Aria's POV
The Hollow was colder now.
Not just the kind of cold that sank into skin—it burrowed into her marrow, into her soul. Every breath Aria took felt like swallowing shards of ice. Her steps were slow, dragging through the gray mist as she followed the whispers of something calling her deeper.
Something that sounded like… her.
Her mother—no, the thing that had worn her mother's face—was gone, faded into the swirling gloom. But the damage she left behind pulsed like an open wound. The truth clawed at Aria's insides:
She was born of two legacies. Light and shadow. Her mother, an Eclipse witch twisted by an ancient pact. Her father, a wolf with royal bloodline and the curse of silence. And now, she—the final product—was standing at the threshold of what fate demanded she become.
The last Eclipse.
The Hollow shifted around her, revealing a stone archway veined in obsidian. The whispers thickened. Aria reached out, fingers trembling, and touched the cold stone.
Pain exploded behind her eyes.
A vision. No—a memory not her own.
Blood on the altar. A child screaming. A woman chanting in a forgotten tongue. A man with molten gold eyes turned away, crying as a mark burned into the child's chest…
Aria gasped and collapsed to her knees.
That child… had been her.
And the man—
Kael?
No. It couldn't be. But the eyes. The guilt. The pain. The bond they shared wasn't just fate—it was blood. It was prophecy.
She had to get back to him.
She had to break free of this place before it broke her.
But the Hollow had other plans.
A voice, deeper than thunder, echoed around her. "You carry the power of the dead, child. But power without sacrifice is a lie."
Aria's skin burned with the flare of her Eclipse mark. Her fingers sparked with black fire.
"I've sacrificed everything," she whispered. "I've lost my family. My past. Myself."
The mist parted. A figure stood before her.
Kael.
But not the one she remembered. This Kael was dressed in ceremonial armor of obsidian and steel, his eyes glowing unnaturally, his expression blank.
"What…?"
He didn't speak.
He raised a blade made of bone and fire.
And he charged.
---
Kael's POV
"Where is she?"
Kael's voice cracked through the stone walls of the council chamber, laced with fury and desperation. Blood splattered his shirt, not all of it his. He had fought his way back from the Hollow's edge—only to be dragged back to the Black Knight Pack by his own warriors.
"Aria is still in the Hollow," he growled. "And you brought me back? Against my will?"
Beta Rex stepped forward, jaw set tight. "Kael, you don't understand. There's been a coup."
"A coup?"
"Three lesser Alphas have united. They're challenging your claim. And they're using her bloodline to do it."
Kael's heart dropped.
"What do you mean?"
"They say the Eclipse heir is too dangerous. That your loyalty to Aria proves you've been compromised by dark magic."
Kael laughed bitterly. "Then they're as blind as the spirits."
"There's more." Rex lowered his voice. "One of them—Alaric Thorn—is claiming he is the rightful mate to the Eclipse heir. That you were only a placeholder."
Rage ignited in Kael's blood.
"Let them come," he said, voice low and deadly. "I'll tear their throats out before they ever touch her."
---
Aria's POV
She barely dodged the blade.
This wasn't Kael. It couldn't be. The man before her looked like him, moved like him—but his soul was hollow. Empty.
"Who are you?" she shouted.
The clone Kael paused. "I am the trial. You are the weapon."
"I'm not a weapon!" she screamed, casting fire from her palms. It surged forward, engulfing the false Kael. He staggered—but didn't fall.
"You are the daughter of darkness. Of flame. You must be tempered in blood."
Aria didn't know how long they fought. Minutes? Hours? Time didn't work right here. She only knew pain, fire, and heartbreak as she destroyed the version of the man she loved, over and over, until she was left shaking, bleeding, broken on the Hollow's cold ground.
Then she heard it.
His voice.
Not the shadow.
Not the illusion.
Kael. The real one.
"Aria!"
Her head snapped up. Through the veil of smoke and shadow, she saw him—battered, bloodied, eyes wide with fear and love.
He had come for her.
She didn't know how he'd found her, how he'd escaped the Pack, or why he looked half-dead.
But she ran.
Right into his arms.
For a moment, the Hollow didn't matter. The danger didn't matter. Nothing mattered but the feel of his heartbeat against hers.
"You came back," she whispered.
"I will always come back for you," he said, cupping her face. "I don't care what blood you carry. You are mine."
Their lips met—bruised, hungry, desperate.
But before they could catch their breath, the ground beneath them trembled.
And the Hollow... awakened.