Read Hollow by Caroline Peckham Chapter 21 –
The wind howled against the windows, the trees thrashing wildly as if dancing to the beat of a song I couldn’t hear. It was strange to stand within the cocoon of the conservatory while a storm blustered beyond it, the plants entirely unaffected by the raging maelstrom outside.
Six days had come and gone, my frustration waxing and waning like the moon in the sky far above us. I fought to summon the Dragon throughout every waking hour, falling exhausted and defeated into bed once darkness descended and rising with the sun to start again.
Hendrix wasn’t helping, despite his claims that he could, and my aggravation at myself over never having sought guidance in Summoning before coming here was building with every passing hour. Of course I’d considered it, but I hadn’t wanted any chance of my parents discovering my plans because I’d known that they would have moved heaven and earth to halt them before I’d begun. Besides, it wasn’t as if the lessons were offered out freely or even openly. Those few humans who had made it their life’s work to seek out and capture the small spirits which lingered in our lands didn’t want to share their skills with anyone. Only the Champions were granted such tuition and even then, I knew they paid highly for the honour.
I had read several accounts of the Great Hunt which surmised that the two things weren’t entirely similar and that learning to summon tiny spirits such as river runners and wind racers that had no real power beyond riding the paths of the elements they were linked to wasn’t in any way the same as calling upon a ruling spirit such as the ones which were tied to the cursed forest.
I’d been led to believe that once an amulet of the forest had been won, calling forth the spirit within it would be somewhat intuitive and wouldn’t require instruction. But it was apparent that it had been a foolish notion to believe in and one which I’d given faith to based on what was easiest rather than what would ensure I was best prepared for this undertaking.
I cursed myself for that choice hourly. It wasn’t like me to take chances with the research I did, and I could admit to the fact that I’d made a serious mistake in believing that this would come naturally to me. But I wouldn’t give up.
Inhaling deeply, I ran my thumb over the Dragon which had been carved into the face of the amulet I’d claimed and let my eyes fall closed as I tried to follow the instructions Hendrix had given me.
I pictured the Dragon in my mind, seeking out the tendrils of its power. I could feel it. That part was no problem. The storm raging outside the windows had nothing on the tempest that lingered just out of reach within me. But it was as though the Dragon and its magic were beyond a veil far thicker than any glass. Like all sounds were muffled and feelings deadened.
“Come on,” I urged it beneath my breath, trying to be forceful in my command the way Hendrix had taught me, but the Dragon only twisted around the edges of my consciousness and withdrew in reply.
I gritted my teeth and tried again, my command firm and unrelenting, my determination making my muscles lock as I fisted my hands and pressed my boots against the ground more firmly. But again the Dragon denied me.
“You’re still doing it wrong,” Hendrix taunted, his voice a low rumble which sent a shiver down my spine.
I sighed.
“When someone goes out of their way to avoid you, it’s good manners to take the hint,” I muttered, resisting the urge to look back over my shoulder in the direction his voice had come from.
I could feel him prowling closer all the same. His presence was like a weight in the air which made my skin prickle and senses heighten. Perhaps it was my instincts warning of a predator at my back, but it was impossible for me to not know when he had entered a room.
“You must command the spirit to your will,” he insisted, drawing ever nearer.
“I am,” I hissed, anger flaring within me. His instruction had caused nothing but irritation the past few days. He was always standing too close, his aura too big, his words too goading. I couldn’t think with him seizing so much oxygen around me. “I came here to focus.”
“Are you calling me a distraction?” he teased, inching closer, his steps silent but presence pressing.
“Yes.”
He released a low chuckle and irritation prickled my skin.
“Try again. Let me see where you’re going wrong.”
I bit down on my tongue to keep any sharp words from spilling free of it. Arguing with Hendrix was like screaming into the wind. It got me nowhere and only left me festering in my own vexation.
Still he closed in on me and still I refused to turn and look at him. I knew he wanted to rattle me, knew he enjoyed the game of tormenting me and wanting to gain a reaction. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of earning one.
I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly, working to calm my thrashing heart, reaching for the well of the Dragon’s power which I could feel dancing around the edges of my soul.
My mind roamed over the instructions Hendrix had given me. Commanding, firm, unrelenting. I had to order the Dragon to submit to my will and force its compliance under my authority.
Hendrix inched closer until he stood at my back, not quite touching me, but I could feel his shadow wrapping around me, the atmosphere quaking with his proximity.
