All Chapters of Blood ,Fire and Frost: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The hollow lay hushed in the pale light of dawn. Moonlight had long fled, and in its place a thin wash of early sunlight slipped through the broken stone ribs of the ruin’s ceiling. Smoke curled in lazy ribbons from the dying firepit, drifting up to be caught in shafts of pale gold. Outside, the marsh shifted in slow, restless breaths — murky water glimmering between reeds, fog moving like a spirit searching for its name. For the first time since fleeing the council, the world seemed to pause. Selene rested against Rowan’s chest, her head rising and falling with the steady rhythm of his breath. The heat of him seeped into her bones, grounding her in a way nothing else ever had. Lucien sat beside them, cross-legged and still as carved moonstone. His pale fingers stroked gently through her hair, each pass soothing the tension from her scalp. His silver gaze — always sharpened, always analyzing — now softened to something

The hollow became their crucible. Mist clung to the broken stone like breath held too long, and the air was thick with the scent of damp roots and the faint metallic tang of spent magic. Morning light filtered in through jagged holes in the collapsed ceiling, falling in pale shafts across the mossy floor. The ruin seemed to watch them—an ancient place, old enough to remember witchfire, wolf blood, and vampire shadow. Old enough to know they were remaking the world inside it. Rowan marked a circle in the moss with the edge of his claw, wide enough for Selene to stand within. His movements were slow, deliberate, each stroke carving not just a boundary, but an oath. “Here,” he said, his voice low but steady. “This is your ground. Hold it. Own it.” The authority in his tone wasn’t dominance—it was belief. Rowan had no doubts in her strength, even if she still trembled under the memory of the magic she’d unleashed

The hollow’s air was sharp with sweat and smoke, thick enough to taste. Dawn hadn’t yet breached the cracked ceiling, and the shadows clung stubbornly to the stone like old scars. Moss spread in uneven patches across the floor, darkened with damp and churned by their footsteps from hours of training. The remnants of Selene’s last blast still shimmered faintly against the walls, gold and silver threads crackling like veins of lightning.Selene stood once more inside Rowan’s circle—his circle of challenge—etched deep into the stone floor by his claw. Breathless, bare-footed, trembling, she wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her wrist. Strands of hair clung to her damp skin, and sparks of magic lingered at her fingertips, coiling and uncoiling in restless ribbons of heat and frost.Rowan circled her like a predator testing its prey, or its equal. His chest was bare, skin streaked with ash and sweat, scars glowing faintly in the low light. His cla

The hollow stank of blood and smoke, the copper bite of spilled life mixing with the damp earth and crushed moss beneath their feet. The walls trembled with the weight of battle already fought, cracks spidering across the stone where magic had detonated moments before. Faint embers glowed in the corners of the ruined chamber, flickering weakly as if afraid to shine too bright in the presence of such violence. Rowan stood panting, steam rising off his skin in the cold draft sweeping through the broken doorway. His chest was streaked red, some of it his, some belonging to the wolves he had torn apart. His claws dripped steady lines onto the moss, each drop sizzling faintly where Selene’s earlier magic still hummed. Lucien hovered at his side with unnatural stillness, pale and perfect despite the carnage staining the floor. His silver eyes glimmered like moonlit blades, fixed on the figure who had entered — the vampire who had not come with

The hollow still carried the echo of battle.Ash clung to the moss, smeared in dark streaks where bodies had fallen. The broken stones of the walls still held the heat of spent spells, the faint glow of runes burned half into nothing. Outside, the marsh whispered restlessly—fog shifting, reeds hissing, water swallowing reflected moonlight in tiny, trembling ripples.Selene stood at the threshold, bare feet on cold stone, staring out into the shrouded world beyond.The air felt thinner out here, almost brittle. Every breath tasted of smoke and iron, of distant storms gathering where she could not yet see them. Somewhere far off, an owl screamed. Somewhere closer, the wards she’d woven into the marsh muttered like uneasy ghosts.Behind her, she could feel them.Rowan’s heat like a hearth at her back, Lucien’s cool presence like shadow against the side of her neck—even when they didn’t touch her, she felt them. The bond tugged at h