Chapter 29: Into the Maw

The Hollow did not wait.

As Selene screamed Alina's name, the wound in the ground sealed shut as if nothing had ever been there.

But Selene knew better.

She knelt, pressing her palm to the ground, where the earth still throbbed faintly with Alina's magic—warm, defiant, alive.

"She's below," she whispered.

A rustle behind her.

The girl from the East stepped from the trees, expression unreadable. "You are queen now. The Hollow listens to you. But you must speak in its tongue."

"And what tongue is that?"

"Sacrifice."

Selene stood. The throne still burned behind her. The Hollow trembled beneath her.

"I won't sit until she's back."

The girl smiled—barely. "Then you must go where no queen has ever returned from."

The ground pulsed again, and this time, Selene didn't flinch.

She stepped forward.

The earth opened.

And swallowed her willingly.

Darkness.

But not silent.

Whispers crawled along her skin—names, regrets, the curses that had once defined her.

She whispered back.

"I am Selene Aradia Veyra. I am not afraid."

The whispers recoiled.

Then she fell.

And at the bottom of the Hollow's Maw, she saw her:

Alina, suspended in air, caught in a web of glowing vines, her eyes fluttering, her breath shallow.

Something slithered beneath them both.

Not Narael.

Worse.

The Hollow itself.

It spoke in a voice of a thousand forgotten souls.

"If you take her, you sit the throne. If you leave her, you walk free."

Selene didn't hesitate.

"I take her. I take her."

The vines snapped.

Alina fell.

Selene caught her.

And the Maw screamed as the Hollow crowned them both in fire.