I exhaled, pointedly ignoring the Fae despite his determination to take my attention.
I touched my fingers to the amulet over my heart, gritted my teeth and commanded the Dragon to break free of it with every ounce of tenacity I possessed.
Power roiled and churned inside me, my skin buzzing with sparks of electricity, the storm beyond the windows howling with more ferocity as the strength of the Dragon buzzed in the air and triumph surged in my veins.
I reached for it, my entire soul leaning into the maelstrom of power that hissed and buzzed at the edge of my mind. With all the strength of will I possessed, I commanded it to reveal itself and emerge from the confines of the amulet.
Electricity burst through my veins, a cry spilling from my lips as the power of the Dragon burned through me, my silver hair flying back in an explosion of wind as an echoing roar erupted around me in a resounding denial which sent me flying forwards as though the force of it had struck me from behind.
My hands flew out, my eyes scrunching closed as the ground lurched for me but before I could strike it, strong hands caught me by the waist and heaved me upright again.
The wind dropped as my back struck Hendrix’s chest, my hair falling around my shoulders as my breaths came in jagged, uneven pants.
Hendrix cursed as I slumped back against him, his hands shifting against my skin, one moving to splay across my stomach as he held me upright against him, the other shifting to clasp my jaw and tilt my head back to face the sky above.
“Open your eyes, lightwing,” he growled, and I was too fragile in the wake of the Dragon’s power to refuse him.
I blinked my eyes open and found Hendrix peering down at me, my head tipped so far that he was all I could see. His green eyes blazed with churning vitality, the truth of all he was laid bare in that endless green gaze of his.
My skin burned where our bodies were pressed so tightly together, my chest rising and falling heavily while the solid thump of his heartbeat struck against my spine.
“All those pretty vows and look at you now,” he said, his grip on my jaw tightening, his thumb pressing against the pounding of my pulse. “Don’t tell me this is you giving up?”
“Never,” I panted, though my limbs were so weak I was certain the only reason I still stood was this beast’s grip on me.
Hendrix’s eyes tracked the word as my lips formed it, the edge of his own mouth lifting with amusement and raising the pure indignation I felt all too often in his company.
“You don’t think I can do it,” I accused, and his expression turned wholly grim once more.
“If you can’t, then we’re all fucked, aren’t we, pretty human?”
“Stop calling me that,” I griped.
“If you didn’t like it, your pupils wouldn’t dilate the way they do each time I bring it up.”
“That’s contempt,” I hissed.
“Oh? So you feel no surge of heat within your veins when I tell you how very captivating I find those violet eyes of yours to be?” he murmured, staring right into my soul as he said the words, my skin prickling in reply to them despite myself.
“Captivating or not, they look at you with nothing but loathing.”
“Your lips say one thing while aching for another,” he said, his gaze shifting to my mouth, and for the briefest of moments, my eyes fell to his lips too, my throat bobbing against his hand where he still held me locked against him.
He was too close, his skin too hot against mine, my breaths too tangled with his own.
“Let me go.” I managed to force the words out despite the weight of his proximity surrounding me.
“If I release you, you’ll fall,” he pointed out.
My legs still felt shaky from my attempt at forging dominance over the Dragon, but I refused to admit to needing the help of this Fae bastard.
“I’d sooner fall alone than stand with the aid of a Fae,” I said.
Hendrix’s fingers flexed against my jaw, the rough scrape of his callouses against my throat making goosebumps break out across my skin.
“Our webs are weaved together, lightwing. Like it or not, we’re stuck helping one another until this curse shatters. And we need your Dragon to break it. So try again.”
He was holding me firmly but not so tightly that I couldn’t break free if I really wanted to, and I shifted as if I might push him away. But his assessment wasn’t wrong. My legs were trembling, my breaths ragged, and the Dragon’s aura still whipped around the edges of my mind as if I stood in the heart of a hurricane, one step in either direction enough to sweep me away into the abyss.
Or perhaps this right here was the abyss, in the depths of the eyes of the male I’d been born to hate and been cursed to entangle myself with.
“Again,” Hendrix ordered, and I gave in, not because I was willing to follow his commands but because I needed to claim dominion over the Dragon for myself, my people and most of all, for Rissa.
His gaze held mine captive and I stared up at him for longer than I should have, the vibrant green of his eyes their own kind of puzzle in need of an answer.
