Chapter 33 · Hollowborn - Chapter 33: The Blade at Her Heart

The blade didn't move. Mom held it an inch from my chest, black metal humming like it wanted to drink.

"Don't," Cole rasped behind me. His voice barely made it past the scream of all those hunter souls still ripping through me. "Layla, don't—"

"Shut up." Mom didn't look at him. Her eyes stayed locked on mine. "You had your chance ten years ago. You failed."

I couldn't breathe. The pact was still burning inside me, every soul Marcus ever bound twisting like hooks under my ribs. My knees wanted to buckle. The only thing keeping me upright was the look on Mom's face—pride mixed with something that looked way too much like goodbye.

"Mom." My voice cracked. "What are you doing?"

"Saving you." She tilted the blade, and firelight caught the runes carved down its edge. Soultaker script. I recognized maybe half of it. The rest looked older than anything I'd seen in the guild archives. "The pact can't be burned, Ivy. It has to be cut. And the only thing sharp enough to cut it is a blade forged from a soultaker captain's core."

My stomach dropped. "Your core."

"Half of it." Mom's smile twisted.