Chapter 18 · Hollowborn - Chapter 18: The Hunter Who Came Back

Cole's fingers scraped against the floor. His nails left thin white lines on the stone as the Eye dragged him closer to its center.

I lunged forward. My burned hand screamed but I grabbed his wrist anyway.

"Don't." His voice came out flat. Dead. "Let go."

"Shut up." I dug my heels in. The Eye's pull was stronger than anything I'd felt before. My shoulder wound split open again and blood soaked through the bandage Marcus had tied earlier.

Marcus stood three feet away with his arms crossed. Watching.

"He opened the door ten years ago," Marcus said. "Your mother died trying to close it. Now he gets to finish what he started."

Cole's wrist twisted in my grip. Not trying to break free. Trying to make me let go.

"Stop it," I hissed at him.

His eyes met mine. Empty. The same empty I'd seen every day for three years when he shuffled through the guild halls like a ghost no one wanted to talk to.

"I knew what I was doing," Cole said. His voice didn't shake. "Ten years ago. I knew."

The floor cracked wider. The Eye's surface rippled and I saw faces pushing up from inside—