Chapter Ten: Unveiling the Past and Accepting the Truth.

They drowned in the field black.

Ivy screams were swallowed by the wind. She reached out for anything - Ethan's hand, a branch, the air - but there was nothing. Just the endless fall, the rush of cold air and whispering of slightly ancient curls around it like her smoke.

Then impact.

The world narrowed sideways. Ivy hit the wet ground hard, rolled over the moss and stone. Her lungs burned as she gasped in the dark. 

"Ivy!" Ethan's voice rang out.

"I'm here!" She choked.

A beam of light flickered. Thorne, a few meters away, had sparked a flame between his fingers. The blood dripped with a gush above his eyebrow.

"Everyone alive?" He asked, the voice tight.

"Barely," Ethan moans, limping towards Ivy.

She pulled herself upright. The location around them was massive - a kind of underground ruin. Vines coated the walls. Strange, shiny mushrooms pulsed with an eerie blue light, casting enough visibility to make out jagged Stone and the skeleton of what might've once been a temple.

"Where are we?" Asked ivy.

Thorne scanned the chamber. "Under the hollow. The forgotten court."

"Now what?"

He exhaled slowly. "The place where the first wolves signed their compromise with the moon. Where your bloodline began."

Ivy's spine stiffened. "You're saying this is where it all started?"

"Yes," Thorne said. "And if Thalia brought you here, it's not a coincidence. This is where she plans to complete it."

Ethan knelt beside a crumbled pillar, as he brushed the dust from the floor. The weird symbols were cut into the stone and made a broken ring. "this looks like a summoning circle."

"It is," Thorne said. "This is how the first bond was forged."

Ivy's heart pounded.

"What if she's not trying to destroy me?" She asked. "What if she's trying to replace me?"

Thorne's eyes went dark. "She can't possess you while your will is intact. But if she traps your soul-"

"She takes over permanently," Ethan ended.

A cold sweat broke across ivy's neck.

Suddenly, a low growl echoed through the chamber.

Not human.

No animals.

Something in between.

They all froze.

From the distant edge of the ruins, a shaped moves forward.

It wasn't Thalia.

Not anymore.

What stood in front of them was a huge wolf doubled in shape like a bear, with silver-black fur and eyes that bleed Crimson. Glowing like a fire, creeps on the skin.

Ivy's breath caught. "What is that?"

Thornes voice was hoarse. "That… was the First Alpha."

The creature opened its mouth and laughed - a deep, guttural sound that revived through the stones.

"Thalia has bound herself to the root," said the animal with an angry voice layered with centuries Of rage. "I gave her my strength. My name. My shape. And now ... she'll take yours."

Ethan stepped in front of Ivy.

The First Alpha lowered its massive head, sniffing the air. "Ah. So you are the broken vessel. The one who denied her blood."

Ivy said, "I didn't deny it." "I never had a choice."

"You had every choice. And you chose ignorance. You let the world forget what you are."

"I'm not like her."

"But you will be."

The creature lunged.

Ethan shoved ivy in time just as the claws crossed the stone.

Thorne slashed his blade upwards and carved into the beast's flank. It howled and turned on him, fangs bared.

Ivy scrambled her legs,her glowing hand trembling .

Power hummed under her skin. She reached the depth of the hollow - into the book - into the blood.

And it answered.

The light burst into her palm and slammed into the chest of the first alpha. The beast shouted, stumbling back. The runes on its body flickered.

Ivy came forward. "You want to test me? Ok. Let's see what happens when I stop running."

The Alpha circled her warily, tail low. "Bold. But you are not complete. Not yet."

A low voice echoed behind them.

"She will be."

Thalia appeared from the shadows, her shape now fully complete - long black hair, eyes like fire and an aura that was torn by danger. She looked human, but Ivy felt a lie under her skin.

Thalia said, "I waited so long for this." "To be in this place again. To make it right."

"You not making anything right," Ivy spat. "You're stealing what does not belong to you."

Thalia bent her head. "This is funny. I was going to say the same to you."

She lifted his hand.

The room trembled.

The stone ritual rose from the ground and floated in a circle around ivy.

Ethan tries to rush forward- only to be thrown back by a flame barrier.

Thorne cursed, trapped behind the same wall.

"Ivy!" Ethan shouted, pounding against the shield.

"I'm fine!" She shouted back, even though her heart knocked against her ribs.

Thalia stepped into the circle.

"You and I were born of the same blood," she said. "Two souls in one uterus. They tore us apart. But now ... We will end that."

"I won't merge with you."

"You don't have to. I'll take what is mine."

She put her hand forward.

Pain thore through ivy's chest. Her legs bent.

Energy whipped around them -red and silver.

The bond was forming.

"Ivy, fight it!" Ethan screamed.

Ivy shouted. Her body twisted , bones cracking under pressure. Her book at her side pulsed wildly.

The Hollow called out to her.

choose.

She reached for the book with shaking fingers.

"Ivy, don't!" Thorne baled. "It could kill you!"

But she wasn't afraid.

Not anymore.

She slammed her palm onto the cover.

An explosion of power exploded from the circle - shattering the ritual stones.

Thalia screamed.

The flames disappeared.

Ethan rushed and caught ivy before she collapsed.

Her eyes glowed silver and white. Her skin glimpsed with ancient marks.

"I remember," she whispered. "I remember everything."

Thalia staggered back ,bleeding. "No ... this is not possible ..."

"You forgot one thing," Ivy said to the cold. "The hollow doesn't respond to you. It never did."

The air swept away through the chamber.

And then another voice joined Ivy.

Soft.

clear.

Inside her.

Finish this.

Ivy rose, energy flaring.

Thalia's eyes expanded with something ivy never expected.

Fear.

And as soon as Ivy stepped forward to strike-

The ground exploded again under them.

And this time-

The darkness took them all.