Chapter 4: Ashen's Warning
Kaela couldn't sleep.
She lay in her loft, blankets pulled up to her chin, staring at the wooden beams above her. Outside, the wind whispered through the trees, brushing against the windows like fingers searching for a latch. Her heart still pounded from what she had seen in the fire—and from Ashen's sudden appearance, and his even more sudden disappearance.
Hollowblood. The last. The seal is breaking.
What did it mean? Why had he known her name? And what had she truly seen in the fire? No one else had seemed to notice. The villagers had gone on dancing and feasting, laughing as if the world weren't beginning to twist around them.
Sometime before dawn, Kaela gave up trying to rest. She dressed quickly, slung on her cloak, and slipped out into the cold. The festival lanterns still swung in the breeze, dimmed now and flickering. Her breath made clouds in the air as she crossed the empty square, boots echoing against stone.
She made her way to the cliff.
And he was there.
Ashen stood with his back to her, cloak billowing in the wind. The light of the pre-dawn sky painted him in shades of grey.
"You came," he said, without turning.
"You're going to start explaining," Kaela said, more sharply than she intended. "No more riddles."
He turned then, and his eyes—those silver eyes—met hers with quiet intensity. "The world is not as it seems. It never has been."
"That's not an answer."
Ashen sighed and gestured for her to sit on a stone outcrop near him. She hesitated but obeyed. The wind wrapped around them like a whispering serpent.
"You were born with a rare bloodline," he said. "The Hollowbloods were guardians of the veil—keepers of the boundary between the living world and the realm of forgotten spirits. Long ago, they forged the Hollow Star, a seal that kept that boundary closed."
Kaela stared at him. "And you expect me to believe I'm part of that?"
Ashen nodded slowly. "I know it's much to take in. But you've felt it, haven't you? The voices. The pull. The way the world shifts around you."
She didn't answer, but the truth curled tight in her chest.
"It's breaking," he continued. "The Hollow Star is fracturing. And when it does, the veil will fall."
Kaela shivered. "What happens then?"
"The Riven will spill through," Ashen said darkly. "Creatures twisted by death, lost spirits consumed by their desire to return. Some are only shadows. Others are far worse."
"And you? What are you?"
"I am bound to the Hollow Star," he replied. "A protector. I crossed the veil when the first fracture opened."
"You're a spirit?"
"Something like that," Ashen said. "But I'm still tied to this realm... for now."
A long silence followed. Kaela's mind raced with questions. How could she be connected to something so ancient and forgotten? Why had no one ever told her? Why now?
Then the air changed.
A sudden pressure, like the world had taken a breath and held it. The wind stilled. Even the birds fell silent.
Ashen stood. "They've found us."
From the mist at the edge of the woods, a figure emerged. Pale, too pale. Limbs too long. Eyeless, but somehow seeing. Its mouth stretched open, but no sound came.
A Riven.
"Run," Ashen ordered, drawing a blade of silver light from beneath his cloak.
Kaela didn't argue. She turned and ran.
Behind her, the sound of the creature's footsteps scraped against stone. Then a sudden shriek—high and unnatural—split the morning silence.
Ashen met the thing head-on, blade flashing like moonlight. But there were more coming. Shapes in the trees. Shadows gathering.
Kaela stumbled through the underbrush, heart pounding, lungs burning. She didn't know where she was going—only that she had to move. To live.
Ashen caught up to her near the river. He was bleeding from a gash in his side, but he pressed on, guiding her to an old rope bridge.
"We need to cross," he said. "They can't follow us where we're going."
She didn't ask questions.
They reached the center of the bridge when a second Riven burst from the trees behind them.
Ashen slashed the ropes. The bridge gave way.
Kaela screamed as they fell.
Cold water swallowed them whole.