The Hollow Ball

Chapter 4

Nestled on the coast of the Astorian Sea, wrapped within the jagged mountain peaks of the Sivalik Mountains, Hunting Hollow was one of the first and oldest settlements in the kingdom of Mehrene. It stood through years of war and famine, destruction and devastation, through monarchy changes and land disputes, and creatures unlike anything the world had seen before.

Hunting Hollow was not completely isolated. There were other settlements and cities on the coast, and Hannover Forest was a part of the larger, wilder land that spanned the continent. The difference lay in the magic that imbued its soil, the way the Astorian Sea differed from its sisters in color and depth. Unlike other parts of the range, magic kept Hannover Forest untouched by humans for millennia.

Since then, Hunting Hollow has been its only settlement.

Many outsiders attributed the town's fortune to the luck of its terrain: treacherous was the forest and the mountainside, deterring too many wandering eyes, while the curve of the rocks shielded it from storms that turned surrounding towns into scraps of wood and rock. The harbors, lakes, and streams were abundant with fish. There were plenty of game. Crops grew plentiful and bright.

Those who theorized Hunting Hollow's prosperity were partially correct in their hypotheses; it wasn't simple magic or good fortune that allowed Hunting Hollow to prosper.

It was a bargain.

Fifty souls. One hundred years of full coffers, full bellies, no real disease, and protection from the turbulence of the outside world.

Until now.

Staring out my bedroom window, Dorothea's message haunted my thoughts. Today, the sun shone bright and cheery against the cloudless blue sky, as though the tempests were simply a figment of our collective imaginations, blue-black waves crashing merrily onto the beach not too far from Castellano Manor.

It had been three days since that fateful morning. Three days since Mr. Robert's body slid through the spikes on the gate and crashed into our feet, sending a frenzy rippling throughout Hunting Hollow like an early winter breeze.

Three days since I stood face-to-face with a soul-eater and lived.

How did I manage to go looking for help and come back with more trouble?

"Hayley?" Mother called from the other side of the door. "Are you awake?"

Perched on the window seat, I tugged my robe tight around my body. "Yes," I said. I didn't sleep at all.

Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw sweet Dorothea's blood-stained eyes and Mr. Robert's entrails billowing in the wind. And when my body gave out, my dreams were—well, I couldn't remember my dreams completely. All I recalled were strange feelings in the pit of my stomach, and the unrelenting itch on the back of my neck that told me to look again.

"Hayley," Mother repeated. I looked up at Risa Castellano hovering in the doorway anxiously. "Miss Casas says you're refusing to eat."

My eyes slid to the tiny silver tray beside me. "I'm not refusing to eat. Look, I've picked at my breakfast," I corrected. "Though... haunted thoughts and a troubled heart won't allow much of it to stay down."

"Your troubled heart should know that no amount of fasting will change what happened," she said a bit too sharply. I flinched at the shrill volume of her voice.

Crossing the ornately decorated room, my mother wrapped her arms tight around me. It was the same desperate hug she gave when she saw me outside the Guard, my body shivering from a mixture of cold and shock. Both times, the strong, rhythmic beat of her heart grounded me before I unraveled, and I inhaled her soft jasmine scent.