The cabin lights flickered. Kade paced across the worn floorboards of his house, the one he rarely used, buried deep within Silverthorn's outer forest edge, where even the wind hesitated. Outside, the trees stood too still. Inside, the silence pressed in. Eden sat on the battered sofa, her hands still warm from the fire that had burst from her hours ago. She didn't know how to make it come back or stop it. Her fingers trembled. "You're not safe here anymore," Kade muttered. She lifted her eyes to him. "You think I haven't figured that out?" "I mean from everyone. From this town, from the Hollow, from the pack." Eden stood slowly. "Then tell me the truth." Kade turned, his golden eyes flashing in the low light. "The Hollow doesn't just kill. It corrupts. What we fought tonight wasn't just some beast, it used to be someone. One of mine. Maybe a Thorne maybe worse." She swallowed hard. "You knew him?" He didn't answer. Instead, he went to a drawer, pulled out a faded map, and unrolled it across the table. "Silverthorn's built on scars," he said. "The ground remembers. There are places even I won't go like burial grounds, split stones, cursed rivers. They're waking up now. All of them." Eden leaned over the map. "And you think this is connected to me?" "I know it is. You were the fuse. The spark." His jaw tightened. "Your aunt tried to suppress what was in her. She used spells, wards, blood rituals. She bought herself a few years." Eden's voice went quiet. "And then she disappeared." Kade met her gaze. "Because she stopped hiding." A cold knot twisted in her stomach. "She wasn't just researching," Eden said slowly. "She was running." "And now," Kade said, his voice grim, "you've picked up the trail."
The fire Kade built in the hearth was more for comfort than heat. The night was already sinking its teeth into the town, and Eden could feel it like something clawing under her skin. "You can sleep here tonight," Kade said gruffly. "I'll take the chair." She raised an eyebrow. "Didn't peg you for the gentleman type." "I'm not." But he still tossed her a blanket. As she curled up on the couch, her mind spun. She should've been dreaming of glowing hands and wolves with human eyes. But instead, she dreamed of a door. It stood in the center of the forest, black, bound in roots and breathing. She walked toward it, and it whispered her name. Eden! Come home. She reached for the handle and something grabbed her from behind.
She woke with a gasp. It was still dark. The fire was down to coals. Kade was asleep in the chair, arms crossed, head tilted back. And something was outside. She heard it soft scraping on the windows. A flutter of breath against the glass. A voice like wind through teeth. She slipped from the blanket, crept to the door. The air beyond was frozen, heavy with fog. The forest looked like it had been burned into silhouette and then she saw them. Their eyes, half a dozen sets, glowing faintly, yellow, white, blood and red Watching. She backed away. Kade was already moving. He crossed to her in two strides, grabbed her wrist. "Don't open the door." She whispered, "They're here again." "Not them. It." Eden's skin prickled. "What?" Kade's eyes narrowed. "The Hollow's sent something worse tonight."
The door shook. Not a knock. A thud, like something slamming into it with purpose, again and again. "Back room," Kade said, already moving. "Stay there. Don't come out unless I call you by name." "Kade? He didn't look back. "Go." Eden hesitated, then ran. She slammed the door shut behind her and braced herself against it. The house groaned like something alive and then, the silence shattered. A scream not human, not animal but something in between. Wood cracked. Glass exploded and the growl that followed turned her blood to ice. Eden closed her eyes. The Hollow wasn't just sending creatures now. It was testing her. Pushing her toward something.
She felt it then. The warmth in her chest. The ember that hadn't gone out. It pulsed once. Twice. Then spread. Eden gasped as her skin lit with fire, not hot, not burning, but fierce. Her fingertips glowed with white and blue energy. She stepped out of the room and saw it.
Kade was mid shift, claws buried in the chest of a massive shadow beast. Its mouth was unhinged, its ribs exposed like a cage. Smoke leaked from its spine. Another creature lunged from the corner. Eden didn't think. She threw her hand forward and a whip of light lashed out, slamming the creature into the wall. Kade turned to look at her bleeding, wild-eyed-and nodded once. "I told you," he said through bared teeth. "You're fire." Together, they fought and together, they survived. When the final shadow collapsed, when the silence returned, Eden fell to her knees, heart pounding. Kade crouched beside her. His voice was raw. "You okay?" "No." "Good."
They buried the bodies in a place Kade called Hollow grave. A pit where corrupted ones were returned to the soil, sealed with salt and ash. Eden watched as the earth swallowed the last remains. "I need answers," she said. "Real ones." Kade wiped blood from his jaw. "Then we go deeper." She turned to him. "Where?" He didn't hesitate. "To the place your aunt feared most. The Vale family crypt." Eden blinked. "My aunt had a crypt?" "She was the last of a bloodline that bound the Hollow. You think they buried their dead in churchyards?" He was already walking. "Get what you need. We leave at dawn."
That night, Eden didn't sleep. She stood by the window, watching the trees. She knew now the Hollow wasn't just a place, it was a presence. A consciousness and it had seen her. The curse wasn't a tale. It was a chain. One passed through blood and bone and hers had started to burn.