My fingers shifted to the amulet at my throat, and I took a shuddering breath as I prepared to command the Dragon to follow my will once more.
My eyes fell closed and I exhaled slowly.
Please. The word swirled through my thoughts, reaching out to the spirit which had deigned to offer its amulet up to me and the power that had been lingering at the edges of my awareness exploded into sharp and violent focus all at once.
I remembered Hendrix’s instructions a beat late, rallying my strength of will and ordering the Dragon loose with a bark of command that lashed from me towards the spirit until it finally burst free of the amulet.
Wind howled around us, my hair whipping out to tangle with Hendrix’s dark locks as he released his hold on my chin and we both stared at the raging spirit which had exploded from its place of confine at my throat.
I staggered backwards at the force of its arrival, Hendrix’s powerful body the only reason I wasn’t knocked from my feet altogether.
The Dragon bellowed a roar filled with spite, and the glass windows of the conservatory all shattered in reply.
I screamed, ducking low, powerful arms banding around me as Hendrix drew me into the shelter of his body and crouched over me, shielding me from the falling glass which rained down alongside the fury of the storm which had been held at bay beyond it.
The world was a rush of noise, of horror, of violence.
The Dragon bellowed again, the bright silver of its pelt rushing over us, the feathers at the tip of its tail lashing the ground barely a foot away and sending mud flying into our faces.
Hendrix cursed and I recoiled into the shelter of his body while the rain crashed down on us. Drops of blood mixed with the water that ran over his arms and body, and I turned to look up at him in alarm.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine,” he grunted.
“Don’t be an ass. Just let me see if-”
A huge crash boomed in time with a blast of thunder overhead and I cried out again while Hendrix’s hold on me tightened, his body curling around me, more of his blood dripping down onto my arms.
I gasped as I peered out from beneath his bicep to the castle wall which the Dragon had just blasted a hole through. Debris rained down in a scattered arc, fire blooming as lightning struck the building, the storm turning to answer the call of the spirit I’d unleashed.
“No creature shall command me by force.”
I flinched at the words that rattled through my skull, the power of them making the inside of my head hurt.
Another blast sounded as the Dragon continued deeper into the castle, tearing it apart in a furious rage.
Hendrix hauled me upright and I clung to his arm as I stared at the beautiful castle with fire blossoming from its windows and debris spilling into the air from endless puncture wounds to its carcass.
“We have to get out of here,” Hendrix barked, hauling me away from the castle which looked set to topple at any moment, bricks and rooftiles cascading down its crumbling walls in an avalanche that was quickly gathering momentum.
I let him tug me along, my thoughts numb in the face of such wanton destruction, but as my boot scrambled over the crushed glass which had once been the conservatory roof, I fell still.
“What is it?” Hendrix demanded as I tugged my arm from his grip.
I broke into a run, ignoring the continued destruction the Dragon was wreaking and the bellowed commands of the Fae bastard to return to his side.
I vaulted over crushed and shredded plants, broken glass crunching beneath every footfall, my gaze set firmly on the little wooden canopy I had made into my sanctuary.
Hendrix caught up to me as I ducked beneath the miraculously intact roof, his fingers locking around my wrist just as I snatched my pack from the soft chair I’d asserted as my own.
“What could be important enough to risk your life on, lightwing?!” he boomed.
“My books,” I replied defiantly, hugging the pack to my chest with one arm as if he might try and haul it out of my grasp given the chance.
“You’re a fool,” he snapped just as a blast of thunder rent the air in two and the castle groaned in agony.
I didn’t deny it, only started running with him as he yanked me away.
I glanced back as we raced through the storm for the forest beyond, my eyes widening as I took in the ruined castle, ablaze and collapsing. A tremendous roar burst from the building, and I gasped as the Dragon exploded from it, lightning blasting from its open jaws, rage written into every line of its body and the castle breaking apart beneath the might of its wrath.
“Never presume to control me again, Ferris, or your fate will follow that of this wretched building.”
“Hendrix!” I yelled in horror as the Dragon tore through the air towards us, and the Fae warrior whirled at my shout, drawing his sword and readying for a fight I knew we’d lose.
But before the Dragon could reach us, its form dissolved, spilling away into silver smoke which rushed for me at speed.
The smoke struck the amulet with such force that I was thrown from my feet, my back hitting the dirt hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.
A howling, haunting note of song ripped through my mind as the darkness came rushing in on me, and all I knew in that brief second before my destruction could claim me, was terror.
