“Are you sure?” River asks, shaking his head. “B-but there’s so many of them.”
“She’s right, they look too organised, and look how they mirror each other.” Nala points at the indents. “They have to have come from the same creature.”
River gulps. “Gods, if that’s true, then it must be huge.”
“I think it’s best we don’t think about that,” I breathe, but a small glance at Ryder tells me he knows something.
“What is it?” I ask, but he shakes his head, barely catching my gaze. “‘If you know something, you should say it.” I walk the distance between us, but he turns on his heels to confront me.
“Dammit, Asha, I don’t. Okay.” He snaps, and I freeze momentarily. “Let’s just keep going.” He walks ahead, his blade carving the way. I know what he is doing… trying to push me away so I don’t get close.
I grit my teeth and look away, anger bubbling beneath my skin. He won’t even look at me.
He tried to kill me.Hedid.
And somehow, I’m the one who feels punished all over again.
I want to tell him I’d rather endure a million nightmares than spend a single second without him—because that’s all they are, nightmares. They’re not real.
But whatwehave is.
Still, I know he won’t hear any of it. Not really.
Not until we have the gem.
So as much as it hurts to bite my tongue, I do it.
Hell, I’d bite it clean off if it meant he would forgive himself.
“Massive tracks in the ground, sure, let’s walk towards them….why not?” River shrugs his shoulders, sarcasm oozing from his words.
More footprints appear the deeper the Hollow devours us, and soon the earth begins to tremble, groaning like something alive beneath our feet. River crouches down, his hand flat on the ground, trembling with the earth.
“Does the Hollow have a pulse?” he asks, his fingers sifting through the soil, though he is not met by an answer, just three pairs of furrowed brows. “It feels like it’s… breathing.” his face contorts with a twisted mixture of shock and awe, wide-eyed at the subtle quaking of the ground. We all feel it, the way it ebbs and flows beneath our feet, as if a current runs through it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were alive. After the first trial, I’m sure it is sentient in some way.
“Everyone, stay very still,” Ryder says sternly, his eyes watching me carefully, the first time he has actually looked at me in a while. I avert my gaze quickly, noticing Nala trembling with the ground.
A sickly smell rises, damp and rotting, piercing through my senses. As buried roots unearth only an inch away from us, and we are forced to hang onto each other as the surface tilts and the trees creak in agony.
Then I hear it.
Scraping, dragging, screeching.
The earth uproots under my feet, like something long is moving beneath us, creating a patchwork of tunnels underground. Something huge.
A dark red, monstrous creature erupts from the ground, its long, rigid body armoured in plates that rasp together like sandpaper—one touch and it feels like it could flay the flesh from my bones. Hundreds of spindly legs unfurl from each segment, moving in horrifying, perfect unison, stamping the same footprints we saw scattered across the forest floor.
Its head shines like a steel bowling ball, antennae slicing through the air, pincers snapping like tiny, vicious forearms.
I tilt my head, stunned. It’s a centipede, like the ones preserved in jars in the healing quarters, but I’ve never seen one this colossal. My body can’t process the creature fast enough, and I freeze inside its barbarous silhouette.
Nala yanks my arm to the left, and we tumble together, her panic throwing us to the earth. Salt-and-pepper spots flare in my vision, fading as quickly as they came. I spit out the dirt lodged in my mouth and slam the heel of my palm to the ground, hauling myself upright.
“Get behind me.” River orders as he stands in front of Nala and me. Ryder flashes me a look of concern, but I quickly avert his gaze.
A sudden roar tears through the air, a fierce claim on our souls, shaking the ground as violently as the trees it tore down.
“Everyone, be as still as possible…It can’t see you.” Ryder says, in a low whisper, and my heart pounds so loudly it is all I can hear. Nala’s hand still rests on my jacket, and I gently squeeze it in mine.
