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I give him my most wicked grin. "That’s easy. We go in."

A beat of silence rolls over them.

Riven finally mutters, "You’re a fucking menace."

I lean in toward Luna, stage-whispering loud enough for everyone to hear, "He says that like it’s not why you love me."

Her smile flickers wider, softer, but there’s something behind it—something sharp and wild and dangerous, something that tells me she’s already thinking three steps ahead of us.

And I want her to.

Because I know how this goes. We walk into hell together. And I’ll be damned if I don’t hold her hand the entire way.

I straighten, wiping imaginary dust off my palms like the world’s worst showman. "So. Let’s go wake Orin and Lucien the fuck up."

The portal pulses again, wide and waiting.

And we step into the dark.

The moment we step through, the worldshifts. Not gently, not politely. It folds inward and snaps outward like it’s laughing at us, and I swear the fucking stones underfoot ripple.

And then—everything stops.

Not literally. Not like when Elias decides to bend time like the lazy bastard he is. No, this is something else. Something older. Like the Hollow itself is holding its breath, watching us stumble into its stomach, waiting to see if we’ll digest or rot.

But my brain doesn’t process that right away, because my eyes catch movement in the periphery—hismovement.

Elias, tongue out, eyes squinting half-lidded at me like we’re the two worst kids in class about to get detention from the gods themselves. His whole posture radiates that chaotic,fuck around and find outenergy he wears better than his damn hoodie. Except right now, it’s in slow motion, and he knows exactly what he’s doing.

I meet his stare, grinning like the problem I am, and lift two fingers. Aim them straight at his smug face. Finger guns.

He blinks slow, lips twitching as his body tips—purposefully—like a domino losing balance. I watch, utterly enchanted by how this idiot can weaponize his own body like this, as he stumbles dramatically back into Luna.

She huffs when he crashes into her like dead weight, catching him with a hand to his chest like she’s used to us being the disasters we are. Because she is. She signed up for this. Bonded to it.

And that’s when I bark out a laugh, because the whole fucking world isn’t actually in slow motion.

It’s just us.

Me and Elias being absolute dicks in the middle of something deadly serious, because if we stop long enough to acknowledge how bad this could get, we’ll crack apart. So instead, we keep cracking jokes, acting out the chaos we are, because it’s the only thing that feels real.

I shoot him another finger gun over her shoulder, and his face splits in a grin even as he groans dramatically, clutching at his chest like she’s stabbed him by simply existing.

"You're welcome," I say, voice pitched like I’m performing in front of an audience, because I always am. Always will be.

Luna mutters something about us being idiots, but there’s warmth threaded beneath it. A flicker of relief in her eyes like she needed this too—neededusacting like the world wasn’t currently swallowing itself whole.

The portal behind us is still pulsing, still wide open like a mouth waiting to devour. But for one beat, one fucking perfect, ridiculous moment, we’re just a boy falling into a girl, and another boy pointing finger guns at both of them like a lunatic.

And then, beyond the soft sound of Elias mumbling something stupid in Luna’s ear, I hear it—the faintest hum, like the Hollow itself is waking up around us.

The portal shifts.

And it’s time to move.

I throw my arm out across Luna’s chest like I’m the world’s most responsible crossing guard. Like I’m protecting her from imminent danger. Which I absolutely am. It’s just not the kind she thinks.

My hand brushes right over her breast—deliberately—as I stop her, and I feel the second her eyes narrow, the sharp inhale rightbefore her palmsmacksmy arm like she’s swatting a wasp. A very sexy, chaotic wasp.