Chapter 4 · Hollowborn - Chapter 4: The Traitor's Daughter

But Cole's voice was still there. In my head. Angry.

"I told you not to answer her."

I pressed my palms against my eyes until I saw stars. "She's dead. That wasn't real."

"Real enough to trap you." His voice didn't sound like my mom's anymore. Just cold. Tired. "You called out to a memory. Now it knows you're listening."

"What the hell does that mean?"

Silence.

I sat up and checked my phone. 4:17 a.m. No messages. No missed calls. Marcus hadn't sent the retrieval team yet, but he would. I had maybe an hour before someone kicked my door in.

The locket sat on the nightstand where I'd left it. I picked it up and the metal was warm. Too warm. Like it had been resting against skin.

"Cole. What is this thing?"

His voice came back quieter. "Your mother called it the Hollow Seal. The soultakers used it to bind pacts between the living and the dead. She was their captain, Ivy. She led the faction that tried to end the Purge War by bargaining with the guild masters."

I laughed. It came out bitter and sharp. "You're lying."

"I'm not."

"My mom was a hunter. She died on a guild contract. Marcus told me—"

"Marcus lied." Cole's voice cut through. "The guild burned her alive in the third district warehouse. I was there. I was supposed to kill her before she completed the ritual, but I got there too late. She'd already locked herself inside the seal. I tried to pull her out and the backlash tore my soul in half."

My throat closed up. I couldn't breathe right. "Why would she—"

"Because the pact she was making would've ended the war. No more hunters. No more soultakers. Just people. The guild couldn't let that happen. So they sent their best team to burn the warehouse down with her inside."

I stared at the locket. The silver surface reflected the dim streetlight coming through the window. I wanted to throw it across the room. I wanted to put it on and never take it off.

"Then why did you save me?" My voice cracked. "If she was your target—"

"Because she asked me to." He paused. "Right before the fire started, she looked at me and said, 'Find my daughter. Keep her out of this.' So I joined the guild under a new name. Bottom rank. Night shifts. No one looks twice at a washed-up grunt. I've been watching you for three years, Ivy."

I wanted to punch him. I wanted to scream. Instead I just sat there holding a dead woman's locket while her killer's voice echoed in my skull.

"You should've let me die in that park."

"Probably." His voice softened. "But I made a promise."

A knock at the door froze me in place.

Not a knock. A bang. Heavy. Deliberate.

"Ivy Gray." A man's voice. Deep. Unfamiliar. "Guild retrieval. Open up."

I didn't move.

Another bang. The door shook in its frame.

"We know you're in there. We're coming in either way."

Cole's voice snapped to attention. "Get out. Now. Fire escape. Go."

I shoved the locket into my jacket pocket and grabbed my boots. Didn't bother lacing them. The window stuck halfway and I had to slam my shoulder into the frame to get it open. Cold air hit my face. The fire escape was rusted and shaking under my weight but I didn't stop moving.

Behind me, the apartment door crashed inward.

Footsteps. Heavy boots. More than one person.

"She's running!"

I hit the ladder and slid down, palms burning against the metal. My feet hit the alley and I ran. No plan. No direction. Just away.

Cole's voice guided me. "Left. Two blocks. There's a church with a basement entrance. They can't track you on consecrated ground."

"Why not?"

"Because your mother's seal is a soultaker relic. It burns in holy spaces. They'll lose your signal."

I turned left and kept running. My lungs were on fire. My boots slapped against wet pavement. Behind me, shouts. Footsteps closing in.

The church appeared at the end of the block. Old stone. Boarded windows. The basement door was chained but the lock was rusted through. I grabbed a chunk of broken concrete from the sidewalk and smashed it twice. The chain snapped.

I yanked the door open and stumbled down into darkness.

The air smelled like mold and old hymnals. I pulled the door shut behind me and pressed my back against it, trying to breathe quietly.

Footsteps passed overhead. Voices.

"She went east."

"Check the perimeter."

They didn't come down.

I slid to the floor and let my head fall back against the door. My hands were shaking. The locket burned against my ribs through my jacket.

"How long do I have?"

Cole's voice was faint now. Distant. "Until sunrise. Maybe less. Marcus will send a purge team next. They don't care about consecrated ground."

"What do I do?"

Silence.

"Cole?"

Nothing.

Panic spiked in my chest. "Cole. Answer me."

Still nothing.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to slow my breathing. In. Out. Count to four. Don't think about the fact that the only person who knows the truth just went silent. Don't think about the fact that your dead mother's voice is trapped inside a man who tried to kill her. Don't think about—

A sound.

Not from upstairs. From deeper in the basement.

Footsteps. Slow. Deliberate.

I froze.

Someone else was down here.

The footsteps stopped. A match flared in the darkness. A face appeared behind the flame. Young. Maybe my age. Dark eyes. A scar running from his temple to his jaw.

He smiled.

"Ivy Gray. Daughter of Layla the Traitor." He lit a candle and the light spread across the basement. Three more people stood behind him. All of them wearing the same black band around their left arms. Soultaker mark. "We've been waiting a long time to meet you."

I reached for the knife I didn't have.

The guy with the scar took a step closer. "Relax. We're not here to hurt you. We're here to bring you home."

"I don't have a home."

"You do." He crouched down so we were eye level. "Your mother died trying to finish the ritual. The guild thinks they buried it with her. But the seal's still active. And you're the only one who can complete what she started."

I pressed harder against the door. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do." He nodded at my jacket. "You're wearing it."

My hand moved to my pocket on instinct. The locket pulsed under my fingers. Warm. Alive.

The guy smiled wider. "The Hollow Seal chose your mother. Now it's chosen you. The guild knows it. That's why they sent retrieval. They're going to kill you, Ivy. Just like they killed her."

"Then why should I trust you?"

"Because we're the only ones who want you alive." He stood and offered his hand. "Come with us. We'll show you what your mother died for. We'll teach you how to use the seal. And when you're ready, we'll finish the ritual together."

I stared at his hand.

Behind him, the other soultakers watched me with expressions I couldn't read. Hope. Hunger. Something else.

Upstairs, footsteps again. Heavier this time. The purge team.

Inside my head, Cole's voice came back. Faint. Desperate.

"Ivy. Don't—"

But the guy with the scar was already pulling me to my feet. His grip was iron.

"We need to move. Now."

One of the others kicked open a door I hadn't noticed. A tunnel. Leading down.

The purge team hit the basement door above us. Wood splintered.

The guy with the scar looked at me. "You coming, or you dying here?"

I looked at the tunnel. At the door breaking apart above. At the locket burning against my ribs.

Inside my head, Cole screamed my mother's name.

Layla.

And I ran into the dark.