Chapter Twelve: Blood Oaths and Broken Gates

Ivy staggered back from the door

Ethan's vision - bloodied, his mouth gagged, helpless—seared into her mind like wildfire. Thalia's voice still echoed in his head: "Now she will come. And when she does ... I take them both."

Thorne grabbed her shoulders. "What did you see?"

She blinks quickly. "A trap."

"We figured."

"No, not just for me. For both of us. She's waiting. Watching."

He looked at the iron door again. "Then we don't go through it."

"We have no choice," Ivy said. Her voice was stable despite the trembling in her hands. "She's using him. If she finds out what Athan really is to me-"

"She already has," Thorne said. "That's why he still breathes."

Ivy turned to the door again, hovering her hand on the twisted handle. She didn't touch it this time.

"She's not trying to kill me," she whispered. "Not yet."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because she wants me to go voluntarily. She is building something. A ritual, maybe. This requires my consent."

Thorne's jaw tightened. "Then we probably won't give her what she wants. Maybe we make our own way."

"Do we even have one?"

He looked around the twisted forest. "There is always another gate. The hollow moves, starting again. But there are places it remembers."

Ivy looked up . "And you know one?"

Thorne reached into his shirt and took out a cracked pendant. A silver crescent moon inlaid with obsidian. It was slowly pulsed.

"My brother might."

Her head snapped towards him. " You have a brother?"

"It doesn't seem to matter."

"And now it does?"

Thorne nodded. "He's inside the hollow. He always believed there was more to it than just blood. He studied blood lines. He suffered from the idea that there was wisdom in the hollow"

Ivy exhaled. "Then maybe it's time we asked the Hollow directly."

They moved fast. The landscape swings with each step, the trees melt in the stone, paths reversed behind them. Ivy held the chronicle close in one hand and placed the other near the blade. Thorne followed her steps with grim focus.

Eventually, the ground sloped into a simple, large ash tree on a wide hill.

A man stood under it.

Tall. Lean. His silhouette is sharp against the red blood sky. His eyes fainted - like Thorne.

"The Reven," Thorne said.

The man turned slowly. "I didn't think I'd look at your cursed face again."

Ivy felt the growth of tension between them as a tight thread.

The reven's eyes flicked to her. "You brought her with you ."

"She's the one . The Hollow chose her."

The reven snorted. "The cave does not choose. It consumes ."

"I'm still here," Ivy said calmly.

Reven raised an eyebrow. "Brave girl."

"No," Ivy said. "Determined."

"Same thing."

She lifted the chronicle a little. "I need a different way in . One that won't trigger Thalia's trap."

At that, the reven's smile disappeared.

"You opened the book?" He asked, moving forward.

"Yes."

He took a long breath. "Then she has already marked you."

"I don't care," Ivy said. "I'm getting Ethan out. With or without your help."

The raven turned to Thorne. "She's like Mother."

Thorne sighed. "Worse."

After a pause , the Reven pulled a crystal shard from the robe. It flickers with faint red lights.

"This is the key to Moura. It opens the back door. But you have to willingly bleed to activate it."

Thorne frowned. "That part was never in the record."

"It was out on purpose," the Reven said. "Because the gate is unstable. Last time someone forced it to open ..."

He stopped.

Ivy narrowed her eyes. "What happened?"

The Reven looked at her directly. "You happened."

The wind stilled.

"What?"

"Your mother once opened the Moura gate," the reven said. "She was desperate. She needed to hide you from the order. She bled on the stones and made a hole in the hollow. Something came through with you."

Ivy's voice was unconscious. "What came through?"

"We don't know. But it's connected to you."

"You're saying I'm not just hollow?" she whispered.

"You are hollow."

Thorne cursed slowly. Ivy swayed.

"I need the key," she said after a beat.

The reven studied her and then handed it over. "Don't waste it."

As Ivy took it, the crystal pulsed in her palm.

They ran.

The Moura gate is outside the Echoed Valley, the rivers in the ashes and the fields where the sky bends less on earth. Whispered trailed them, the voices half-formed.

They reached a stone circle at the heart of the valley. Symbols glowed under the feet.

Ivy stepped in. "Are you ready?"

"No," Thorne muttered. "But I'm not leaving you alone."

She drew the blade and sliced her palm. Blood hit the ground.

The stones lit up. Fire drove through the carvings. A massive, broken bow shimmered into view - high, ancient and cracked on top like a wound.

Ivy stepped forward. "Let's go."

Thorne followed.

They passed through .

And the world cracked.

They landed in a long hall of mirrors. Each surface not only reflected on their body - but their worst fears.

Ivy staggered as heat hit her face.

Fire. Screams.

His mother's voice - crying her name.

"Ivy," Thorne snapped, holding her shoulders. "Look at me."

She blinks.

The mirrors were crushed.

Ahead - an obsidian door.

They ran towards it.

And the cold stopped.

Ethan was there - chained to a stone pillar, head slumped.

Ivy ran to him and ignored the vibrant air, the smell of blood.

"Ethan?" she whispered.

His eyes fluttered. "It's too late."

Behind them, the wind distorted.

And with a voice, soft and deadly-

"You should've sleep."