Silence.
Not the peaceful kind — the heavy, suffocating kind that settles right before something breaks.
The packs stared at me like I was a weapon someone had forgotten to disarm. Wolves shifted uneasily, claws scraping stone. Rowan's jaw clenched. Kade's hand hovered near his blade again.
Rylan didn't move.
He just looked at me like he was trying to memorise every part of my face before it changed again.
"Lyra," he said quietly, "tell me you're still you."
I opened my mouth.
A pulse of shadow rippled across my skin.
The wolves flinched.
Rylan's breath caught.
I swallowed hard. "I'm me."
The words sounded right.
They didn't feel right.
Rowan stepped forward cautiously. "Lyra… what exactly did you bind?"
I pressed my hand against my chest. The Hollow stirred beneath my ribs — a cold, slow shift, like something turning over in its sleep.
"Everything," I whispered.
Kade swore under his breath. "That's not possible."
Rylan shot him a look sharp enough to cut. "Don't."
Kade lifted his hands. "I'm just saying—"
"I said don't."
The tension snapped like a wire pulled too tight.
Rowan stepped between them. "Enough. Fighting isn't going to fix this."
Rylan didn't look away from me. "Nothing's getting fixed until I know she's safe."
I forced a breath. "I'm not dying."
"That's not what I'm worried about," he said, voice low.
The bond flickered — gold pushing against the shadow inside me, trying to reach me, trying to wrap around me like it always had.
But something blocked it.
A wall.
A barrier.
A cold layer of darkness that wasn't mine.
Rylan felt it too.
His eyes widened. "Lyra… why can't I feel you?"
My chest tightened. "You can."
"Not like before."
He reached for my hand.
I let him.
His fingers closed around mine — warm, familiar, grounding.
But the warmth didn't sink in.
It hit the surface of my skin and stopped.
Rylan's face crumpled. "No. No, no, no— this isn't right."
Rowan's voice softened. "Rylan—"
"Don't," he snapped, voice cracking. "Don't tell me to calm down. Don't tell me it's fine. Don't tell me she's fine."
He turned back to me, eyes burning.
"Lyra, what did it take from you?"
I shook my head. "Nothing."
The Hollow shifted inside me.
A cold pulse rolled through my chest.
Rylan felt it.
He stepped back like he'd been burned. "That wasn't nothing."
I wrapped my arms around myself. "I can control it."
Rowan exhaled slowly. "Can you?"
I hesitated.
The Hollow answered for me.
A faint ring of shadow rippled outward from my feet, spreading across the cracked stone like ink in water. Wolves growled. Rowan's eyes widened. Kade reached for his blade again.
Rylan didn't move.
He just whispered, "Lyra… stop."
I tried.
The shadow didn't.
It pulsed again — stronger this time — and the ground beneath me cracked, a thin line of darkness splitting the stone.
Rowan swore. "She's leaking it."
Kade muttered, "This is bad."
Rylan stepped forward, voice shaking. "Lyra. Look at me."
I did.
His eyes were full of fear.
Not of me.
For me.
"Tell me you're still in there," he whispered.
I opened my mouth.
The Hollow whispered with me.
Two voices.
One breath.
One sound.
"Yes."
Rylan staggered back.
Rowan froze.
Kade's blade was out.
And the packs — every wolf in the arena — lowered themselves instinctively, not in respect…
…but in fear.
The Hollow inside me pulsed again.
And this time, it wasn't asleep.