Page 166
I feel something shift. Not physically. Emotionally. It remembers. Not because it cares. Because it has consumed enough memories to imitate caring.
"I watched you grieve."
The darkness turns toward Carys.
"I watched you break."
Her expression hardens.
"You don't know anything about me."
The entity pulses.
"I know everything."
The words are meant to hurt. They don't. Not anymore. Because Carys finally knows something too. It doesn't own her memories. It doesn't own her pain. It only borrowed them.
I rise. The wolf pushes through exhaustion. I am tired. My body hurts. My instincts are screaming. But behind me…
My family stands. And I am not losing them. Not after finding them. I charge. The entity meets me. This time, it doesn't feel like fighting a monster. It feels like fighting an absence. A hole. A thing that has spent so long consuming pieces of others that it no longer remembers how to exist without them.
Its darkness wraps around me. I feel the pull. The same one that affected Sayer. The same one that affected Carys. It wants recognition. It wants me to acknowledge it. To fear it. To believe it is stronger. I do the opposite. I let my wolf rise completely. Not the anger. Not the violence. The loyalty. The pack. The purpose. The thing it will never understand.
The entity screams. The sound shakes the Hollow. But this time…
I don't move.
"Carys!"
I know exactly what she's thinking. She's about to try something dangerous. Because that's who she is.
"Tell me what you need."
Her eyes widen. Because she expected me to stop her. Not ask.
"The anchor."
I turn toward the dark pulse beneath the earth.
"The connection is broken."
She points.
"But the Hollow is still feeding it."
I understand. The entity isn't dying because the bond is severed. It's dying because the bond is severed and the source is exposed. I turn back.
"How long?"
"Not long."
The entity slams into me. I dig my claws into the ground.
"How long, Carys?"
"Thirty seconds."
I almost laugh. Of course. Always thirty seconds. Always impossible.
