Chapter Ten: The Ash and the Echo
Lila stood at the edge of the circle, motionless.
The coat hung heavy with soot. Her hair clung to her cheeks like cobwebs. But her eyes—those once-familiar eyes—were wrong. Too black. Too deep. As if someone else was staring out from inside her.
Ellie didn't move. Couldn't.
The spiral on her wrist pulsed again—warmer now. Almost like it was... responding.
Lila spoke, her voice layered. As if two mouths were speaking at once.
> "You left me, Ellie."
Ellie swallowed hard. "I was six. I didn't understand—"
> "But you did. That's why you ran. You saw it. The Hollow Root."
The name shivered through the trees like wind. The pit behind the stones exhaled dust.
Ellie stepped forward. "Lila, what is it? What is the Hollow Root?"
Lila's head tilted.
> "It's not a what. It's a hunger. Old as the bones of this place. Before the settlers. Before the names. It waited. It whispered. And children… children always hear best."
A memory flashed in Ellie's mind—not hers, but Lila's:
A pair of hands pulling her into the circle. The fire, cold and blue. The last thing she heard: a voice saying, "One must stay. One must serve."
Ellie stumbled back. "It chose you."
Lila smiled. Her teeth were too white, too many.
> "No. You chose me. You stepped into the circle, but the spiral was already on your skin. You were marked. Me? I was just... the price."
A sharp cry echoed through the grove. Not human. Not animal.
The stones vibrated.
The pit cracked wider.
Lila stepped closer, raising a hand.
> "It's time, Ellie. The circle is waking. The town has slept too long. The Hollow Root wants a voice again. And it wants you."
The spiral on Ellie's wrist blazed now, red-hot. Pain lanced up her arm. The world tilted. She dropped to her knees.
But something inside her resisted.
A memory—not of the fire, not of fear—but of a voice. Her mother's, years ago.
> "The mark isn't just a curse. It's a gate. And gates open both ways."
Ellie looked up. "What if I don't let it in?"
Lila's smile faltered.
Ellie stood.
The spiral on her skin began to twist—unraveling, turning outward instead of inward. A new symbol formed. One from Whitaker's diary.
> A seal.
The trees groaned. Lila shrieked, voice cracking in two.
> "You can't hold it back. You're not strong enough—"
Ellie stepped into the center of the circle.
"I don't have to be strong," she said. "Just willing."
The seal on her wrist blazed with light.
The pit screamed.
Lila lunged—
And the world went white.
---
Silence.
When Ellie opened her eyes, she was alone.
The pit had sealed. The stones were cracked and blackened. The grove was still.
The mark on her wrist was gone.
But she knew it wasn't over.
Something had changed.
Something had been traded.