Chapter Thirty Eight - War ( Aria's POV )

The Hollow was older than any of us.

Older than Kael’s pack. Older than the Circle.

It wasn’t a fortress in the way most imagined, no iron gates or stone walls, but the forest itself wrapped around the clearing like it had made a promise long before we were born. Towering trees formed a canopy so thick, the sunlight fell in thin, broken shafts, turning the air into a patchwork of shadow and gold.

The wolves slowed as we approached. Their shoulders dropped, their steps grew quieter. Even the forest seemed to hush, like it was holding its breath.

Lyra was the first to cross the ward line. I saw the shimmer ripple against her skin, a thin veil of magic, older than hers but not hostile. It recognized her. It let her through.

Kael stayed close to me, as he always did, a wall of heat and steel at my side. His hand brushed the small of my back, not pushing, just steadying. My legs still felt shaky, not from weakness exactly, but from the weight of what had happened. What I’d done.

What I’d become.

The others fanned out across the perimeter as we stepped into the Hollow. A ring of ancient stones marked the center, covered in moss and old runes, their edges worn smooth by time. Small braziers, still cold, lined the outer circle. The place smelled like damp earth and cedar, like the woods had claimed it completely.

“This is it?” I asked.

Lyra cast me a look that said she didn’t have the energy to sugarcoat anything. “This is the only place the shadows can’t walk into freely. If they want in, they’ll have to bleed for it.”

Jarek barked a laugh that wasn’t really a laugh. “Good. I’ve been waiting to make something bleed.”

Kael shot him a look, and the wolf quieted, but not before I caught the flicker of a grin beneath the exhaustion. That was the thing about Kael’s pack—they’d already decided. This wasn’t running. It was holding ground.

Lyra knelt by the stones, fingers splaying over the old runes. Her lips moved soundlessly at first, then louder, chanting in the old tongue. Runes flared one by one, silver and sharp. The braziers ignited without firewood, white flames licking upward like light made solid.

Magic crawled through the air, cold and bright.

Kael watched her work, his arms folded, but his stance wasn’t casual. It never was. He carried tension like armor.

I leaned against the trunk of an oak, letting the steady rhythm of its heartbeat beneath the bark ground me. My hands trembled faintly, not from fear, but from the memory of that power. The spark. The way it had roared to life inside me and burned everything in its path.

Kael’s shadow fell over me before I heard his footsteps.

“You should be resting,” he said.

I snorted softly. “You should know by now I don’t rest when the world’s trying to eat us.”

His mouth twitched. “Fair point.”

He crouched in front of me, close enough that I could smell the faint smoke and pine on his skin. His hand brushed mine, warm and steady, and the tremors eased.

“You scared me,” he said quietly. Not a confession. A truth.

“I know.”

“You burned through a wall of old magic like it was nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing.” I swallowed. “It hurt like hell.”

His thumb traced idle circles on the back of my hand. “Then why do it?”

“Because if I hadn’t, we’d all be ash by now.”

Kael exhaled slowly, like he wanted to argue but didn’t know how. “Aria, this power, it isn’t just light. It’s… wild. Old. You could’ve lost yourself.”

I met his eyes. “I didn’t.”

Something in his jaw softened then, just slightly. He leaned in, pressing his forehead to mine. It wasn’t a kiss. It wasn’t a promise. It was something quieter, steadier.

“I can’t lose you,” he said against my skin.

“You won’t,” I whispered back.

For a moment, the world felt still. Just him and me and the steady thud of his heartbeat.

Then Lyra’s voice cut through the air. “I hate to ruin your touching moment, but we have a problem.”

Kael straightened instantly, Alpha again. “What kind of problem?”

Lyra rose from the stones, her eyes too wide. “The Circle is cracked.”

My stomach twisted. “What does that mean?”

“It means,” she said grimly, “the shadows have a way in. Not here, not yet, but if they push hard enough, they’ll tear through the wards faster than I can patch them.”

