Chapter Forty-Six: Flame Against the Void
The Hollow One towered above them, an empty god made of wind and ruin.
Rina stood alone at the front of the crater, flames wreathing her body, her eyes alight with gold fire. Behind her, Kael and the pack waited — ready, but knowing this moment was hers.
The raven woman raised her hands, her voice echoing through the valley. "You can't kill the Hollow One. It is absence. It is what remains when everything else is gone."
Rina's voice rang clear. "Then I'll give it something it's never known."
She stepped forward — and ran.
The Hollow One moved, its shadow spreading like a sickness across the ground, reaching for her soul.
Rina lifted her hands, flame bursting outward, not in anger — but in memory.
She let it show everything she'd fought for:
Kael's eyes when he smiled.
Her pack, laughing by the fire.
The feeling of running free under the moon.
The Hollow One recoiled.
It didn't understand. This was not rage.
This was love. Purpose. Light.
It opened its void-mouth and let out a scream that shook the mountains. The raven woman cried out, her body disintegrating into dust as the god turned inward — desperate to consume, to understand.
Rina stepped into the center of it — and let go.
Flame erupted, white-hot and pure, lighting the sky for miles. Trees bent beneath the force of it. The altar split in half. The darkness howled — then shattered.
And then…
Silence.
Kael stumbled forward, breath caught in his throat. "Rina?"
The fire flickered in the center of the crater — a single glowing ember.
Then, slowly… she rose.
Alive. Changed. Glowing from within.
Kael caught her before she fell, clutching her to him.
"I thought—"
"I burned," she whispered, "but I didn't break."
Around them, the pack howled — not in grief, but in triumph.
The Hollow One was gone.
The curse had lifted.
And the Alpha flame had chosen its future.