Chapter 24 · Hollowborn - Chapter 24: The Hollow Opens Its Eyes

The darkness didn't feel like darkness.

It felt like something watching.

I stayed frozen, the ritual blade still buried in my shadow. The metal hummed against my palm, vibrating like it was trying to decide whether to pull me down or spit me back out. My knees were on cold stone. My breath came too fast. And somewhere in the black, I could hear Marcus laughing.

"You really thought that would work?" His voice echoed off walls I couldn't see anymore. "You think you can just volunteer? Like it's a job application?"

I didn't answer. I was too busy staring at my shadow.

It was moving.

Not the way shadows move when light shifts. It was peeling up off the floor, pulling itself into a shape that didn't match my body. The blade was still stuck in it, but the shadow was crawling up the handle, wrapping around my wrist like smoke made solid.

Cold. So cold it burned.

"Ivy." Cole's voice. Except it wasn't. It was layered, double-tracked, like two people speaking through the same mouth. "You have to let go."

I tried. My fingers wouldn't open.

The shadow kept climbing. Up my arm now. It didn't hurt, exactly.