about it.