The arena didn't settle.
Even with the Hollow quiet, the air stayed tight, stretched thin over fear and uncertainty. Wolves lingered at the edges, eyes fixed on me like I might erupt again at any second.
Rowan rubbed a hand over his face. "We need to regroup. All of us."
Rylan didn't look away from me. "I'm not leaving her."
"No one said you were," Rowan replied. "But we can't stand here waiting for the next pulse."
Kade sheathed his blade reluctantly. "We need a plan."
Rylan's jaw tightened. "The plan is simple. She stays with me."
Rowan exhaled. "Rylan—"
"She stays with me."
The finality in his voice silenced everyone.
But the Hollow inside me didn't stay silent.
It shifted — a slow, cold turn, like it was turning its head toward something none of us could see.
My breath hitched.
Rylan noticed instantly. "Lyra?"
I pressed a hand to my chest. "It's… listening."
Rowan stiffened. "To what?"
I shook my head. "Not what. Who."
The Hollow pulsed — faint, but deliberate.
A direction.
A pull.
A recognition.
My skin prickled. "Someone's here."
Kade frowned. "No one's near the arena."
The Hollow disagreed.
A second pulse rippled through me, sharper this time, pointing toward the far edge of the Ridge — the broken archway where the shadows always lingered longest.
Rylan followed my gaze. "Lyra… what do you see?"
"Not see," I whispered. "Feel."
The Hollow stirred again, cold and certain.
Rowan stepped closer, voice low. "Is it reacting to us?"
"No."
"Then what—"
A howl cut him off.
Not a wolf's howl.
A broken one.
A human one.
A familiar one.
Rylan's entire body went rigid. "No."
The Hollow pulsed violently, shadows flickering across my skin.
Rowan swore. "That's—"
Kade finished for him, voice tight. "Lucien."
The name hit the air like a blade.
Rylan's breath shattered. "He's alive."
The Hollow surged inside me — not in fear.
In recognition.
In hunger.
In claim.
My knees buckled. Rylan caught me instantly, pulling me against his chest.
"Lyra—"
I gasped, gripping his shirt. "It knows him."
Rylan froze. "What?"
"The Hollow," I whispered, shaking. "It knows him. It's… calling to him."
Rowan's face drained of colour. "Why would it—"
"Because," I said, voice trembling, "he was its first choice."
The arena went dead silent.
Rylan's grip tightened painfully. "Lyra… what does that mean?"
I swallowed hard.
"It means he's coming."
The Hollow pulsed again — a deep, resonant thrum that vibrated through the stone, through the air, through my bones.
And then—
A figure stepped out from the shadows at the edge of the Ridge.
Tall.
Unsteady.
Eyes glowing with something not human.
Lucien.
Alive.
Changed.
Wrong.
The Hollow inside me surged so violently I cried out, collapsing to my knees. Rylan dropped with me, arms around me, voice breaking.
"Lyra— stay with me."
Lucien lifted his head.
His eyes locked on mine.
And the Hollow inside me whispered one word, clear and cold:
Brother.