Chapter 5 · Hollowborn - Chapter 5: The Voice in My Mother's Mouth

I didn't answer. My throat felt too tight.

Cole's voice had gone quiet after he screamed my mother's name. Now there was just silence inside my head, the kind that made my chest hurt. I wanted to ask if he was still there, but I couldn't do that out loud. Not with these people watching.

The tunnel curved left, then down. Water dripped somewhere ahead. My boots splashed through shallow puddles I couldn't see in the dark. The scarred man pulled out a small glass vial that glowed pale blue. Not electric. Something else. The light made shadows jump across his face.

"How much further?" one of the soultakers behind me asked. A woman's voice, young, maybe my age.

"Another fifty meters. Then we're clear."

I focused on walking. One foot, then the other. Don't think about the church. Don't think about Marcus Vane's purifiers smashing through the door. Don't think about Cole's desperate voice cutting out mid-word.

Don't think about my mother burning alive.

My hand went to the locket under my shirt. The metal felt warm against my palm. Cole said the guild called it the Hollow Seal. My mother wore it the night they killed her. Now I was wearing it and running through a tunnel with the people she used to lead.

I didn't know which side was lying anymore.

"Ivy."

I stopped walking. That wasn't the scarred man's voice.

"Keep moving," the scarred man said again, louder this time.

But I couldn't. Because Cole was back, his voice thin and crackling like a bad radio signal inside my skull.

"Ivy, listen to me. Don't trust them. They're not trying to save you."

I started walking again before anyone noticed I'd frozen. My pulse hammered in my ears.

"They want the seal," Cole said. His words came slow, dragging. Like he was speaking underwater. "Your mother tried to destroy it. That's why they killed her. That's why they'll kill you."

I wanted to answer him, but I couldn't. Not here. I bit the inside of my cheek and kept moving.

The tunnel opened into a wider space. The blue light from the scarred man's vial stretched across cracked tile walls. An old subway station, maybe. Abandoned for years. Graffiti covered the walls in layers, some of it faded to ghosts.

The scarred man stopped in the center of the platform. The other three soultakers fanned out around me. Not threatening, exactly. But not casual either.

"We're safe here," the scarred man said. He turned to face me for the first time since we entered the tunnel. His scar caught the blue light, a thick line that ran from his temple to his jaw. "For now."

"Safe." I heard myself laugh. It sounded wrong. "Right."

"You don't believe me."

"I don't know what I believe." My voice came out harder than I meant it to. "You show up, tell me my dead mother was one of you, then drag me into a tunnel while the guild tries to kill me. Why would I trust you?"

The scarred man studied me. His eyes were dark brown, almost black in the bad light. "Because the alternative is Marcus Vane putting a purifier round through your skull."

I didn't have an answer for that.

"Your mother was captain of the soultaker vanguard," he continued. "She led us for six years during the Purge War. Then she took the Hollow Seal and tried to end the war herself. The guild burned her alive for it. You already know that part."

"Cole told me."

The scarred man's expression shifted. Just a flicker, but I caught it. Surprise, maybe. Or suspicion.

"Cole Ashe," he said slowly. "The hunter who was supposed to kill her."

"He didn't."

"No. He didn't." The scarred man stepped closer. Not threatening, but deliberate. "Do you know why?"

I shook my head.

"Because your mother ripped his soul in half before she died. Locked part of it inside the seal. Inside you, now." He gestured at the locket around my neck. "That's why you hear him. That's why the guild wants you dead. You're carrying a piece of their best hunter's soul, bound to soultaker magic they can't control."

My hand closed around the locket. "You're lying."

"Am I?" The scarred man tilted his head. "Ask him yourself. Ask Cole what happened the night your mother died."

I didn't need to ask. Cole was already answering, his voice barely a whisper inside my head.

"He's telling the truth. Part of it, anyway."

I closed my eyes. "What part?"

The scarred man frowned. "What?"

I wasn't talking to him. But I couldn't explain that without sounding insane.

"The part about your mother," Cole said. His voice was fading again, syllables stretching too thin. "She did lock me inside the seal. But it wasn't to hurt me. It was to stop the ritual. She needed a hunter's soul to break the binding. Mine was the only one close enough."

"What ritual?" I said it out loud this time. I didn't care anymore.

The scarred man's eyes narrowed. "The Convergence. The ritual that would have ended the war by binding every soultaker bloodline to the guild's purifiers. Your mother was supposed to complete it. Instead, she tried to destroy it. The guild killed her before she could finish."

