LOGINCHAPTER 30
The Spine corridor became a trap the moment the maze went quiet.Maeven felt it instantly—the stone no longer leaning, no longer helping. Hollow tunnels were loyal only to Hollow law.Fire-salt made them neutral.Honest.Dead.Garrick stepped closer, slow, confident, like he enjoyed letting fear bloom before he harvested it.His wolves stayed behind him, flanking, but he didn’t need them. He carried authority like a crown.Not from bloodlineCHAPTER 33 —The Spine corridor didn’t end.It ruptured.Not with stone falling—Hollow tunnels didn’t collapse like ordinary earth. They swallowed and redirected, turning bodies into shadows, turning shouts into echoes that couldn’t find their way back.Rowan’s howl still rang in the marrow of the walls.Hollow wolves surged to Caelan like he’d been carved into their law a long time ago and they’d only just remembered it. Teeth and bone blades flashed. The corridor became a living knot of fury.Sable stayed behind Caelan like Maeven commanded, both hands crushed over her wrist cloth as if her palms could become a second lock. She could feel Garrick’s fingers on the fabric even after he disappeared—the phantom touch of theft. That thin strip he’d taken felt like a hook still lodged under her skin.Maeven pressed in close, eyes sharp, bones clutched hard enough to draw blood from her own palm. Eamon stayed behind Maeven like a shield that didn’t
CHAPTER 34 —The whistle didn’t belong underground.It didn’t echo like Hollow sound.It slid along stone like oil, patient and confident, as if the tunnels were already obeying him.Rowan’s wolves stiffened. Blades lifted. Teeth bared.Caelan shifted in front of Sable again, body ready to become a wall.Eamon’s gaze went sharper, storm forming.Maeven stayed kneeling inside the circle, hands hovering over the Widow Crown like she was deciding whether to touch a snake by the mouth.Sia’s voice came low. “If Garrick is in the inner ring,” she warned, “someone opened a path.”Rowan’s eyes flashed. “Or someone made one.”Maeven’s stomach dropped. Fire-salt made stone honest.Bone craft made stone listen.If Garrick had bone craft—Maeven’s jaw tightened. “He’s not doing it alone,” she whispered.Sable’s throat burned at the implication. The echo pressed hard behind her teeth like it enjoyed this.“Say it,” it co
CHAPTER 32 —Lyra moved like a blade.Her hand shot for Sable’s exposed wrist, fingers closing around the torn cloth, aiming for the circlet like she could rip the lock off with sheer authority.Sable gasped.The burn in her throat flared.The echo surged, ecstatic.Maeven moved on instinct—Bone Seer instinct, mate instinct, survival instinct all braided into one.She slammed her bones down onto Lyra’s forearm.Not as a weapon.As a name-break.The bones clicked against Lyra’s skin, and Maeven whispered bone-language fast—sharp, ugly, precise.Lyra hissed and recoiled as if the words stung.Sable’s lungs filled.Choice returned in a rush like air after drowning.Caelan surged forward, catching Lyra’s wrist and twisting it hard.Lyra snarled, eyes flashing. “Don’t touch me,” she spat.Caelan’s voice dropped, deadly. “Touch her again,” he said, “and I’ll break your crown with my teeth.”Garr
CHAPTER 31 —Sable couldn’t breathe.Lyra’s command sat on her lungs like a stone.Stop.The word didn’t just freeze bodies.It froze choice.Caelan’s muscles locked. Hollow wolves trembled, fighting the instinct to kneel. Even Garrick paused, as if he respected the power enough to watch what it did before he took advantage.Maeven’s hands shook as she grabbed at the torn cloth on Sable’s wrist.The circlet gleamed like a mouth.Sable’s throat burned like her name was climbing out of her blood.Lyra’s voice softened, almost tender—like kindness was another weapon.“Sweet girl,” Lyra murmured. “You’ve been so brave. But bravery doesn’t matter when you’re built as a doorway.”Maeven hissed, “Don’t listen.”Sable tried. She did.But Lyra’s command wasn’t persuasion.It was law.“Give me your name,” Lyra repeated, and the air itself leaned toward Sable’s mouth like it wanted the syllables.The echo
CHAPTER 30 The Spine corridor became a trap the moment the maze went quiet.Maeven felt it instantly—the stone no longer leaning, no longer helping. Hollow tunnels were loyal only to Hollow law.Fire-salt made them neutral.Honest.Dead.Garrick stepped closer, slow, confident, like he enjoyed letting fear bloom before he harvested it.His wolves stayed behind him, flanking, but he didn’t need them. He carried authority like a crown.Not from bloodline.From cruelty.Sable’s covered wrist burned. The lock held. But it vibrated, unstable—like the echo was laughing behind glass.Caelan shifted in front of Sable, blocking her with his body. “You’re not touching her,” he growled.Garrick’s eyes flicked to Caelan’s wrist—fresh blood, Hollow mark. “You joined Hollow,” Garrick said, amused. “How noble.”Rowan’s blade lifted. “One step closer and you die,” she snapped.Garrick tilted his head. “That’s the thing,” he murm
CHAPTER 29 Lyra’s pressure didn’t stop at Maeven’s spine.It slid into the chamber like smoke, searching for cracks.Hollow wolves shifted under it—some bristling, some swallowing panic, all of them refusing to kneel even as the air begged them to.Rowan planted her feet and lifted her chin like she could glare down a goddess. “This is Hollow,” she snarled, voice cutting through the pressure. “Your law dies here.”Lyra’s laugh drifted in again, delicate as a blade drawn slow. “There is no place my law does not reach,” she said. “Not while my blood sits in the throne.”Eamon stepped forward, storm-blue eyes hard. “Then bleed,” he said simply.Maeven felt the pull in her ribs yank—toward Eamon, toward war, toward a truth she’d buried too long to survive.She clutched the bones tighter until their edges bit her palm.Sable’s covered wrist burned. The lock held. But the echo pressed its mouth against it, whispering.“Say her name,” it u







