Read Hollow by Caroline Peckham Chapter 17 –
There was an energy to these caves which made the hairs along my arms stand on end, my skin prickling like static was striking every part of me. The dark walls smelled of iron and petrichor, and despite us being beneath the ground, I felt as though a storm might break out at any moment.
The glow from the blue worms which pulsed softly across the ceiling and walls was eerie, and no matter how carefully we stepped, our boots echoed loudly in the silence.
My skin prickled with electricity as though it danced in the air all around us. I felt flushed to the point of dizziness, and there was an ache in my flesh which was present right down to the air I inhaled.
My body was responding to the heavy power here, nothing more. It certainly wasn’t a reaction to the proximity of the Fae who had just looked at me as though he was thinking of devouring me whole.
Every instinct in my body was warning me to beware for more reasons than one, and perhaps a less foolish woman might have turned back. But despite the warnings hanging in every part of this place, I felt only the desire to keep going, to seek its end and what might lay there.
The ground rose steadily beneath our feet and a rush of cool wind brushed over us, whispering of an opening up ahead.
Hendrix shouldered past me, drawing his sword and falling into a warrior’s stance which only made him appear more lethal than ever.
I eyed him warily, knowing he had plans for me once we arrived at our destination and trying to figure out what they were. He was so certain that he could trick the spirits by using me as bait, and I supposed with his strength he would only need a moment of distraction on their part to claim the upper hand. Still, the two amulets he wore should have been mine.
I refused to accept that he had rightfully earned either of them. The Bear had been won by Colton and in his death, he would have wished it to go to another human Champion, not a Fae. I may not have been a Champion by design but I had become one upon my entry to these woods and had been the only human with him when he was ripped from this world. I was sure he would have expected me to take up his prize. Instead it had been stolen by the Fae bastard just as so many other things had been taken from us by his kind.
The Fox was a sting that cut deeper. Hendrix had blundered that catch, racing after the spirit like a charging bull and quickly losing sight of it. I’d been the one who had figured out how to lure it back to us with fire. I’d been the one sitting before it when it had returned and I’d been mere moments from striking and seizing it for myself when he’d strode up and stolen it.
But like a fool, I’d hesitated. I’d had my shot right there before me but I’d found myself staring into the flaming eyes of my quarry and had been lost in the pain I’d discovered there. I wasn’t certain how I’d known it, but I’d felt a weight of grief clinging to the spirit which mirrored the pain in my own heart so keenly that I’d been rendered still by it, shocked to find anything in a creature born of magic which might resonate so deeply within me.
Yes it had been terrifying, its teeth bared over flaming lips, the heat of its fiery body wrapping around me so tightly that the air in my lungs had seared its way through my chest. But the Fox had been so sad. And then Hendrix had thrown his blade at it like a damn beast and my chance had been lost just like that.
I was determined not to hesitate again. I had no idea how I might hope to claim the most terrifying spirit of them all, but I was set on trying. The Dragon was ancient, all lore about it cloaked in myth, but some strands of its history aligned time and again in the books I’d studied so desperately.
The Dragon’s task had been to protect the forest from all ill and herd the trees back together if ever they began to wander at will. It was strong and fierce, wild and wary. And it would rain down terror upon any it saw as a threat to its charge.
We turned a corner and light finally spilled into the caves, a shimmering silver glow which spoke of thick clouds beyond the canopy of the forest outside.
I took a steadying breath and crept towards the cave’s exit, the static only growing heavier in the air, a few strands of my dark hair lifting around my face.
Hendrix led the way as we crept out into a clearing beyond the caves, the grey sky just visible between the outstretched branches which leaned over to hide this place from view.
A great wall of braided sticks and branches blocked our way on, the side of it extending up just above our heads. I stared at the structure, trying to understand what it was and spying a glimmering silvery-white feather threaded within the twisted sticks.
I edged forward and took hold of the end of the feather, a small shock sparking against my fingers and making my hand jerk back again.
Hendrix turned a withering look on me, arching a brow. “Scared, human?”
I scowled at him, not bothering to dignify his question with an answer because only a fool wouldn’t be frightened in this place. Wherever we were, it was thick with magic, the feel of it humming between the branches of the ancient trees and whispering its way through every twisted vine, every blade of grass.
We were being watched. I felt it in my bones, though I couldn’t see anything in the surrounding glade to prove it.
I gritted my teeth and grasped the feather again, ignoring the zap of electricity that bit at my fingers as I tugged it free of the twisted branches.
