The hatch slammed shut.
The roots recoiled, pulling back into the cracked earth like a living creature in pain.
Aarohi lay sprawled across the cold stone floor, gasping, her arms scratched and bleeding.
Veer yanked her to her feet. "Are you okay? Aarohi—look at me."
She stared at him, wide-eyed.
"Did you hear what he said?"
Veer nodded slowly.
Desai answered for them both.
"A god. Buried beneath Hollowridge."
They scrambled back toward the blocked tunnel where they'd descended, desperately trying to clear rubble.
Ash fell like snow from the ceiling.
The floor pulsed beneath their feet.
"Dev wasn't just a victim," Aarohi whispered. "He wasn't just a cursed spirit…"
"He was a gatekeeper," Desai said grimly. "He found something. Something forbidden. And Rajnath killed him to keep it hidden."
Veer looked behind them.
"What if we just… leave? Block it in forever?"
Desai turned. "You felt it too, didn't you?"
They all had.
Something was waking.
And it wasn't Dev.
Suddenly, the door behind them creaked open again—just a crack.
A single, pale, human-looking hand slipped out from the darkness and placed a stone tablet on the ground.
Then vanished.
The hatch slammed shut.
They stared at the tablet.
It was old. Older than anything Desai had seen in his life. Covered in Bhujimātra script, an ancient language spoken by Himalayan hermits centuries ago.
Desai translated slowly:
"The god of hunger sleeps beneath blood and fire.
Touch not his bones. Speak not his name.
For the one who wakes him… becomes him."
Aarohi shivered.
Veer asked, "So Dev… wants to be a god?"
"No," Desai said. "He wants revenge. Becoming a god is just the weapon."
With a final burst of strength, they pushed aside a beam and found a narrow crawlspace.
It led up—back into the ruins of the house.
As they crawled, the earth trembled.
Not like an earthquake.
No.
It breathed.
The house was alive again.
Back in the ruins, night had fallen.
Stars had vanished. The moon hung red and low, like a bloodshot eye.
The ground cracked beneath their feet as they ran.
And behind them, the door below split wider.
Flames rose through the earth like veins.
From the ashes of the collapsed foyer, something rose.
Dev.
But different now.
No longer merely a spirit.
His body was half-burned, half-stone.
His chest glowed like a furnace.
His eyes were pits of void—not fire anymore, but blackness that sucked in the light around him.
"You thought you killed me," Dev said, voice layered in a thousand voices.
"You thought the house was cursed by a Bhattacharya crime."
He stepped forward. The ground smoked beneath his feet.
"But this house… was never yours."
He raised a hand, and the debris floated into the air.
"This house was built on bones. And now, those bones are awake."
He turned to Aarohi, his gaze softening.
"You could have ruled beside me. Blood of the line. Gatekeeper reborn."
Aarohi stepped forward, trembling but defiant.
"I don't want power. I want peace."
Dev's voice twisted. "Then you should have never come home."
Suddenly, a screech tore through the night sky.
Not Dev's voice.
Something beneath him.
The god.
Even Dev flinched.
Desai shouted, "It's using him! He thinks he's in control, but it's feeding on him—merging!"
Veer grabbed Aarohi's hand. "We need to end this now."
Desai nodded. "There's one last way. One final seal. It requires blood. From the line that opened it."
Aarohi stared. "Mine."
From his bag, Desai drew an obsidian dagger and a scroll marked with gold and blood.
"The Ritual of Closing," he whispered. "You have to chant the last line… as you bleed onto the ash."
Veer shouted over the roar of rising wind, "But what happens to her?"
Desai looked down. "She seals the gate."
Aarohi took the dagger.
Without hesitation.
"Tell my mother," she said softly, "I found the truth."
She stepped into the center of the ruins—
—the heart of Hollowridge.
Dev screamed, "NO!"
He hurled a blast of dark fire—
—but Veer tackled him, burning his own skin in the process.
Aarohi raised the dagger.
Her voice was calm.
She spoke the chant.
And cut her palm.
Her blood hit the ash.
The ground screamed.
The wind exploded outward.
Dev howled.
And the earth cracked open beneath him, swallowing him into flame.
Aarohi's eyes turned silver.
The god reached up through her, but she held the seal strong.
With a final burst of white light, the ruins imploded.
Stone. Brick. Wood. Flame.
Gone.
Only silence remained.
Veer awoke an hour later, lying in mud and rubble.
Desai beside him, weeping.
And Aarohi…
…was gone.
No body.
No trace.
Just the dagger.
And ash.