Jarek swore softly. Rhea paced the perimeter, her hands flexing like claws beneath her skin. Luka leaned against a stone, eyes narrowed. The tension rippled through the pack like a living thing.

Kael’s voice cut through the unease. “Then we don’t let them get the chance.”

I knew that tone. He was already planning.

Lyra frowned. “Kael, we can’t just meet them in the open. This isn’t a pack war. These things don’t bleed the way you’re used to.”

“Then we make them bleed differently.” His eyes flicked to me then, sharp. “We’ve got something they want. That means we have leverage.”

“Leverage?” I hissed. “I’m not bait.”

His expression didn’t change. “No. You’re the storm.”

The words hit me like a spark catching tinder. Not because they were sweet. Because they were true.

The silence that followed wasn’t uncertainty, it was the sound of wolves sharpening their teeth.

Jarek broke it first. “Then we make them come to us.”

Lyra muttered something about Kael being insane, but she didn’t argue further. Instead, she turned back to the stones, pulling more runes from her satchel, carving new lines into the earth with a bone blade. Rhea and Luka started stacking wooden spikes around the clearing. Jarek disappeared into the woods with two others to scout the perimeter.

Kael stayed near me, his presence quiet but unshakable. He didn’t have to say it, he wasn’t going to let me out of his sight.

I watched them move, one by one. Wolves who had followed him through blood and fire, through wars they hadn’t started but had damn well finished. And now they were preparing for another one.

Because of me.

No, not because of me.

Because something thought it could take what was mine.

As the hours stretched, the Hollow transformed. Sigils burned silver against the stones. Traps were laid beneath the leaves. Lyra’s chants threaded through the air, low and steady, weaving a net the shadows would have to break to reach us.

Night fell slow and heavy.

The forest grew still again, that wrong kind of silence settling like a weight over everything.

Jarek returned first, blood smeared down his arm, but not his own. “They’re coming,” he said.

No one panicked. No one ran.

The wolves formed their lines without needing a command.

Kael drew his blade.

Lyra finished her last rune, magic thrumming like a live wire through the clearing. She looked at me. “Ready?”

I wasn’t. Not really. But I nodded anyway.

Kael stepped closer, his hand brushing mine once more. “Stay behind the line until you have to move,” he murmured. “And when you do…”

“I won’t hesitate,” I finished for him.

A ghost of a smile touched his mouth. “That’s my girl.”

The mist rolled in first.

It bled through the treeline in thin strands, then thickened fast, swallowing the outer ring of the forest. The temperature dropped hard and fast, every breath fogging the air.

Then the shadows came.

Not like before.

This time, they were organized.

They moved like soldiers. Like they’d learned from their failure.

The first impact hit the wards with a sound like shattering glass. Silver light blazed, the barrier holding, but just barely. The stones groaned, ancient voices waking in their bones.

“Hold!” Kael roared.

Wolves shifted, snarls cutting through the air. Lyra slammed another rune into the ground, light flaring hot.

The shadows screamed, not with sound, but with something that clawed against the inside of your skull.

I felt the spark inside me flare, hot and ready, like it had been waiting for this.

Kael looked at me once, just once, and I nodded.

I stepped forward, into the center of the Hollow.

The ground pulsed beneath my feet. My magic reached for the stones, for Lyra’s runes, for the night itself.

The shadows surged.

I let the storm rise.

Power ripped through me, gold and white, slamming outward in a single pulse. The air shook. The forest screamed. The first wave of shadows shattered like smoke in a hurricane.

The second wave followed.

This time, I didn’t burn alone. Kael was beside me, blade flashing in the light. Rhea and Luka tore through the edges. Jarek’s howl split the night. Lyra’s magic wove around mine, amplifying, amplifying, amplifying.

Until the Hollow itself roared.

The shadows faltered. Not because they weren’t endless. But because for the first time… we weren’t running.

I raised my hands. The light poured out of me like fire catching wind.

This was war.

And this time, it was on my terms.