bChapter /bb200 /b

    Eryx POV

    I don’t understand it, I don’t understand how she could do this. I saw her as my grandmother, I looked up to her and admired her strength to live in the settlements where humans were. I admired how she fought for my mother and me.

    None of it mattered though.

    “You im you never intended to summon the Hollowed Queen.” My father looks directly at her.

    I look at my mother and she’s hurt, of course she is. She told Helena all our secrets, she confided in her only to be used. Her own blood, how could Helena not see that was wrong?

    Helena nods to my father. “I thought I was drawing the magic out of the earth, old magic lost to it, that could then help bring back the witches strength.”

    “So you know where the Hollowed Queen is,” I say.

    “No, I picked a spot that I felt energy in, that’s all, it doesn’t mean she is there.”

    Of course it does, there was energy there, she did the spell and the Hollowed Queen arrives, it’s not that hard to connect those dots.

    “You need to take me,” I say as I stand.

    “Eryx, that is not ideal. You are connected with her, getting that close could be costly,” my mother exins as she looks at me.

    “agree, the closer you are the more power she has, and that’s not right. We can’t let you go, if she takes control you could hurt your mother,” my father looks at me.

    “So cuff me, shield me, but for all we know we couldmunicate with her better out there. We could find out what she wants, what she expects.” I can’t just sit around and wait.

    “What spell did you do?” My mother looks to Helena.

    “It was a basic magic drawing spell, using the blood to pull the magic to surface so that the witches whoe close can get it.”

    No, my eyes widen and I stand up. “How many? Exactly how many witches havee here and gained magic?” I ask.

    “About fifteen,” she exins.

    “Get the cells ready,” I say and turn to my father.

    “Eryx, they did nothing wrong.”

    “Yet!” I snap. “Where is the magicing from? The witches are gaining magic, right, but from what source?”

    The room falls quiet as the reality of f what I’m suggesting settles and bes a reality.

    “The Hollowed Queen may be in me, in some senses, but for them, they each carry her magic, which gives her more power to grow and spread. It also makes them a liability as at any moment she could push into one of them and use their body as a vessel,” I snap.

    “Please tell me what he says is wrong?” My father turns to Helena then looks at my mother.

    Slowly, my mother shakes her head, “No, Eryx is right, that’s exactly what it is. I didn’t think of it, I was more focused on why and bhow/b. But if

    59b% /b

    the witches have been getting magic and it’sing from the Hollowed Queen, she’s building her army.”

    Yeah, a veryrge army all within this pack, Helena has just made us targets, she’s made this pack unsafe from the inside out and right inow /iI’m more d that I rejected April and sent her away. Because this, it’s not going to be a quick solve, it’s not going to be easy and someone. might actually die due to it.

    b“/bWhen did you stop?” I ask.

    “Excuse me?” Helena looks at me shocked.

    “I asked you a question.When did you stop, giving the witches magic?”

    She turns away from me. “I didn’t stop, the witches needed magic, they were dying out, I was trying to protect the witches, to bring them back, to bring bnce to the world.”

    Is she serious? “You kept going?” I ask, my head shaking. I thought what she had already done was shocking but this something else, this is wrong, crazy and selfish. She didn’t think of anyone but the witches, not even us, the pack the people who gave them a home when they had no where else.

    “You’re honestly telling me when you knew the Hollowed Queen had awoken you didn’t once think, I should stop? You didn’t once think about the consequences of your foolish behavour!”

    “Eryx,” my father warns, his hand ced on my shoulder.

    “No, we gave her a home, we offered the witches a home and she used us! She didn’t care about how this would impact us, only what it

    meant for her precious little witches.”

    “Eryx, you and your mother are strong, I knew together you could deal with the Hollowed Queen.”

    “You mean fix your mess!” I sneer. “What about April, when you knew what was happening, you didn’t even stop then, you didn’t think this is going too far?”

    How can no one realise how bad this is? How wrong she is for doing this to us, for not caring about us. I’m more hurt that it was her, out of

    everyone someone we trusted.

    “You were right not to trust her when she came here for mother,” I say to my father and I mean that, he was right. I saw the memories of my mothers and I know that my father was reluctant to trust her at first, he was right not to.

    “I apologise, if you wish for me to leave the pack, just say. But know that this was never a n to hurt anyone.”

    “You’re not leaving until you show us to the Hollowed Queen, the spot you did the spell. That way we can see how much form she already

    has, if she already has a form!” I snap.

    “Eryx is right, we need to go out to the Hollow and figure out what is happening, and the only one who can show us where it began is you. I’ll get the guards ready,” my father says.

    Helena nods not arguing with him, and my mother still stands quiet, watching Helena as if she can’t believe what she’s found out. I can’t me her, I’m just as shocked, because Helena was the one person I never expected to do something that put us in danger.

    But she has, and her selfishness kept her doing it, over and over, like it wasn’t important if we got hurt in the crossfire.

    15:44 Fri, 1