Chapter 29 · Hollowborn - Chapter 29: Six Minutes to Burn

The countdown carved itself into the stone wall above Layla's face. Six minutes. Glowing red numerals that pulsed like a heartbeat.

I couldn't move. The silver nails were still in my hands, blood dripping off the tips. The shattered core leaked black smoke across the floor, and somewhere in that smoke were hundreds of souls I'd just freed. Including my father. Including Cole.

But all I could see was my mother's face.

She was awake. Her eyes tracked the numbers. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. The stone around her body started cracking, thin lines spreading like a spiderweb.

"What did you do?" Marcus coughed behind me. He was still on the ground, one hand pressed to the wound in his side. "You rang the dinner bell for every soultaker on the eastern seaboard."

I turned on him. "You said breaking the core would free them."

"I said it would release the souls." He laughed, wet and ugly. "I didn't say anything about stopping the anchor transfer. That was always going to happen. Your mother made sure of it ten years ago when she welded herself into the ritual."

The numbers hit five minutes.

Layla's right hand jerked.