The fortress gates exploded inward.
Hollow Ones poured into the hall—their limbs too long, their jaws unhinged, their skin stretched taut over bones that bent the wrong way. The air filled with the stench of rotting spirit-flesh and the sound of their laughter—a wet, gurgling chorus that made Do-hyun's teeth ache.
Lady Han's knives found the first creature's throat, but it didn't die. It grinned, black bile bubbling between its teeth as it tore the blade from her grip and snapped it in half.
"They're not human," Ji-hoon barked, backing toward the dais. "Aim for the—"*
A Hollow One lunged, its fingers elongating into bone spikes.
---
The Wolf Lord's Gambit
Lord Han's serpent-blade came alive, whipping through the air like a striking viper. It sheared through two Hollow Ones—but where their blood should have spilled, black smoke poured out, coiling around the blade.
"Damn you, Dowager," he snarled as the weapon twisted in his grip, fighting him.
Do-hyun's shadows lashed out, freezing a Hollow One mid-leap—but the effort sent cracks spiderwebbing up his petrified arm.
Lady Han grabbed his shoulder. "The mirror's beneath my mother's statue—go!"
---
The Statue's Secret
The courtyard was a slaughterhouse.
Do-hyun sprinted past butchered guards and half-eaten servants, his boots slipping on blood-slick snow. At the center stood a weeping marble statue of a woman—Lady Han's mother, her stone eyes carved to look eternally sorrowful.
The Hollow Ones were close behind.
He pressed his palm to the statue's base—and the world shifted.
Vision:
- A younger Lord Han, kneeling before the Dowager, accepting the serpent-blade.
- His wife screaming as the weapon's first cut turned her blood to smoke.
- Her final act: hiding the mirror beneath her own memorial.
The stone slid aside, revealing a small silver mirror wrapped in blue silk.
---
The Reflection of Truth
Do-hyun grabbed it—
—and screamed as the mirror burned through his glove.
His reflection didn't mimic him. It leered, its mouth moving on its own:
"Little Jin. You're too late."
The glass cracked, and the Hollow Ones howled in unison, their bodies contorting further, their skin splitting to reveal glistening spirit-flesh beneath.
The real mirror was somewhere else.
This was a trap.
---
The Wolf's Last Stand
Back in the hall, Lord Han swung his corrupted blade in desperate arcs, but the Hollow Ones were learning. They dodged, they adapted—
—until one leaped onto his back, its jaws closing around his throat.
Lady Han lunged, driving a broken chair leg through its eye.
Her father collapsed, choking on his own blood. "Seol-ah… the real mirror is…"
A Hollow One's taloned foot crushed his skull.
---
Escape Into Storm
Ji-hoon dragged Do-hyun upright as the fortress burned around them.
"We need to move!"
Lady Han didn't look back at her father's corpse. She snatched the fake mirror and ran, her voice raw:
"The Dowager knew we'd come. She wanted us to find this."
Behind them, the Hollow Ones didn't pursue. They stood in the blazing hall, waving.
As if this had all been a game.