(Raven's POV)
The collar was gone.
But its ghost still strangled me.
I could feel it—tight around my throat, a phantom pressure that pulsed with the memory of pain. Every breath I took felt like a betrayal, like I was inhaling freedom I hadn't earned. The metal might have shattered, but the magic it carried had seeped into my bones.
I stood in the corridor, surrounded by the wreckage of shattered runes and unconscious guards. The air was thick with blood and smoke, the scent of scorched flesh clinging to the stone walls. My hands trembled, not from fear—but from something deeper. Something older.
Darius stood beside me, his shirt torn, blood streaking his jaw and chest. His eyes—silver and stormy—flicked to me, searching for something.
"You okay?" he asked, voice low, rough.
I opened my mouth to answer.
But the walls screamed first.
A low, grinding groan echoed through the compound, like the building itself was waking up. The lights flickered once, twice—then died. Darkness swallowed us whole.
Then came the sound.
A wet, dragging scrape. A hiss. A whisper.
"Raaaaaaven…"
Darius stepped in front of me, his body tense, his claws half-formed. "They're summoning it."
"What is it?" I whispered.
"The failsafe," he said. "They call it the Hollow."
The name alone made my skin crawl.
The air grew colder. The scent of rot and sulfur filled the corridor. Shadows slithered across the walls, moving against the grain of the light. The runes etched into the stone began to pulse—red, then black, then red again—like a heartbeat gone wrong.
A figure emerged from the dark.
It wasn't human.
It had once been, maybe. But now its limbs were too long, its mouth too wide, its eyes hollow pits of black flame. Its skin was stretched tight over bones, translucent and veined with glowing crimson. Chains dragged behind it, clinking softly like wind chimes in a graveyard.
It smiled.
"You broke the seal," it rasped. "Now you belong to me."
Darius growled, his voice layered with Maximus's snarl. "You'll touch her over my dead body."
The Hollow tilted its head. "Gladly."
It lunged.
Darius met it mid-air, claws flashing. They collided with a sound like thunder, crashing into the wall. Stone cracked. Dust exploded. I stumbled back, heart hammering.
Darius roared, slamming the creature into the floor. But it twisted, its body bending in impossible ways, and sank its teeth into his shoulder.
He screamed.
Blood sprayed.
"Darius!" I cried, rushing forward.
The Hollow turned to me, its mouth dripping red. "You are the key. The vessel. The queen of the cursed."
I backed away. "I'm not yours."
"You were made for us."
"No."
It lunged again.
I raised my hands.
The mark on my chest flared.
A shockwave exploded from my body, slamming the Hollow into the ceiling. It shrieked, smoke pouring from its wounds. The walls cracked. The floor trembled.
I stepped forward, eyes blazing gold. "I am not your vessel."
The Hollow writhed, its voice shrill. "You cannot deny what you are!"
"I'm not denying it," I said. "I'm claiming it."
Darius staggered to his feet, blood soaking his shirt. "Raven…"
"I've got this," I said, never taking my eyes off the creature.
He nodded, eyes wide with awe—and fear.
The Hollow dropped to the floor, limbs twitching. "You think you're free? You think breaking the collar makes you whole?"
I raised my hand.
The mark on my chest pulsed.
The shadows recoiled.
"I don't need to be whole," I said. "I just need to be enough to end you."
I stepped into the dark.
And the Hollow screamed.
The corridor twisted around me, warping into something else—stone melting into roots, walls breathing like lungs. The air thickened, heavy with the scent of blood and moss. I was back in the forest. Or something like it.
But this time, I wasn't seven.
I wasn't afraid.
The Hollow rose from the ground, its form shifting—now a woman with my face, now a wolf with too many eyes, now a shadow with no shape at all.
"You are ours," it hissed. "You always were."
"No," I said. "You just thought I was weak."
It lunged again.
I met it head-on.
We collided in a storm of claws and teeth and fury. I didn't think—I moved. My body knew what to do. My hands became weapons, my voice a howl. I tore into the Hollow, ripping through its illusions, its lies.
It screamed, its voice splitting into a thousand others—children, mothers, monsters. "You are the end! You are the beginning!"
I drove my claws into its chest. "I am Raven."
The Hollow shrieked, its form unraveling, shadows peeling away like smoke.
"You will regret this," it whispered. "You will beg to wear the collar again."
"Then I'll tear it apart," I said. "Every last link."
The forest shattered.
I was back in the corridor, on my knees, gasping.
Darius knelt beside me, his hand on my back. "You did it."
I looked up. "It's not dead."
"No," he said. "But it's afraid."
I smiled, blood on my teeth. "Good."