Page 113 of Moonmarked

He said, “Nothing Rune can’t handle. Just some trouble with the Hollow.”

I looked at him, trying to see if he meant what he said, if he believedthatas much as he believed that he was going to enjoy the coming slaughter, and it seemed like he did. There was no hint of worry on him that I noticed, and that did calm me down, though not much.

So, I focused ahead, tried to see Rune through that opening as my instincts rioted inside me.

People were still cheering when the ground groaned like a real animal, worse than the giant had. It took everyone by surprise, not just me. My muscles locked down, and my eyes were on the muddy ground of the arena, expecting it to split open any second, when…

“What is he doing?!”

Lyall said that.

Lyall pointed toward the right, at the opening where the commentator was, where I’d last seen Rune.

Where Rune was nowpushingsomething I couldn’t even see, possibly some kind of magic, and his hands were completely covered in shadows as he stood atop the stone railing near a pillar.

For a second, it seemed to me the entire place held their breath.

In the next, a deafening boom cracked through the airlike thunder splitting the sky, and the entire arena began to shift.

My eyes were on Rune. His darkness spread from his hands, and momentarily covered his entire body. It disappeared quickly, though, so we all saw it when he slipped off the top of the smooth stone, not on the other side, into that opening under the seats, no—but toward the arena.

He slipped and rolled on the smooth stone once, and then he was falling right into the arena where the giant and the other players were.

If there was any possibility at all for me to grow wings and fly to him in that moment, I would have. Instead, heat crawled up my insides together with the cold like ice shards that were suddenly piercing my organs, my gut, with so much strength I almost doubled over.

But I refused to move at all, even blink until I saw Rune get himself together as he was still falling, then somehow landed on his feet right inside the massive stone to the giant’s side.

My God, they were there, twenty feet apart, and the crowd was cheering and the ground was groaning, shaking with twice as much strength as I watched but could do nothing at all to stop this madness.

Massive roots—actual rootsbroke through the ground around the edge of the Hollow, pushing Rune toward the middle. They slithered upward like snakes, curling in thick, interwoven arcs, and stretched all the way to the top of the smooth stone, wrapping themselves around the pillars that held the seats over the opening from where Rune had fallen. Light dimmed as shadows bled across the sky, drawn in by whatever magic this place brimmed with.

“No,” I thought I said, and my hand was somehowaround Lyall’s arm, and with the other I pointed at Rune. “Lyall, stop the game. Get him out of there—now.”

Even my voice had transformed, but right now I didn’t care about how I sounded. I cared about getting Rune out of there. Right now, he was looking up at those roots that were still climbing the stone, trying to get closer, but the ground kept rising and pushing him back.

“What the hell, bastard—what the hell!” Lyall was saying through gritted teeth, his eyes on Rune, too.

“Just get him out! Get him?—”

“Ican’t!”

My knees shook. Rune turned toward us, and I could have sworn he was looking right at me, even though he was too far away for me to see his face clearly.

“What do you mean,you can’t?!”

“The Hollow has locked itself in—nobody gets in or out now.Nobody.”

He sounded panicked. He soundedterrified,and for a man like him to be afraid? That’s when I knew things werereallyserious right now.

And it was only just getting started.

The floor of the Hollow trembled next. It cracked open like someone had just slammed invisible hammers all over it, everywhere at once.

“Lyall,” I breathed because Rune was down there with a fucking giant.

Rune was inside that arena that was still splitting open while the giant cheered, and the crowd cheered, and everyone fucking cheered like this was a good thing.

“I can’t…I can’t do anything to stop it, Nilah. I can’t—it’s the Hollow,” Lyall said.

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