I gasped as I held it aloft. The feather was almost as long as my arm with trails of zigzagging silver light slipping across its pearly white surface. It was soft but also strong, the silken strands which surrounded its shaft only bending slightly under the pressure of my thumb before springing back into place.
“Hendrix,” I breathed, holding my prize out to show him. “I think it’s really here somewhere. This feather could only be from a creature born of pure magic, one who-”
My words cut off as Hendrix grabbed me, an ‘oof’ escaping my lips as I found myself flipped upside down and tossed over his shoulder.
“That’s all very fascinating, lightwing, but I’m ready to get to the punchline.”
I kicked him in the stomach as hard as I could but he only grunted once, then clapped his arm over my legs to still them before starting to climb the wall of braided wood.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, punching him in the kidney to no avail.
“What we came here for,” he replied darkly, no hint of hesitation in his voice.
I continued to strike him while he climbed but he ignored me, vaulting over the top of the braided wall and dropping down on the other side of it.
Hendrix dumped me onto a pile of the twisted branches, and I sucked in a sharp breath as I took in the bowl I found myself in, moss and more of those beautiful feathers woven between the sticks and making it clear what this was.
“It’s a nest,” I breathed, looking around at the beautiful structure we’d climbed into.
“Yeah. A nest where a Dragon lives. You’re up, lightwing. Time to play your part,” Hendrix grunted, taking a coil of rope from his pack and moving to loom over me.
“You’re not seriously going to-” I shrieked as he lunged for me, kicking out and managing to strike him in the jaw hard enough to make him stagger back a step.
I scrambled away, trying to escape him, scrabbling to get up, but he caught my ankle as I flipped around and dragged me back beneath him again.
Hendrix hauled my arms behind my back and the rope cinched tight around my wrists a moment later. He flipped me onto my back once more and grinned down at me like a maniac.
“Are you going to scream for me, pretty human, or will I have to make you?”
“Fuck you.”
“The hard route it is then.” He took a dagger from his belt and knelt over my waist as he brought it down towards me.
“What the hell are you doing?” I gasped before his blade cut into the flesh of my shoulder and a cry of pain escaped me.
I bucked and fought beneath him but he ignored me, pinning me down with a hand on my chest, his eyes moving to the trees above.
“Again,” he growled before slapping his hand down on the cut he’d given me when I refused to comply.
The bite of pain tore another cry from my lips and a crack of thunder boomed through the sky.
In less than a heartbeat, Hendrix was gone, racing away and leaping from the nest before disappearing into the trees.
My heart pounded violently as I fought against the bonds which tied my hands at the base of my spine. There was no way I was climbing out of this giant nest without them, and as thunder crashed through the sky once more, I couldn’t help but cower against the oncoming presence I could feel between the trees.
The Dragon had heard us. It was here.
Rain crashed from the sky and pounded a path through the canopy, drenching me within minutes, plastering my clothes to my frame, the downpour turning torrential so that even the trunks of the trees became hazy and undefined.
A low growl rumbled through the forest.
I stilled, my head whipping back and forth as I fought to spot what approached, my muscles straining as I tried and tried to break free of my bonds.
Lightning split the world in two, forcing my eyes to snap shut, a shimmer of electricity sparking across my body as the power of the strike resounded through everything in the clearing.
My eyes flew wide and I screamed as I found the Dragon bursting from the trees, lunging right for me, its luminescent, serpentine body a mixture of white and silver with trails of teal-coloured electricity scoring paths between its scales.
I recoiled into the hard sticks beneath me, unable to look away as the Dragon came for me, my death a certainty glimmering in its silver eyes. Feathers clung to it like a mane, coating the backs of its legs too, though the talons which were outstretched and aimed my way drew more of my focus.
I really did scream then, fear and failure coating the sound as my end rushed towards me with such certainty that I could do nothing to escape it.
But just before the spirit could attack me, Hendrix leapt from the trees, swinging his sword and colliding with the beast so hard that they were knocked aside.
The two of them hit the edge of the nest to my left and the entire thing rocked violently as if it might flip over.
A sharp branch snagged in the rope which bound my hands and my desire to survive this place took over as I began to tug and saw at them.
Hendrix swung his blade again but the Dragon twisted to meet it, claws swiping with a savage blow which knocked the sword from his hands.
The Fae didn’t even flinch, ducking beneath the strike of the enormous beast and ripping a pair of daggers from his belt instead.
