Chapter 20 SHARED PAIN
CHAPTER 020: SHARED PAIN
Kieran didn’t hesitate.
One second he's beside me and the next he's a massive golden wolf charging straight at Morgana.
She lifts her hand and shadows burst outward like a wall. They slam into him mid-leap and he flies backward, crashing into a tree so hard the trunk cracks.
"Kieran!" I scream.
But Morgana's already moving toward me. Her eyes are still black. Empty. The Hollow King is still in there somewhere pulling her strings.
Her shadows wrap around my throat.
I claw at them but they're solid as iron. My lungs scream for air. Black spots dance across my vision.
"If I can't be free," Morgana hisses, her voice layered with his, "then neither can you."
She squeezes harder.
My knees buckle. I try to reach for my magic but I can't think, can't breathe, can't do anything except feel the world starting to fade.
Then Morgana gasps.
Her hands fly to her own throat. Her eyes go wide and confused.
The pressure around my neck vanishes.
I collapse onto my hands and knees, coughing so hard my ribs ache. Morgana stumbles backward doing the same thing. She's choking even though nothing's touching her.
The bond between us flares bright enough to light up the whole clearing.
It burns hot in my chest and I feel it. Everything she's feeling. The panic. The confusion. The pain radiating through her throat exactly where her shadows were crushing mine.
We're sharing it.
Whatever she does to me she feels too.
Morgana's hands drop from her neck. She stares at me with something close to horror.
"What is this?" she whispers.
I push myself up, still gasping for air. My throat feels like I swallowed glass.
"The bond," I rasp. "It's not just connecting us. It's making us feel the same things."
"That's not possible."
"You just choked yourself trying to kill me. I'd say it's very possible."
Her face goes pale. The black drains from her eyes and she looks like Morgana again. Scared. Lost. Human.
She backs up a step. "No. This can't be happening."
But it is.
Through the bond I feel everything. Her fear is so thick I can taste it. And underneath that there's years of something else. Loneliness. Desperation. The kind that eats you from the inside out.
And him.
The Hollow King's voice in her head for months, maybe longer. Promising her power. Telling her she mattered. Making her believe she'd finally be enough if she just did what he said.
All lies.
Tears sting my eyes and I don't know if they're mine or hers.
"He lied to you," I say quietly.
Morgana flinches like I slapped her.
Her shadows flicker and fade. She drops to her knees and her whole body shakes.
"He said I'd be powerful," she chokes out. "He said I'd matter. That people would finally see me."
Behind me Kieran shifts back to human form. Blood drips from a cut above his eyebrow and his shoulder looks wrong, bent at an angle it shouldn't be.
But he's standing.
He moves in front of me, putting himself between Morgana and me like he's still expecting her to attack.
I step around him.
"Thalira don't," he growls.
"It's okay."
"She just tried to kill you."
"I know."
I kneel in front of Morgana. She doesn't look up. Just keeps crying with her hands pressed over her face.
"Why are you being kind to me?" she whispers. "I tried to kill you. Twice."
"Because I understand."
She finally looks at me. Her eyes are red and swollen and so full of pain it makes my chest ache.
"How could you possibly understand?"
"Because I've spent my whole life feeling like I don't matter either."
Her breath hitches.
"Because I know what it's like when someone tells you you're special and then uses that to control you." I reach out slowly and touch her hand. "And because we're stuck together now whether we like it or not."
The bond pulses between us. Softer this time. Less like a chain and more like a thread.
For a moment we're not enemies.
We're just two girls who got caught in a game neither of us agreed to play.
Kieran makes a frustrated sound behind me. "Thalira this is insane."
"Probably."
"She's dangerous."
"So am I."
Morgana lets out a wet laugh. "You're both insane."
"Maybe," I say. "But you're stuck with us now."
She stares at me for a long moment. Then she wipes her face with the back of her hand and takes a shaky breath.
"I didn't want this," she says.
"I know."
"I thought if I won the duel he'd leave me alone. That I'd finally be free of him."
"How long has he been in your head?"
She looks away. "Since last year. He came to me in a dream first. Said he'd been watching me. That I had potential no one else could see."
My stomach turns. "And you believed him."
"Wouldn't you?" Her voice cracks. "Everyone here looks at me like I'm nothing. Like I'm just some girl with shadow magic who'll never amount to anything. And then he shows up and tells me I'm special. That I could be powerful if I just listened to him."
I squeeze her hand. "He's using you Morgana."
"I know that now," she snaps. Then softer, "I know."
Kieran crouches beside us. His shoulder is already healing, the bone shifting back into place with a sound that makes me wince.
"Can you fight him?" he asks Morgana. "When he tries to take control again?"
"I don't know." She looks at her hands. "It's like he's always there now. In the back of my mind. Waiting."
"Then we cut him out," I say.
Both of them stare at me.
"How?" Morgana asks.
"I pulled him out once. I can do it again."
"You almost killed us both doing that," she says.
"But I didn't."
Kieran shakes his head. "This is a terrible idea."
"You got a better one?"
He opens his mouth. Closes it. "No."
"Then we try this."
Morgana's hand tightens around mine. "What if it doesn't work?"
"Then we figure something else out."
"And if he's too strong?"
"Then we fight him together."
She stares at me like she's trying to figure out if I'm lying. But through the bond she can feel that I'm not. I mean every word.
Finally she nods. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"I'll try."
Kieran stands and pulls me up with him. "We need to get back to the academy. If the Hollow King is really here the others need to know."
"He's not fully here," Morgana says. "Not yet. He's still between realms. That's why he needed me. To anchor him."
"And now?" I ask.
"Now he's got the bond. He can use it to pull himself through." She looks at me with hollow eyes. "We don't have much time."
The forest around us starts to shift.
The trees lean in closer. The shadows grow thicker. And underneath it all I feel him. The Hollow King's presence pressing against the bond like he's testing it.
Morgana gasps and clutches her chest. "He's coming back."
"Fight it," I say.
"I'm trying."
Her eyes start to darken at the edges.
Kieran grabs my arm. "We need to go. Now."
But I can't move.
Because through the bond I feel the exact moment the Hollow King finds a way in.
Morgana's back goes rigid. Her head snaps up and her eyes are empty again.
She smiles with someone else's smile.
"Found you," the Hollow King says through her mouth.
Then Morgana's hand shoots out and wraps around my wrist.
Pain explodes through me.
Not physical pain. Something deeper. Like he's reaching through the bond and trying to rip something out of my chest.
I scream.
Kieran roars and tries to pull me away but Morgana's grip is iron.
"You can't hide from me daughter," the Hollow King says. "Not anymore."
My vision blurs. I feel him digging through my memories, my thoughts, everything that makes me me.
Then just as suddenly as it started it stops.
Morgana releases me and stumbles backward. The black drains from her eyes and she looks terrified.
"What did you do?" I gasp.
"It wasn't me." She's shaking. "He's marking you."
"Marking me for what?"
She doesn't answer.
Because we both feel it at the same time.
Something shifts inside the bond. A new weight. A new presence.
The Hollow King isn't just watching anymore.
He's anchored himself to both of us and he's not letting go.