They never slept.
After the whisper tried to claim her, Aria paced the tower floor while Kael carved protective runes into the window frame. Nessa refused to sit, her arrows already notched.
At dawn, Wren stepped into the center of the room, her eyes distant.
"It's feeding," she said.
"The Hollow?" Kael asked.
She nodded slowly. "And it's almost full."
They demanded an audience with Alpha Bastian.
The guards led them to the blackened courtyard, where Bastian waited in full Alpha regalia—except the armor he wore shimmered with a strange oily sheen. Not enchanted.
Corrupted.
"You felt it, didn't you?" Aria said. "The Hollow."
Bastian smiled, teeth too white. "I didn't just feel it. I invited it."
Behind him, wolves lined the edges of the stone path, silent and motionless—empty-eyed.
"It promised power," Bastian said. "Legacy. A moon of our own."
"You gave up your soul for shadow," Aria hissed.
"I gave up yours." He raised his hand.
The earth split beneath them.
Darkness rushed up from the ground, a dozen hands clawing at Aria's feet, dragging her toward the corrupted Veil.
Kael moved instantly, slicing through black tendrils as Wren called on Selene's light, her hands glowing with pale fire.
Nessa shot into the shadows—each arrow finding the heart of a Hollowed wolf.
But there were too many.
Until—
"Get down!" a voice shouted.
The servant girl—dirt-smeared, eyes bright with fire—threw a moonstone orb into the ground. It shattered, sending a shockwave of silver through the courtyard.
The darkness recoiled, screaming.
Aria stared at the girl. "Who are you?"
"My mother was of Selene's priesthood," she said. "They burned her for what she knew. I hid. I waited. For you."
Aria grabbed her hand. "Come with us."
Kael yelled, "We have to move. Now!"
They ran.
Through burning halls.
Through tunnels once meant to protect royalty, now writhing with shadow.
Aria turned once—just once—and saw Bastian's form convulsing, his eyes completely black, mouth stretched in a silent scream.
He was no longer Alpha.
He was host.
They burst through the outer gate as it began to collapse, Wren dragging the last moon rune across the threshold with her bare hands.
The moment they crossed into Everpine territory, the sky cracked above them—light against dark.
The Hollow had awakened.
And war had begun.