The howl tore through the Hollow like a blade.
It wasn't just Kaelen's voice.
It was something older. Something deeper.
Something wrong.
The crone's fingers tightened on my wrist. "You need to move. Now."
I yanked free. "I'm not running anymore."
Her milky eyes locked on mine. "Then you better be ready to bleed."
The path back from the monolith had changed.
Of course it had.
The Hollow didn't do straight lines or safe exits. It shifted. It tested. And tonight, it wanted blood.
Roots reached out to trip me. Branches tried to tangle in my hair. The ground pulsed with every heartbeat as if the Hollow was mimicking me.
No, not mimicking.
Mocking.
Every step felt heavier, like I was walking through centuries of grief. My boots sank into wet earth that smelled of rust and memory. My magic buzzed like it was ready to split me open just to escape.
But I didn't stop.
I wouldn't.
Because Kaelen was out there. And the next piece of the curse was carved into his skin.
I had to get to him before the thing inside him buried it forever
I found him by the river.
He was crouched at the edge, hands digging into the mud like claws. His shirt was ripped open down the back. His hair hung in tangled sheets. And the mark I saw in the vision jagged, glowing faintly like it was breathing was real.
A cursed rune. Burned into his spine.
He didn't look up when I approached.
"Kaelen," I said softly.
He stilled.
The wind died.
Then, slowly, he turned.
His eyes were not his.
One glowed a feral amber, familiar and wild. The other was pure black, void-like, whispering things I didn't want to understand.
But his voice his voice was still his.
"Why did you bring me back, Sera?" he rasped. "You should have let me die."
"I couldn't," I said. "You're my mate."
A bitter laugh cracked from his throat. "You don't understand what's in me now."
"I saw it," I said. "In the Hollow. I saw the curse. The mark. I know it's feeding off you. But we can fight it. Together."
He stood, slowly. "You didn't see everything."
"What?"
Kaelen stepped forward. His hands trembled. "The curse… it doesn't just want to survive. It wants to mate. Through me. With you."
The words knocked the breath from my lungs.
"What are you saying?"
He gritted his teeth, clawing at his own arms. "It's using our bond. It's trying to breed itself into your bloodline. Into ours."
The world spun around me.
"It needs both lines to survive," he growled. "Wolf and witch. That's why it waited. That's why it marked me."
And I understood.
The curse didn't just bind us.
It was trying to become us.
I raised my hand, magic flaring. "Then we cut it out."
Kaelen shook his head. "You can't. Not without killing me."
"I'm not losing you again."
"You might not have a choice."
He moved too fast to stop.
One second we were standing apart. The next, he was on me lips crashing into mine like a tidal wave of heat and pain.
His hands dug into my waist. My magic flared in response, wild and reckless. For a heartbeat, our bond surged golden, whole, pulsing with raw energy.
And then…
Something else surged with it.
A cold black wave.
The curse.
I shoved him back, panting. "You felt that?"
Kaelen fell to his knees. "It's inside the bond. Feeding every time we touch."
I stared at him.
At the broken man. The Alpha. My mate.
And the mark glowing at his back.
"I have to claim it," I whispered. "Not just you. The mark."
He looked up. "Sera "
I didn't let him finish.
I pressed my palm to the glowing rune on his back and whispered an incantation I didn't know I knew.
Light exploded.
The world tilted.
Kaelen screamed.
And the curse… screamed with him.