The Hollow didn't roar for long.
It fell still. Utterly still.
As if time itself had inhaled and refused to exhale.
Selene's arm burned with the rune. The girl from the East lay unconscious in Alina's arms, her breathing shallow but steady.
But the rune... it pulsed. Not with blood, but with memory.
Selene's vision blurred. In an instant, she was not standing in the Hollow anymore.
She stood in a vast, grey expanse—a realm without sun, without sky. Thousands of whispers crawled along the edges of her hearing, impossible to locate, impossible to ignore.
Then a voice.
Her voice.
But older.
"I carried the flame before you."
A figure stepped forward. She wore Selene's face, but her eyes were burned empty, filled with starlight and sorrow.
"You are the last echo. The silence has been waiting to be heard."
Selene tried to speak, but her mouth did not move.
The other Selene touched her chest. "You are not the end, but the hinge. The world turns through you."
The vision shattered.
Selene collapsed.
Alina was already there, catching her.
"Selene!"
Selene opened her eyes.
But they were not her own.
They glowed with starlight.
A voice spoke through her lips—not hers.
"She has heard us. And now, she remembers."
_______________________________________________________________________
Chapter 22 Trailer – "A Mouthful of Names"
The Hollow has gone quiet, but the world beyond begins to chant. As Selene wakes bearing ancient voices, Alina is torn between protector and witness.
But not all memories want to be remembered.And not all names want to be spoken.
When Selene opens her mouth, prophecy spills like poison—and one name among them doesn't belong to the past… but the future.
A name that should never be said.A name that might unmake her.