I cursed him as I watched him holding his own against a Dragon with a brutal efficiency which defied humanity. He moved so fast that the Dragon couldn’t catch him, parrying strikes from its razor-sharp claws and ducking low as it whipped its feather-lined tail straight for his head.
With a jerk, my bindings loosened as something snapped and I ripped my hands free of them, scrambling upright just as the Dragon lunged for Hendrix once more, its talons making it beneath his guard at last and striking him savagely across his chest.
Blood flew in a wild arc, splattering the tangled sticks and twigs which made up the creature’s nest, and Hendrix’s bellow of pain set my heart racing.
He fell back with another agonised cry and the Dragon pounced, its talons sinking into the nest either side of his head as it released a bellowing roar which made the forest shake.
Lightning exploded from its jaws as the rain pounded down on us even more forcefully and Hendrix jerked and roared as it slammed into him.
My lips parted in shock. He was going to die. The great Fae warrior had been felled by a spirit of these cursed woods and I was watching as it stole his final moments from him.
I stared at the Dragon, its focus fully on my enemy, and in that moment I fell prey to what I could only describe as a madness of my own.
I broke into a run, a cry parting my lips as I took a running jump and leapt onto the back of the Dragon, landing squarely behind its shoulder blades, its thick, serpentine body jolting beneath me as it reacted to my presence.
Electricity coursed over its skin, lashing every inch of my body through my saturated clothes as it wheeled its head around and snapped at me. But I held on, my position too close to its head to allow it to reach me, the smooth scales beneath my palms flexing and rippling with effort.
The Dragon roared in fury, but beneath that I could feel a hollow ache in its soul. I didn’t know how else to describe it, but I knew the loss which clung to it. The spirit was lost, empty, aching and alone and I understood all too well how that felt.
I was gutted by that feeling, the weight of it humming in the air around us, my chest hollowing out at the emptiness this poor being endured. I was one with the spirit in that second, every moment of sorrow, regret and guilt which had plagued me for so many years humming throughout my body, my pain a mirror to the agony encompassing this creature of legend.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my grip on it tightening, my hold becoming an embrace as the purity of its heartache washed through me and my own grief sharpened in reply.
My fear shattered and reformed in pain, my breaths coming as sharp stab wounds which stuck at my aching heart.
A tear slipped from my eye and rolled down my cheek, mixing with the rain before spilling from my skin and falling against the shining scales of the Dragon beneath me.
A jolt rocked through my body and I gasped as a blast of wind barrelled over me, whipping my hair away from my face and almost tearing me from my position on the Dragon’s back.
The spirit stilled, its head tipping back and a note of song escaping it which echoed out into the trees, everything falling eerily silent in its wake as even the rain paused to hear it.
The scale where my tear had fallen shimmered and sparkled before my eyes, and I stared as the white darkened to lilac beneath me, that single scale becoming something new.
My spine arched as a jolt of power raced through me, my vision sharpening on the sky above, my veins buzzing with unknown energy, my world dividing and reforming in a single heartbeat.
I sagged forward as the power released me as fast as it had come, my arms locking around the spirit’s neck as I choked down heaving breaths and tried to get my bearings in a world which seemed to have flipped on its axis around me.
Something white fell against my cheek in a soft embrace as if trying to soothe my trembling soul, but before I could turn to look at it, the Dragon leapt from the nest and burst into the sky.
I screamed as it took off, needing no wings to propel it toward the heavens but instead riding the wind as if it were born from it, its long body undulating in a current I couldn’t feel but which pulsed in the air all around us.
The outstretched branches of the trees slapped at my skin as we raced higher and higher, my grip so tight I was afraid I might choke the beast in my desperation to hold onto it and not plummet to my death.
My screams didn’t let up as we tore through the canopy and exploded into the sky beyond it, escaping the clutches of the forest as if we were breaching the surface of a great ocean.
The Dragon straightened, stilling in the air as it released another note of its sweet song into the sky.
I peeled myself upright, blinking as the rain slowed, then stopped, the forest revealing itself beneath us. We were so high that only the clouds remained above our heads, and I had to fight the swaying sense of vertigo as I forced myself to look down.
The forest extended in a great ring at the heart of the world below, the trees roaming in all directions, taking up so much of the land that it took me a moment to pick out anything which lay beyond its borders.