"And now you want me to finish it," I said.

"Yes."

At least he was honest.

"No," Cole said inside my head. Louder this time, almost frantic. "Ivy, no. The ritual doesn't end the war. It ends the soultakers. All of them. Your mother figured it out too late. That's why she tried to stop it."

My breath caught. "What?"

The scarred man stepped forward. "Your mother left instructions. Hidden inside the seal. You're the only one who can access them now. All we need is—"

"She tried to destroy it," I interrupted. My voice shook. "That's what Cole said. She wasn't trying to complete it. She was trying to stop it."

The scarred man went still. The three soultakers behind me shifted, boots scraping tile.

"Cole Ashe is a liar," the scarred man said quietly. "He's a guild weapon with half a soul. Whatever he's telling you is designed to keep you loyal to the people who want you dead."

"Then why did he spend three years protecting me?" I shot back. "Why didn't he just let Marcus Vane kill me in my sleep?"

The scarred man didn't answer.

"Because he loved her," Cole said inside my head. His voice cracked on the last word. "I loved your mother. And I failed her. I won't fail you."

Something moved in the darkness beyond the platform. I heard it before I saw it—footsteps, deliberate and measured. Multiple sets.

The scarred man spun toward the sound, pulling a curved blade from his belt. The other soultakers did the same.

"They found us," the woman behind me hissed.

Five figures stepped into the blue light. Guild purifiers, all of them armed. Silver rifles with glowing cores. I'd seen those weapons before in training. They didn't fire bullets. They fired concentrated light that burned soultaker blood like acid.

The lead purifier lowered his rifle just enough to meet my eyes. I didn't recognize his face, but I recognized the insignia on his shoulder. Vice commander's unit. Marcus Vane's personal squad.

"Step away from the girl," the purifier said.

The scarred man raised his blade. "She's under our protection."

"She's a guild asset carrying stolen property." The purifier's finger moved to the trigger. "Last warning."

I didn't think. I just moved.

I grabbed the locket and yanked it over my head. The chain snapped. I held it up in my fist where everyone could see it.

"You want this?" My voice came out steadier than I felt. "Then you're going to let me walk out of here. All of us."

The purifier's eyes locked on the locket. "That's not how this works."

"Then shoot me." I took a step forward. The scarred man tried to grab my arm but I twisted away. "Destroy the seal. Lose whatever's inside it forever. See how Marcus Vane feels about that."

The purifier hesitated. Just for a second. But it was enough.

"Ivy, don't—"

Cole's voice cut off as something cold wrapped around my wrist. I looked down and saw my own shadow moving wrong, stretching up my arm like smoke. The locket pulsed once in my hand, hot enough to burn.

Then everything went dark.

When I opened my eyes, I was somewhere else. Not the subway station. Somewhere inside my own head, maybe. Or inside the seal. I couldn't tell.

Cole stood in front of me. Actually stood, solid and real. Not just a voice anymore. He looked younger than I expected. Maybe thirty. Dark hair, sharp jaw, tired eyes. He wore a black coat I'd never seen on the night guard version of him. Hunter's coat. The kind they stopped making ten years ago.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Then he took my hand.

The cold shadow yanked me backward. I felt the subway platform under my boots again, heard shouting, smelled gunpowder. Someone fired a rifle. The shot went wide, hitting the tile wall above my head.

Cole's hand stayed locked around mine even though I couldn't see him anymore. Just feel him. His grip was freezing cold and absolutely solid.

Another shot fired. This one didn't miss.

The bullet stopped six inches from my chest. Just hung there in the air, glowing silver, before it dropped to the ground and shattered like glass.

Cole's hand let go.

I fell to my knees, gasping. The locket burned against my palm. I looked up and saw the purifiers backing away, rifles raised but not firing. The scarred man stared at me like I'd just sprouted wings.

"What the hell was that?" the woman behind me whispered.

I didn't know. I didn't know anything anymore.

Footsteps echoed from the tunnel behind the purifiers. Slow, deliberate. Everyone turned toward the sound.

Marcus Vane stepped into the blue light.

He looked exactly like he did in the guild hall. Tall, grey hair, sharp suit. He didn't carry a weapon. He didn't need to. The purifiers moved aside to let him through, forming a line between him and the soultakers.

His eyes found mine.

"Layla's daughter," he said quietly.

Then he smiled.