Ivy fell on her knees next to Ethan, heart pounding in her chest like a war drumming through a hollow cavern.
"Ethan, no. Stay with me." Her voice cracked as she gripped his icy shoulders.
His skin was like ice. His pulse - if it was even there too - was a flicker beneath fragile flesh. The chains glowed around his wrist and ankles, etched with runes that pulsed sickly green. They were not just binding. They were feeders. Extracting the life right out of him.
Thorne stood over them, muscles taut ,his breath was weak. "It's an energy drain trap. Blood -binding magic. Ancient."
Ivy looked up, face pale and drawn. "Can we break it?"
"Not unless you want to trigger whatever curse is layered on top of it."
Ethan's eyes opened slowly. Red rimmed. Shines of pain. His voice was a rasp. "She's… feeding on you both… through me."
"Thalia," Ivy whispered. His nails dug into her flesh as her fist was so tightly held. "We walked right into this."
"I told you not to come alone," Thorne snapped, the frustration leaking from his tone .
Ivy ignored him and pulled her dagger from her belt. The burn on her palm from the Maura gate, still hit as a heartbeat like a sink with the hollow. If the seal on Ethan was linked to that blood magic, maybe - just maybe - her blood might be the key to breaking it.
She pressed the blade on her skin and hesitated for just one breath.
Thorne grabbed her wrist, his hand rough and grounding. "Don't do this. That nearly killed you before."
"I don't care." Her voice trembled. "I'm not losing him."
A voice slid into the room like smoke. smooth. Mocking
"You should really stop bleeding all over my floors."
They all turned.
Thalia emerged through the Jet-black doorway like a shadow given shape. She was clocked in a black mist, Silver's eyes glowing like a twin moon, her feet not quite touching the ground. The Hollow's queen, smiling like a cat toying with a dying prey.
Thorne took a step forward, half -shifting. His fangs bared, claws curling.
Thalia lifted a finger lazily, as if the fight had bored her away. "one wrong move, and your little human dies permanently. I bound him with old rituals older than the stones you stand on. Not even death will set him free—unless I allow it."
Ivy's body got cold, a chill sinking in her bones.
"What do you want from us?" She demanded, forcing her voice steady.
Thalia tilted her head, strands of black mist curling around her shoulders. "Power. Rebirth. You."
"Me?" Ivy spat bitter. "I'm nothing."
"Oh, but you are," Thalia whispered, "The hollow chose you. It left its mark for a reason. The bloodline of Mira was never meant to die—it was meant to evolve."
"You're insane."
"I'm awake."
Suddenly the mirrors lining the walls pulsed. They shimmered , then changed - showing not reflections, but memories twisted like a nightmare.
Ivy as a girl, lost in a burning forest, crying out for help no one gave.
Thorne kneeling before a grave, his eyes wet with unwanted grief.
Ethan laughing with her younger sister, the echo of that joy now hollow.
"I feed off what makes you human," Thalia whispered, her voice wrapping around them like a serpent. "Fear. Guilt. Love. Delicious little poison."
Ivy gritted her teeth and fire flickering in her eyes. "You want a piece of me? Take it."
She opened her palm and slammed him against the glowing marks. Her blood hissed on a contact , smoke curling into the air.
The chains sparked . Sigil stumbled.
Thalia screamed. "No!"
Thorne lunged, shifting mid-air. They collided - their claws met her fog, ripping into it, but she only laughed.
Ivy focused on Ethan, her hands burning as she tried to peel the chains off and muttered his name like a prayer.
Ethan coughed, his voice weak and broken . "He's still inside ... in my head ... whispering..."
"I'm here. Just hold on," Ivy said, tears threatening to spill.
A force slammed into her from behind, throwing her into a mirror. It cracked, sending shards to the floor.
Thalia appeared in front of her, his eyes wide and wild. "Do you think a drop of blood can undo centuries of power?"
"No," Ivy said hoarsely. "But maybe this can."
She hurled the Chronicle of Shadows at the cracked mirror.
It shattered.
A wave of chaotic energy exploded outwards , rattling the chambers.
The mirror exploded - revealing not images, but the portal. The hollow was bleeding through like a wound ripped open.
The ground below them split.
Thalia screamed, but she was laughing too. "You reopened the door again. The moura gate wasn't the key. It was the beginning. The Hollow is awake now. Awake and hungry."
"Ivy!" Thorne shouted. "We need to go! Now!"
Ivy lifted Ethan up , wrapping his arm around her shoulders. He sagged against her like a rag doll. "Can you walk?"
"barely."
She looked at the swirling portal where the mirror had been. The only way out.
"We're going through."
"Through that?" Thorne shouted over the roar of the collapsing chamber "With him half-dead?"
"I'm not leaving him!" She screamed.
The floor cracked again. Screams—human and inhuman—echoed from the void below, clawing at their ears.
They ran.
As soon as the chamber fell, they dove through the vortex, and landed hard on damp earth.
silence.
No sky. No stars.
Only fog. Thick and heavy as a drowning water.
Ethan moaned slowly, barely conscious.
Thorne coughed, spitting blood. "Where are we?"
Ivy pushed herself up, her hands trembling. She looked around.
They were standing in front of a dilapidated cathedral overgrown with thorne and ivy. Its broken windows pulsated like the heartbeat of a sleeping beast, glowing a faint red.
Footsteps.
A child stood at the entrance. Pale. Barefoot. His eyes ... were ancient. A depth of knowing that stretched beyond time.
She smiled.
"I have been waiting for you."
Her voice carried the weight of prophecy.
But behind that smile, something darker stirred.
Thornes claws changed.
Ivy's heart sank.
They were not free.