To the east, the glimmering wall the Fae had built divided their realm of Rivenspire from the one I’d grown up in, Arringfall. The Fae and human lands extended beyond it, ringing the edges of the Taking Trees in a terrifyingly narrow band which ended abruptly at the edge of the ocean that surrounded Rathian on all sides.
I’d already known that we didn’t have another fifty years to break this curse but seeing so plainly the way the forest had devoured the land was chilling to behold.
I forced myself to look to the northwest where the Blight lay; the dark and barren lands where Bane Crownthief and his army of Hollows resided. The Necromancer the only thing in this cursed world which may have been worse than the forest.
I swallowed thickly as I took in the shadow of the lands he’d claimed for his army of the dead, hating to see how much of this narrowing world he’d managed to steal for his own. He was a monster which devoured the land and gave no heed to Fae or humankind. I’d gladly see him destroyed by this forest. He deserved the worst kind of death for his heinous deeds.
I turned my gaze back to the trees as the Dragon cried out again, spotting a few turrets and roofs, a windmill and even a flagpole still flying a tattered flag between the leaves.
Mostly there was nothing but greenery to see, but my gaze fell on an enormous elm tree which stood taller than all the rest, set right in the heart of the forest. There was a presence to it that made me feel as though it was watching me, the impressive branches fanned out and reaching for the eternal sky. The tree didn’t sway or twist in the wind like those surrounding it. In fact, it was eerily perfect, and the light reflecting from its golden-hued leaves in a shimmering glow made my chest tighten.
“That’s where we have to go to reunite the amulets?” I asked, uncertain why I was asking anything of a wild spirit. But as the Dragon turned its head to look at me, I found a deep wisdom in its eyes which resounded within my soul.
The spirit bellowed again and I screamed as it plummeted back into the trees, my arms locking tight around its neck as we shot towards the ground at an alarming pace, and I couldn’t help but clamp my eyes tight in fear.
The spirit halted with ethereal grace, and I peeled my eyes open to find it landing softly in the heart of its nest.
I slid from its back and it turned to look at me, pinning me in its silver gaze as my heart rose to pound in my throat.
A long moment passed between us, an understanding so primal that I felt it in the roots of my soul. We shared a loss too hard to bear and we shared the same desire too. Somehow, the Dragon knew I needed to win the boon the forest had to offer its saviour, not for me, but for something so much more.
The Dragon dipped its head, its brow pressing to mine, the cool scales sending zips of static across my skin. I didn’t dare breathe. I reached out to place my hands on either side of its enormous face and it allowed its eyes to fall closed.
“Don’t fail me.”
Shock splintered through me at the echoing voice inside my own head, but then the Dragon spilled away into a gust of wind, my hands closing on nothing as an amulet fell into the centre of the nest where it had stood just moments before.
My hand shook as I bent to take hold of it, the metal cool between my fingers as I lifted the amulet to inspect the carved dragon upon its surface.
I released a shaky breath as I looped the chain around my neck and a trembling laugh escaped me.
I’d done it. I’d claimed the Dragon. I wasn’t sure whether to descend into hysterics or sobs, but a low and agonised groan stole my focus before I could decide between the two.
Hendrix lay in a puddle of his own blood, smoke rising from his clothes as the lingering burn of the lightning smouldered against his skin.
I gritted my teeth as I moved closer to him, crouching down to glare at the bastard who had so flippantly risked my life for his own gain.
I had assumed he was unconscious but his eyes flickered beneath his lids before opening, his green gaze meeting mine before slipping to my hair.
“It’s silver,” he wheezed, gripping a lock of my long, wet hair in my fingers and tugging it forward.
I frowned, then blinked in surprise as understanding filled me and I simply stared at the lock of hair tangled between his bloodstained fingers.
“How…” I began, staring at my hair which was no longer dark but that same, silvery opalescent hue of the Dragon’s scales. It had marked me when it had chosen me to be its Summoner. I really was its keeper.
Hendrix wheezed a cough, blood trailing from the corner of his lips as he stared up at me, his fingers slipping in the strand of hair he still clung to.
“You’re dying,” I told him as I surveyed the jagged wounds across his chest and abdomen where the Dragon’s talons had ripped into his flesh. I should have been glad, should have spat in his face and taken sick satisfaction in his demise. Instead I felt as empty as I’d declared him to be. Hollow. Void of any feeling on the matter of his death aside from a bite of contempt because he had been so willing to risk my life only to have ended up losing his own.
He bit out a laugh laced in agony. “If only.”
