Page 111 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“They weren’t guarding the chamber,” he says. “They were watching the forest. The ruins. Waiting to seewhowould open it. And when it was her—” he nods toward Kendall, “they changed course.”

“Course?”

“They stopped searching. Said they didn’t need to ‘excavate a vessel.’ Saidthe vessel had chosen its host.”

The room drops into silence.

Elias, perched against the back wall, mutters, “Shit.”

“They weren’t trying to wake it,” Edmund continues. “They were trying tobindit. Anchor it in someone.”

“And they think it’s Kendall?” Elias asks, voice low.

Edmund shakes his head. “No. They don’t think sheisthe Hollowed. They think she’s the key tocontrolthe Hollowed’s next host.”

My chest tightens. My mind races.

Kendall stares at her father. “Then who is it?”

Edmund doesn’t answer.

But I think I know. Because there’s only one other bloodline that could balance Kendall’s. Only one with access, timing,power. And she’s been unstable for weeks.

Adora.

We make the call within the hour.

Split into three groups.

Elias takes a cluster of shifters to rally the west. Witches and dragons we’ve brokered peace with before. Old allies. Old debts.

Kendall and Edmund reach out to the remaining scattered werewolf lines and what he knows is left of the Bolvi line, cloaked deep in hiding. Only a few remain. But they’ll come for her.

And me? I go home to the Hollow. To my father.

Mathis meets me outside the old war den like he knew I was coming.

“You look like hell,” he says.

“Feels like it.”

I don’t waste time.

“We found the chamber. It’s been opened. The Hollowed’s gone.”

His face barely twitches. “So it’s begun.”

“You knew.”

“I suspected.”

I close the distance. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“Because you weren’t ready. You let your compassion compromise your judgment.”

“Funny,” I snap. “It’s my compassion that’s holding all of this together.”

He says nothing.

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