Kaelen hadn't spoken in hours.
Not since I came back from the Veil.
Not since I touched his face and felt something… off.
He looked the same same storm-gray eyes, same tousled dark hair, same scar along his jaw that I once swore I'd trace in the dark forever. But something underneath was wrong. It pulsed beneath his skin like a second heartbeat, one not his own.
We rode in silence, the wolf trails of Ashvale fading behind us as our horses followed the winding ridge through the cursed hills. Each hoofbeat echoed like a question I was too scared to ask.
He didn't flinch when the wind howled with the voice of the dead.
Didn't blink when the trees twisted into clawed shapes.
Didn't reach for me when I cried out from the pain still burning in my chest.
That wasn't my Kaelen.
And yet… he was.
"Where are we going?" I finally asked, just to hear something other than my own thoughts.
"To the Old Hollow," he said without turning. His voice was Kaelen's but hollow, like something had scraped the soul out of it.
My stomach clenched. "Why?"
"You said it yourself. The curse is waking." His grip on the reins tightened. "The Hollow holds the first blood rune."
I hadn't said that aloud.
I'd only seen it in the Veil.
I stopped my horse.
So did he.
But he didn't turn around.
"Kaelen," I said quietly. "What did you bring back with me?"
Stillness.
Then slowly, he turned to face me. His eyes Kaelen's eyes gleamed too brightly in the fading light. There was no rage, no pain, no confusion.
Only still, perfect calm.
That's when I saw it.
A flicker.
Barely a second.
But there beneath his skin something shifted.
Like it wore his body.
Like it was practicing the shape of him.
I slid off my horse. My knees shook. "You're not him."
He stepped down too, slowly, as if amused. "Aren't I?" he whispered.
"Where is he?"
A smile. "Sleeping. For now."
I raised my palm. Magic burned at my fingertips. "I'll wake him."
"No," it said he said, because it still wore his voice. "You'll run. Just like you always do. But the bond won't save you this time."
Then he lunged.
We collided in a blast of red and silver.
My shield flared up just in time, slamming him back into a tree. He coughed, but when he looked up, he was laughing. The sound chilled me to the bone.
"You're stronger now," he said, wiping blood from his lip. "I almost felt that."
"What are you?"
"The part of him that remembers," the thing whispered, circling me. "The part that waited. In the dark. When your kind lit the match that burned the truce."
"I didn't"
"No," it snarled, voice distorting. "But your blood did."
Images flashed in my head flames, screams, the Moonstone shattered in a thousand pieces, witches strung from ash trees while wolves howled beneath. And in the center of it… a rune. Broken. Bleeding.
"You're the curse," I whispered.
It bowed.
I didn't wait.
I threw every ounce of magic I had at him—sigils, wards, flames laced with lunar salt. The forest lit up. The trees screamed. The sky cracked open in lightning and fury.
When the smoke cleared, Kaelen was on his knees, clutching his head.
His voice cracked through his teeth. "Sera…"
He was back.
I ran to him, fell to my knees, grabbed his face. "Kaelen! Can you hear me?"
His eyes fluttered open.
Then blood. From his nose. From his ears.
"No no, stay with me!"
"I… I saw it," he whispered. "It's me… but it's not. It's inside."
Tears spilled down my cheeks. "I know. We'll fix this. We'll"
His hand caught my wrist. "The Hollow," he choked. "You have to get to the Hollow. Alone."
"I'm not leaving you."
"You must."
His body arched. A roar ripped from his throat not human, not wolf. Bones cracked. Veins pulsed black.
And then darkness swallowed his features again.
The thing was back.
"You had your chance," it hissed.
I threw a blast of moonlight straight at his chest and ran.
I didn't look back.
Not because I was afraid.
But because I knew what I'd see:
The face of the man I loved… wearing the eyes of a monster.