The Hollow King Novels & Stories

"Don't say goodbye. You're coming back from this. You're going to play in the draft tomorrow. You're going to be the first Kingston heir to control the Aegis instead of being controlled by it. And I'm going to be right here when you do." He almost smiled. "You're really bad at following orders." "I'm really bad at a lot of things. Doesn't mean I'm wrong." He held my gaze for a moment longer. Then he turned to face the center of the rink, where the ritual circle waited. The candles flickered. The air thickened. And Jace Kingston closed his eyes and let go.

He turns me — gently, the way you turn a lover — and the dagger comes out of his side-sash so quickly I do not even register the motion until it is already between my ribs. "You were never going to be the queen this kingdom needed, Irene." "Rose is everything you are not." He pushes me. I have already shown you this part. I am not going to show it to you again. The Hollow takes me. But this is the part I have not shown you.

The moment did not last. The Hollow came in waves. First the beasts—creatures with too many limbs, jaws wide enough to bite through men in a single gulp. Then came the broken kings, corpses of forgotten rulers dragged from their barrows, their crowns twisted into black bone. And then, worst of all, the echoes—star-born reflections of those we had lost, familiar faces twisted into nightmares. I saw Kael’s face among them, though I knew it could not be him. My fire nearly faltered. His eyes—wrong, hollow, endless—fixed on me as though I were the one who had betrayed him.

"Now we just have to survive long enough to read it." We headed for the car hidden down the logging road. The storm above the mountain was swirling faster now. The eye of the hurricane was opening, glowing with a sickly purple light. The Hollow King was coming. And this time, he wasn't sending golems or projections. He was coming himself.

“I swear that’s what it’s called. Almost as if the fates knew there would be a King Alexander one day who would need the perfect ring for the perfect mate.” “I already had the perfect mate,” I grumble, struggling to imagine Sophia ever measuring up to the memory of Emily. I wipe a hand down my face. This isn’t ideal, but at least I know now. After three hundred years of seeking my true Luna, I have the answer I was looking for. Even if it’s not the one I wanted. “Thank you.” I stand, bowing to Selene. I may be king, but there are some creatures even I bow to.

Episode 25: The Echoes Beyond the Dark The concern in the Hollow King’s eyes lasted less than a second. But Ethan saw it. And once seen, it could not be forgotten. That single flicker of unease shattered something important inside the chamber because until now, the Hollow King had carried himself like an ancient force beyond consequence. Endless hunger. Endless adaptation. Endless patience. Fear did not belong in a creature like that. Yet it appeared. Briefly. Instinctively.

I answer before she asks. My voice is low, steady. “You’re about to see where the Hollow ends.” She tilts her head slightly, the silver strands of her hair catching in the breeze. “There’s more beyond it?” I nod, gesturing ahead where the trees thin. “There’s always been more. Our homeland still exists. Our people, our kingdom. The Hollow was carved away from it—a prison sealed by mist and magic. No one comes in. No one leaves.” She frowns. “But you can see it?”

of the man who had shattered the Forge. A massive spire of white stone—not built by machines, but carved by hand—now stood where the Aegis-Final had once launched. It wasn't a laboratory; it was a temple. At its base, Kael, the former scout, stood waiting. His eyes were no longer vacant, but they were filled with a fervor that felt colder than the void. "The Hollow King has returned," Kael announced, his voice amplified by the natural acoustics of the valley. "The one who emptied himself so that we might be filled. The Vessel of the Great Noise."

"Yeah, that was before I passed the wizardry forest last night -I don't think it's true that a body was found there" Actually I believe everything she said, because I heard heavy footsteps approaching us (the handsome stranger and I) last night, before I took off. I was just finding it hard to accept that, the handsome stranger was wasted just like that. I hope the handsome stranger managed to escape before the beast King arrive, I don't want that body they found to be his. "I'm kinda baffled by something, though" she said. "What?" I asked. "The beast king's palace is built on neutral lands, which is pretty far from our wizardry forest -but why does he always dumps the bodies in our wizardry