Page 48

48

CALLUM

S moke curls around the ruins, thick and bitter. The sky above is cracked with ash and firelight, the last screams of battle echoing out like ghosts as I watch Kendall cradle her sister and think about what I just saw a few hours ago.

I had pushed through broken stone and dusted bone, my hands and arms bloodied—some of it mine, most of it not. And then I saw her.

Kendall.

Crouched in the middle of the wreckage, her body half-shifted and trembling. Her hair wild, tangled with blood and dirt. Her eyes, silver-bright, stay locked on the figure she’s holding in her lap.

Adora.

Still. Unmoving.

I don’t ask if she’s alive. I can see the rise and fall of her chest.

But there’s something else there, still lingering. A crackle in the air. A wrongness in the way the shadows cling to her.

I crouched beside Kendall slowly, carefully, like if I move too fast I’ll break whatever fragile thing she’s holding together.

“Kendall.”

Her eyes flicked to mine. “She’s breathing.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s free.”

“I know .”

The words bite. Not at me—but at herself.

It’s been about four hours since then and I can still sense it. I’m not sure what happens when she wakes up.

I watch Kendall’s thumb brush along Adora’s temple, like she’s trying to wipe away the magic still clinging there. It doesn’t move. It’s not gone.

I decide to go sit back beside her.

“She pushed it down,” Kendall whispers. “I felt her fight. I saw her come back.”

“Yeah,” I say. “But it didn’t leave.”

She doesn’t respond.

Adora shifts slightly in her arms. Just enough for her eyes to flutter.

And that’s when I feel it again.

The chill. The presence.

Her pupils flick open—pure white again for just a flash.

“Kendall,” I warn, standing. “Back up.”

“No.”

“Kendall.”

“She’s—”

Adora’s lips part. A breath escapes.

And a voice that doesn’t belong to her slides out like oil.

“You should’ve let me finish what I started.”

I shift halfway, claws out, body tense.

“Get away from her, now.”

Kendall looks up at me, defiant but terrified.

“She’s fighting it.”

I take a step closer, eyes burning.

“And if she loses?”

“Then I lose her.”

“You’ll lose everyone. ”

The magic pulses again, heavier now, like it knows it’s being threatened.

“Move, Kendall,” I say, every part of me screaming.

“I can’t .”

“You can .”

She looks up at me, voice cracking. “You didn’t see what I saw. You didn’t feel her pull it back. You weren’t there when she?—”

“She almost killed you.”

“But she didn’t. ”

We stare at each other, the space between us thick with tension and heartbreak.

Adora twitches again. Her back arches. Magic leaks from her skin like steam.

“She can’t hold it long,” I say. “If we kill it now, we might be able to save her. ”

“And if we’re wrong?”

“We’re not.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No,” I say. “But I know what happens if we let it fester.”

I glance down at Adora.

She’s not speaking anymore. Just breathing. Barely.

Kendall touches her face, mouth trembling. “There has to be another way.”

I drop to my knees beside her.

“Kendall—look at me.”

She does. Barely holding it together.

“If you tell me you believe— really believe —you can pull her back again… I’ll stand down.”

Her lip trembles.

“But if you hesitate—if you lie—I’ll end this.”

Kendall closes her eyes. One beat. Two.

“She’s still in there,” she says softly. “I don’t think the Hollowed chose her.”

I blink. “What?”

“I think she chose it. Out of pain. Rage. Loneliness.”

“Then that’s worse.”

“No,” Kendall says, gripping her sister’s hand. “It means she can unchoose it.”

I exhale hard. “Then we don’t have time.”

Kendall drops her hands onto Adora’s chest—no fear, no hesitation now. Her eyes glow gold-bright, her lips part in a whisper I can’t hear, and the air around her thickens like it’s holding its breath.

The moment her palms make contact, Adora’s body jolts violently. Her back arches, mouth open in a silent scream, and a thick, black smoke begins to pour from her mouth, her nose, her eyes.

The Hollowed.

It fights like hell.

The smoke coils upward, shrieking—not with sound, but with feeling . Rage. Hatred. Desperation.

Kendall tightens her grip. “ You don’t get her. Not today. Not ever. ”

She leans forward and presses her forehead to Adora’s, whispering something only sisters could share. I can feel it— powerful and private.

A golden light blooms between them. Not magic. Not Bolvi. Something older. Something sacred.

The Hollowed shrieks again, the smoke thrashing—until it tears away , sucked into the sky, up and out like it’s being exorcised by the sheer force of Kendall’s will.

It disappears.

The silence that follows is crushing.

Adora gasps once. Then slumps, her body limp, but warm and alive in Kendall’s arms.

Kendall exhales shakily. Her hands tremble, coated in sweat and blood. She cradles her sister tighter and leans into me when I reach her.

I press a kiss into her hair.

“You did it,” I whisper. “ You drove it out.”

She doesn’t answer right away. Just nods, still watching her sister like she’s afraid to blink.

Then Elias appears at the tree line, still catching his breath, sword stained and brow furrowed.

“We’ve got a situation,” he says grimly.

Of course we do.

I stand slowly, Kendall rising beside me, one arm still protectively around Adora.

“What now?”

“Gideon’s Torch is scattered. Most of their command’s dead or fled. We’ve got a few captives in the southeast gully. Their whole chain of command fractured once the Hollowed left.”

“That thing was driving them,” Kendall mutters. “Whether they knew it or not.”

Elias nods. “Worse—Typhon’s Brood vanished.”

My stomach drops. “What do you mean vanished ?”

“I mean no bodies. No trails. Just… gone. Like something called them off mid-battle.”

“The Hollowed,” I mutter. “It was in Adora. It had them connected. And when Kendall burned it out… they lost the signal.”

“They’re regrouping,” Elias warns. “Somewhere. I’d bet my life on it.”

I scrub a hand down my face. “PEACE?”

Elias scoffs. “Didn’t intervene. Never even saw them. Do you think they knew what the Brood was really up to?”

“No, or they would have intervened for sure. They were watching though,” I say.

“They wanted to see if we’d destroy each other,” Kendall adds quietly.

“More like hoping.”

“They’re gonna come knocking now that we didn’t,” Elias says. “And we sure as hell better be ready.”

Footsteps crunch behind us.

I turn and there he is.

Mathis.

Flanked by Vaan, whose smirk could slice glass.

Neither of them were at the fight. But here they are now.

Mathis’s face is unreadable. Regal. Cold.

“I heard there was a war,” he says.

I stare him down.

“You missed it.”

He looks past me to Kendall, then to Adora. His jaw clenches.

“And yet… it’s just beginning, isn’t it?”