Chapter Twenty-One: The Summoning
The frozen thread shattered into a hundred glittering fragments that hung in the air like shards of light.
And then the pulse came again.
It wasn't mine this time.
It was deeper. Older. Vast.
The sound rattled the resin web, sent tremors through the stone beneath our feet. My ears popped as if the air itself had grown heavier.
"What did you do?" the man barked, backing toward me.
"I— I didn't—" But my voice was swallowed by the next pulse.
The glow in the walls bled into the floor, pooling around my boots. The fragments of resin dissolved into a fine mist, swirling upward.
Vire stepped back, eyes narrowing. "That's… not you."
The stranger's face drained of color. "She's broadcasting on the old frequency."
"What does that mean?" I asked, but they were both staring at the darkness behind Vire — a darkness that was moving.
The stone split. Not like before — not a crack — but as if something on the other side had bitten through. Chunks of wall fell away, revealing a tunnel so black it seemed to eat the light.
From it came the sound of countless feet, moving in perfect unison.
Vire's gaze darted toward me, and for the first time, I saw something that wasn't hunger or amusement.
Fear.
"You've called the Hollow Legion," she whispered.
A shape emerged from the tunnel — tall, spindly, its skin glistening like wet armor. Antennae swept the air, twitching with impossible precision.
It turned its head toward me, and in the space between pulses, I heard its voice inside my skull:
—First Queen—