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The Hollow erupts with light. Not white. Not bright. Something older. Something natural.

The ground splits beneath the entity. Its shape fractures. Its hold releases. And as it begins to disappear…

I hear one final whisper. Not a threat. Not a promise. A realization.

"You chose."

I look at my son. At Rhett. At the family I was never supposed to have.

"Yes."

The darkness collapses.

"You should have known."

The entity begins to break apart.

"Love always chooses back."

26

RHETT

OCTOBER 26 ~ 5 DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN

There are moments in a fight when instinct takes over completely. Not thought. Not strategy. Not training. Just the deepest part of yourself that knows one thing.

Protect.

My entire body is screaming. The entity is unraveling. Every strike I land now goes deeper. Every movement disrupts its form. But weakened doesn't mean harmless.

A wounded predator is often more dangerous than a healthy one. And this thing has been starving for centuries.

The moment Carys steps forward and takes control of the connection, everything changes. The entity stops hunting Sayer. Stops trying to pull him away. It turns toward the one person who can truly hurt it.

Her.

My first instinct is to stop her. My second is to protect her. My third—the one I force myself to follow—is trust.

Because she was right. This isn't a battle we win by overpowering it. We win by understanding it. And Carys understands everything.

The creature convulses in front of us. Its shape flickers violently between forms. A person. A shadow. A mass of smoke. A memory. It can't decide what it is anymore. Because Sayer has taken away the one thing it used to define him.

The connection. The claim. The belief that he belonged to it. I drive forward. The ground cracks beneath my claws as I slam into the entity's center. The impact sends a wave of darkness through the Hollow. Trees bend. Roots tear from the earth. The mist explodes outward. The creature tries to reform. I don't give it the chance. Again. I strike. Again.

The entity lashes out. A wall of darkness crashes into me. Pain tears through my shoulder.

My legs buckle. I catch myself before I hit the ground. The creature surges forward. Not toward Sayer. Toward Carys. I growl. No.

I launch. The collision throws both of us across the clearing. The entity hits a tree hard enough to split the trunk. For a second…

Everything goes quiet. Then it moves. Still. Still fighting. Still refusing to disappear.

"You are persistent."

The voice isn't coming from a mouth. It's everywhere. Carys stands frozen. Sayer grips her hand. The entity's form stretches taller.

"You were always persistent."