Hollow-Born

phin

el, maybe-but I flinch like it's thunde

ead, fur rippling

inutes. Ma

in my head, the word Hollow-Born seared behind my eyes, the fa

does h

esn't

is louder t

es he wa

speaks, voic

l. Power. To claim the unpredictable. Es

mean.

eyes meet

n't ask for this. I didn't even kn

rds feel too s

wante

s, circling me.

this time. Deeper. The kind

rst out of the t

ehind us. Twigs

how to fight

flinch. "Good

se. Protective. Solid. I feel her

have to run

hands again. Blood

what d

er teeth. "

nk at

asks, voice sharpening. "It's not. It's the beginni

es as something massi

pping branc

very inch of me screaming

nt my

irst time in my l

her head

how to fight

s are locked on the silhouette s

id, good t

cles tense, paws sinki

-like a blade

can't

ightens. I

I

My jacket flaps behind me, torn and bloodied. I shove myself bet

nce

h

ear

manding voi

t's to Jinx. To us. It's f

oesn'

" again

ilent. Unmov

unbothered ease, and then shifts g

u

a

ina

this tim

ust in the air,

fli

sound's in m

st. My heart is thunderi

sn't shift. She can't.

won't

tell him

t say wh

en he

eyes. He lunges at her, claws

s faster. He sinks his teeth into he

IN

rips from

th

eel

n becom

. White-hot.

it, something d

a

Fu

swallows

burst from my hiding place, breath

is pinning

n't

myself

that feel like they're

e with a crac

ground, bleed

eath ragged, blood on m

't loo

r

doesn't ch