“I should finish you myself. But then I wouldn’t be able to take back those amulets you stole from me,” I sneered, rising and taking a step away. His fingers were forced from my hair and his hand thumped down against the bloodstained branches beneath him. “I suppose I’ll just have to come back to claim them from your corpse.”
I made to turn away, fully intending to leave him there to die, though the thought had my stomach twisting with bile. But he deserved it. Deserved worse than that. He’d been more than willing to watch me die if it served his ends, had been happy to be the cause of my death. I was only allowing nature to take its course. I had no reason to feel any guilt about it.
Hendrix’s hand snapped out and he grasped my ankle.
“You can’t leave me here,” he rasped, and I sneered at him.
“Watch me,” I said cruelly, though my heart was racing frantically, but I refused to let him see even a flicker of hesitation in my gaze.
“Not because you might be burdened with guilt,” he grunted, still maintaining his grip on my ankle. “But because you can’t complete this task without me.”
“I don’t need you,” I hissed.
“No,” he chuckled as if the pool of blood that surrounded him was nothing but a mere inconvenience. “But you do need the key to the labyrinth.”
I’d yanked my ankle from his hold while he’d spoken but I stilled at his words, a chill seeping into my bones as they sank in.
“There’s no key,” I muttered, trying to dismiss the strange chill which had run down my spine at those words, the whispered warnings hissing from every leaf above our heads. Some innate sense was warning me not to ignore his words, to listen despite my desire to scorn them…
“There is. And I possess it. Are you willing to risk reaching the labyrinth alone to find your passage barred and only regrets of my death for company?” Hendrix pressed, a smug smile on his face even as he lay dying at my feet.
“You don’t have it.”
“I do.”
I crouched down and started tugging at his clothes, feeling for pockets, pulling blades free of their hiding places but discovering little else.
Hendrix laughed again, more blood slicking his lips. “If you’d wanted a chance to remove my clothes, you only needed to ask.”
“In your dreams,” I spat, shoving away from him and standing again. “Where is it if not here?”
“I really will die before I tell you, lightwing,” he replied smugly. “But if you help me get back to the castle, then perhaps we can come to a new deal.”
“What deal?” I snapped, not wanting a part of any agreement with this bastard.
“An alliance,” he said as if I’d ever wish for such a thing with him. “You’ve claimed the Dragon. Perhaps there’s more to you than I wanted to admit. I, in turn, have the Bear, the Fox and the key. If we work together, we can find the rest and end this curse.”
I shook my head, wanting to deny him, to tell him to take his offer and shove it up his ass because he hadn’t thought me worthy of one before. He only wanted this deal with me now because I’d seized what he could not and he was bleeding out in this cursed place with no hope of escape before night fell without me.
I could still leave. I could go and come back here tomorrow to take his two amulets from his corpse… assuming nothing stole his body in the night. But the key. If he really did have the key and it truly was the only way to gain entry to the labyrinth, then none of this would matter without it. I could find and capture all thirteen spirits and still die here in these cursed woods without ever winning the boon.
“I hate you,” I growled as I gave in to the inevitable.
“I’m yet to find anyone living who doesn’t,” he said as if that were a declaration to boast of.
I crouched down and held my hand out for his. “An alliance. Equal partners or nothing.”
“Equal,” he agreed, clasping my hand, though I didn’t miss the clear amusement in his green eyes at the statement.
By the spirits, I despised this male.
With a curse, I took hold of his hand and hauled him to his feet. He swore and staggered but managed to loop his arm around my neck and let me support him as we began what was certain to be a laborious trip back to the castle.
I couldn’t ignore the wet slick of blood which soaked into my skin, nor the drops of it he left in his wake at every step. He’d be lucky to make it halfway back to the castle on his feet and if he fell, I had no hope of being able to drag him the rest of the way myself. We’d have to move fast and lay our hopes in the hands of the spirits.
“Would you like to hear a tale of my prestige?” Hendrix asked as we stepped into the shadow of the caves once more, his words a rough grumble against my ear which sent a shiver tumbling down my spine.
“No,” I hissed in reply. “I simply want this over with as fast as humanly possible.”
“It will be a slow journey indeed then.” Hendrix barked a laugh which only made his wounds bleed more, and I winced beneath the weight of him as I led him back through the caves.
I had no idea if he would even make it to the castle, let alone survive the night once we got there, but I had no choice beyond helping him now. At least until I got what I needed from him because then, all deals would be off. And I would forge my own path once more.
