For several seconds after Titus finished speaking, the tent was completely silent.Patrick stared at the medallion in his hand.It no longer glowed.The strange light that had appeared across its surface had faded, leaving behind the same dull metal that had followed them out of the other dimension.But the feeling it had created remained.Something had changed.Patrick could feel it.Not inside the medallion itself, but inside the connection that had formed between the object and the five of them.The silver mark on the back of his hand was warm.Lucy noticed it too.She looked down at her own hand.Her expression changed."The mark."Patrick looked at her.It was faintly glowing.Heather and Borius checked theirs.Seth held up his hand and stared at it with growing alarm."Mine too."Titus watched all five of them."What happened to you

“Patrick. Welcome back.”And for one terrible second Patrick forgot how to breathe.It was Kael.Not similar to Kael, not merely a voice with the same tone, but close enough that every instinct in Patrick's body reacted as though the creature he had killed was standing on the other side of the door.His hand tightened around the hilt of the Blazing Sword.Behind him, Lucy had gone completely still.Heather raised her bow.Borius stepped forward, spear already in his hands, while Seth moved instinctively closer to the wall, his eyes fixed on the door with the particular expression he wore whenever the world had presented him with something he deeply wished it hadn't.Titus did not move.Patrick glanced at him.The general's face had lost its colour.“You said he was dead,” Patrick said quietly.“He is.”Titus's answer came immediately.Patrick stared at him.“Then who is that?”“I don't know.”The voice beyond the door laughed.It was a short, dry laugh.Kael's laugh.Patrick's stomach

The blood trail disappeared into the darkness less than twenty metres ahead of them.Patrick slowed as he approached it, keeping the Blazing Sword lowered but ready, while the others followed close behind. The fortress had become unnaturally quiet again, almost as though whatever had awakened beneath them had settled back into silence, leaving only the faint dripping of blood somewhere beyond the next turn.Patrick didn't like it.The silence reminded him of the moments before an ambush.He raised one hand.Everyone stopped.“Listen.”They waited.Nothing.No footsteps.No breathing.No movement.Seth shifted uneasily.“I am listening.”Patrick glanced at him.“And?”“And I hear absolutely nothing, which I would normally consider good news, except that every time we've heard absolutely nothing in this place, something terrible has happened shortly afterward.”Borius sighed.“You are becoming predictable.”“I prefer predictable to dead.”Patrick almost smiled.Then he saw the blood aga

Lucy stood completely still.The light around her had become so bright that Patrick could barely see her face, but he could still see her eyes, and that was enough.She was afraid.Not of the chamber.Not of the voice.Of the choice in front of her.The light continued to circle her hand, waiting for something.Patrick didn't know what.The voice had given her an offer, and somehow that made the entire thing more dangerous than any monster they had fought in the dimension.There was no blade to block.No attack to dodge.No enemy to defeat.Only a decision.“You said sacrifice something else,” Lucy whispered.The chamber remained silent.“What?”The voice answered.“Something you value.”Patrick's stomach tightened.Lucy looked toward him.He could see the question in her expression.What would you do?Patrick didn't know.He wanted to tell her to reject the offer completely, but something stopped him.The medallion did not seem to be forcing her.It was testing her.And if this was t

For several seconds, nobody spoke after Seth's answer, and Patrick found himself staring at the centaur as though there were some part of the sentence he had failed to hear properly, because Seth had spent days avoiding questions about the Hollow King, had barely spoken the name when they were in the settlement, and now he was standing in front of a stone doorway hidden in the middle of a forest, looking at it with the unmistakable expression of someone who had just been confronted by something he had desperately hoped never to see again."You know who he is," Patrick said.Seth swallowed."I know what they told me.""That's not what I asked.""I know."Patrick waited, but Seth didn't continue, and the silence became heavier with every second.Behind them, somewhere beyond the trees, a branch snapped.Everyone turned.Heather lifted her bow instantly while Borius shifted his spear into both hands, planting his feet in a way that made Patrick aware of how much pain he must still have b