“And then I found the others,” he repeats, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Turns out I’m not the only one who wanted a simpler life.”
It’s admirable, really—walking away from everything. I’m not sure I’d have the courage.
“What about you?” he asks. “How’d you all meet? Out there, the rules are strict, but you three seem to have broken the divide.”
“It’s a long story,” I say, my eyes peeled straight ahead.
“One for after you save the world,” he teases, and an unnerved chuckle slips out of me.
“Exactly.”
A small smile blooms on my face, but it quickly vanishes when River suddenly yelps.
“Are you okay?” I rush to him, my lungs seizing for a moment. He seems okay, just a pained look on his face.
“That flower zapped me!” He’s glaring at it like it personally offended him, one hand clutching the side of his leg. I study the thing—blue, scraggly, and trembling with leftover static.
“That’s a lightning flower,” Ziek says as he crouches beside it. “They won’t kill you, but they give a nasty shock.”
“What is up with this place and flowers?” River groans.
Ziek chuckles under his breath and carries on, but River stares back at it, as if his looks could annihilate the flower.
He walks a few metres ahead before stopping suddenly, spine straightening, head angled as if listening to something only he can hear.
“Is everything okay?” Ryder asks, his fingers tightening around his sword.
“Something’s different,” Ziek murmurs. “The Hollow, she’s planning her next move.”
Ryder shoots me a worried look and clears his throat. “How can you tell?”
“I just have a feeling,” he says. “Go with your gut—it’s as good a tell as any in here.”
I make a mental note of every scrap of advice he’s given us. We might need all of it.
Ziek was right.
A shadowed figure crouches against a distant tree, its limbs too long, its posture too still—like something pretending to be human and getting the details wrong. Two pale, unblinking lights hang where its eyes should be, fixed on me with unnerving hunger.
“Are you seriously telling me you don’t see that, too?” I whisper, my finger trembling as I point.
All three of them—Ryder, River, Ziek—turn to look, but confusion washes over their features. They shake their heads in unison. Not one of them dares to move closer.
“Stand back,” Ziek orders, stepping slightly in front of River and Ryder. “The trial only wants her.”
The words coil around my throat.Only me.
Always me.
The Hollow is obsessed with peeling me apart layer by layer—as if it knows I’m already fraying.
Ryder takes a step toward me anyway, panic tightening his jaw, his hand twitching like he’s fighting the urge to grab mineand pull me back. I meet his eyes and give him a look that is half reassurance, half plea.
Don’t. If you get involved, it’ll take you too.
“I’ve never even seen a trial before,” Ziek mutters, disbelief settling into his bones. “Twenty years in this place… I thought they were just fables.”
“Well,” Ryder breathes, “you’re about to see one now.” He forces out the words between tethered teeth, apprehensive for what’s to come. And rightly so.
