Chapter 24 – Whispers of the Hollow

Seraphina could still feel the pulse of magic seeping through her bones.

Not the kind that healed. The kind that warned.

The night was no longer silent it breathed, alive with whispers too old to belong to anything mortal. She and Kaelen stood in the clearing, the air thick with ash and the scent of scorched blood. Somewhere beneath the moonless sky, the veil had cracked, and now something was watching.

"I don't like this place," Kaelen muttered, his golden eyes scanning the ruins ahead the remnants of a once-sacred ground now twisted into something cold and unfamiliar.

"Neither do I," Seraphina whispered, gripping the pendant Elowen had enchanted before their journey. It glowed faintly, reacting to the strange magic that danced in the air like frost on fire.

They had crossed into the Hollow, an ancient no-man's land between witch territory and wolf dominion a place swallowed by time, left to rot between wars. It was said to be haunted by those who died in silence, whose curses still clung to the soil like thorns waiting for flesh.

They had to move carefully now. The further they traveled, the more unpredictable the bond became. Kaelen's strength surged and crashed in waves. At times, he would grip his head, snarling like a beast too feral to be caged. At others, he would collapse, sweat slicking his brow as if the very earth was draining him.

Seraphina wasn't faring much better. Her magic sparked without control, bleeding through her palms even when she tried to suppress it. Her visions had become erratic flashes of a burning moon, Kaelen's lifeless body, and a child with silver eyes standing atop a mountain of bones.

She didn't dare tell Kaelen that last part.

Not yet.

"We rest for an hour," Kaelen said, voice tight, jaw locked. "Then we move."

But Seraphina didn't sit. Her eyes were fixed on a strange symbol carved into a nearby stone part rune, part claw mark. It shimmered briefly, then vanished.

"Did you see that?" she asked, stepping closer.

Kaelen followed her gaze but saw nothing. "You're seeing things again."

"No. Something's here." Her fingers hovered over the stone, and her breath caught in her throat. "It's a warning."

Kaelen frowned. "From what?"

She turned to him slowly. "From her."

Before he could ask who, the ground beneath them trembled.

It wasn't an earthquake.

It was something rising.

Seraphina's magic flared instinctively, wrapping around her like a shield. Kaelen shifted mid-step, his wolf barely beneath the surface, claws elongating, canines sharpening.

From the shadows, a shape slithered forth no face, no eyes. Just smoke and teeth and a mouth that whispered one word:

"Bloodbound."

The creature lunged, and Kaelen threw himself in front of Seraphina. His claws met smoke, but the beast didn't falter. It coiled around them like shadowed vines, whispering spells in a tongue older than stone.

Seraphina's chest burned. Not from pain but recognition.

This creature… it wasn't alive.

It was a curse.

One made flesh.

"Don't let it speak!" she shouted, weaving a binding glyph in the air.

Too late.

The creature's voice pierced the night.

"Bound in flesh, broken in bone… you cannot change what fate has sown."

A blast of crimson light exploded from Seraphina's chest, knocking the beast back. Kaelen leapt forward, driving his claws through what little form the creature had left. It hissed as it dissolved into smoke, leaving behind a single rune scorched into the ground.

Kaelen stumbled, breathing hard.

"You good?" she asked.

"Fine," he grunted. "But what the hell was that?"

She stared at the rune.

"A message," she murmured. "Or a trial."

Kaelen's face twisted. "You think Elowen sent that?"

Seraphina shook her head. "No. That wasn't her magic. That was something older… something tied to my bloodline."

She didn't say what she feared most that the creature looked just like the thing from her vision. That the child with silver eyes stood beside it in the dream and didn't seem afraid.

Kaelen grabbed her hand, grounding her. "Whatever this place throws at us, we'll get through it."

She nodded, but the dread in her bones didn't fade.

As they continued through the Hollow, the air grew heavier. Time slowed. Their bond pulsed with strange interference sometimes drawing them close, sometimes pushing them apart like repelling magnets.

Twice, Kaelen nearly passed out. Once, Seraphina's magic turned on her and burned through her sleeve, branding her forearm with an unfamiliar sigil.

"We're being tested," she muttered under her breath.

"And what happens if we fail?" Kaelen asked, his tone dark.

She didn't answer.

Because the truth was if they failed, they wouldn't just lose each other.

They'd doom their entire kind.

At dusk, they reached the gates of the Echoes. The ruins of the school stood tall, twisted with vines, silver mist curling around its broken towers. The front steps glowed faintly symbols carved into stone, shifting like something alive.

"Elowen's here," Seraphina said softly. "I can feel her."

Kaelen reached for the hilt of his blade.

"Then let's finish this."

But just as they stepped forward, a voice cut through the mist.

"You've come far. Bled much. But the answers you seek require a cost you have yet to pay."

From the shadows emerged a girl barefoot, glowing with wild magic. Her hair was silver threaded with black. Her eyes… mirrored Seraphina's.

"Elowen," Seraphina breathed.

The girl smiled, sad and knowing.

"You're not ready."

Before they could respond, the ground beneath them cracked, splitting with light.

And the world collapsed into white.