Selena's POV
The Sacred Lands didn't welcome them — they swallowed them.
Mist curled around the group's feet as they stepped beyond the Witch's gate. The path dissolved behind them, the way back vanishing like breath on glass. Ahead, miles of barren terrain stretched outward, painted in muted grays and ghostly silvers.
These were the Hollow Fields — where the air was too still and the ground too soft, as if soaked in old blood.
Selena led the group, her steps light but certain. The whispers that clung to the trees in the Witchwood were gone… replaced by a silence that pulsed like a second heartbeat.
"This place isn't right," Tovian murmured. He knelt, brushing his hand against the soil. "It's not dead, but it's not alive either."
Nyra's fingers hovered near her blade. "It feels like we're walking through memory."
"Not memory," Alaïra said softly. "Grief."
Selena didn't speak. Her mark had been aching steadily since they entered — pulsing in time with her own blood. There was something here… something watching.
They walked for hours through ghostlight and windless air.
Then the illusions began.
It started with a flicker at the edge of Zack's vision — a shadow that looked like his sister, long-dead. For Nyra, it was her old commander, standing in a field of ash. Alaïra saw her twin, whom she'd buried years ago.
But Selena… saw herself.
A little girl, barefoot, standing in the center of the field. Her eyes were glowing — molten gold with threads of scarlet. She looked directly at Selena, tilting her head.
Then she whispered:
"He's waiting, you know."
Selena blinked, and the girl was gone.
The others had stopped. Zack was breathing hard. "These visions—what are they?"
"Tests," Alaïra said. "The Hollow Fields strip you down. Show you who you were before you lied to yourself."
Zack looked at Selena. "Did you see something?"
She hesitated. "Just… a memory."
But it wasn't.
It was a warning.
---
They made camp as the fog thickened. The Hollow Fields had no moon — only a faint luminescence that clung to the grass like dew.
Selena stood at the edge of their firelight, staring into the nothing.
Zack approached her, more careful now. "Still mad at me?"
"No," she said quietly. "Just… tired of pretending I'm not terrified."
He offered her a crooked smile. "Finally. Honesty."
She looked at him. "I saw myself today. A version I don't recognize."
"Was she stronger?" Zack asked.
Selena thought about it. "No. Just… closer to something I don't understand."
Zack placed his hand near hers, not touching. "Then we'll find out together."
Before Selena could reply, the wind shifted — cold and sharp like claws down her spine.
Tovian shouted from the other side of the camp, "Movement!"
They all stood. Weapons drawn.
Out in the mist, something growled. Low. Deep. Inhuman.
Zack's tattoo flared.
The fire sputtered. The mist parted for a moment — just long enough for Selena to see glowing silver eyes in the distance.
Not vampire eyes.
Something else.
The sound that followed was not a growl.
It was a howl.
---