bChapter /bb204 /b

    Eryx POV

    The closer we get to stopping the Hollowed Queen, the more of myself I lose. That’s the price. Every step forward costs me pieces I can’t taks back. For hours at a time I vanish into nothing, slipping under her control, and when Ie back there are gaps in my memory that feel like ck pits in my skull. It’s like falling asleep inside my own body and waking up to find someone else has been living in my skin.

    That’s why the guards are never far now. I see their eyes even when I close mine, waiting for the flicker of shadow that means she’s trying to w her way into the surface. The moment it shows, they pin me down. My arms are cuffed, my magic bound with runes, and I’m left powerless while the Hollowed Queen rages inside of me, I’ve told them to do it. I’d rather be stripped of everything I am than risk being used to hurt the people I love.

    But it’s getting harder. Each time she pulls at me it’s stronger than before, and each time it takes longer toe back. The thought of what might happen

    if she wins is enough to twist my stomach into knots.

    I sit at the table, my hand tight around the phone, listening to the endless ring. My chest is tight, every second that passes scraping at my nerves. I need

    to hear her voice. I need to know.

    “Eryx.” My mother’s voice cuts through the silence. She lowers herself into the chair opposite me, her eyes searching my face.

    “Not now,” I snap, sharper than I mean to. I keep my gaze locked on the phone, waiting, willing someone to answer. Atst the line clicks, and a voice!

    didn’t want answers.

    “This is Damon.”

    Finally. Relief and anger hit me at once. “About time. I’ve been calling for an hour to get an update.”

    His tone is dry, unimpressed. “We’re busy. What’s the issue, Eryx?”

    “What’s the issue?” I nearly snarl into the receiver. “How has she been?”

    There’s a pause, then a heavy sigh. “You’re calling more than we agreed.”

    “I don’t care. I need to hear it.” I don’t care what we agreed, what boundaries were set. I don’t care if I promised not to hound him with calls unless something was urgent. Every second away from her feels like it might break me.

    “She’s the same,” Damon says, too casually. “Talks very little. Barely leaves her room. She’s closed off. We’ve all tried but she wants to be left alone.”

    The words slide too easily from him, practiced, like he’s repeating a story he’s told himself more than once. My teeth grit. “Is that a lie?”

    “Why would I lie?” His ivoice /isharpens, defensive now. “Ask my parents if you must. She doesn’t speak much. She’s still working out how to deal with the rejection.”

    The word rejection burns, cuts deeper than I want to admit, but I push through it. His answer should settle me, should ease the fire crawling through my chest, but it doesn’t. Something feels off. I know it. “Is she okay?”

    “How could she be when you rejected her after iming her?” His words are venom.

    “I mean besides that,” I bite back. “Is she ill? Has she been sick? Anything at allb?/bb” /b

    “Eryx,” he says with irritation, “she’s fine. She hasn’t mentioned being unwell. I have to bgo/b.”

    The line goes dead, and I’m left with the echo of his voice in my ear. My hand clenches until my knuckles ache, the phone nearly snapping in my grip.

    “Something is off.” The words leave me raw, almost broken.

    “Eryx,” my mother says gently, her hand hovering near mine. “You trying to get updates on her every hour isn’t healthy. Let bit /bgo. Damon and his parents know you’lle back for her. They won’t let her leave and they won’t let her be harmed.”

    b1/2 /b

    I shake my head, refusing to ept it. “It’s not that?

    “Then exin it to me,” she presses.

    I shut my eyes. I search for the right words but they tangle in my throat. “It’s like…” I stop, drawing a shaky breath. “It’s like something has changed in her. Like something else is there now. The bond is gone, the rejection worked, but i still feel her somehow. There’s a pull, faint but constant, like a thread buried deep in my chest.”

    And I hate it. Because it makes me want to go to her, and with the Hollowed Queen twisting through my veins, I can’t. I can’t risk dragging that shadow to

    her.

    “She’s pregnant.”

    The voice isn’t my mother’s. It’s my father’s. His tone is steady, certain, and it slices through me like a de.

    My eyes snap open. I turn to face him, my pulse thundering. “What?”

    He doesn’t flinch. “I said she’s pregnant. That feeling you can’t exin, I’ve felt it before. I felt it when your mother carried you. Bond or no bond with April, you still have one with your child. That’s what’s pulling you to her.”

    The air leaves my lungs in a rush. Pregnant. The word spins in my head, impossible and undeniable all at once.

    “But Damon said…”

    “Maybe he doesn’t know,i” /imy father interrupts, his eyes hard. “If she’s locked herself away, avoiding people, he may not have seen the signs. No one will. She might not even know herself, especially if she’s not ready to face it.”

    I stagger back, pressing a hand to my chest. My mind floods with every call, every unanswered question, every hollow word from Damon’s mouth. Ac underneath it all is the truth I can’t run from.

    Pregnant.

    I rejected her. I tore out her soul, left her bleeding and broken, while she carried

    my

    child.

    My knees nearly buckle under the weight of it. The Hollowed Queen may be wing through my veins, but nothing she’s ever done to me feels as brutal as this does.

    AD

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