Page 63 of Forgotten Monsters
“Yes. He fashioned the very first hollow and sent it after the Fae King, a power-seeking missile of sorts, meant to destroy the most powerful being in Faerie. But after the king died, it mutated into a plague of its own. The creature replicated, each devoured soul fragmenting into two more. We didn’t understand what was happening until it was too late.”
She walks to the broken mirror. “Earth’s main channel had to be sealed off to keep the hollows from annihilating all the magic left in our world. The Earthly King, Ezekiel, hunted them one by one, trying to fix his mistake. After a while, he got so weak that he could no longer destroy them. Instead, he dragged them back here and suspended them in stasis. Unicorns are naturally immune to hollows, so we helped. The last thing he did was to entomb himself with them, hoping to find a way to destroy them for good, but alas, he never completed the task.”
She jerks a glance back to the rusted door, and her bottom lip trembles. “The seal held for a millennium. After the Dryad war, the power buried beneath the mountain became coveted. We told them not to dig, that the ghosts buried beneath the earth should be left to rest, but people flock to power, no matter the consequences. They built a school here so that the three realms could share its magic equally, but Malifar, the Underworld King, attacked.”
“Beth said many unicorns died protecting Dark Falls…” I say.
“Yes, their deaths fractured the seal, and a few hollows escaped. When your government realized the creatures couldn’t be killed, merely contained, they used the underworld portal to send them to Malifar, hoping it would destabilize his reign. All but a few Underworld portals were sealed off after that, leaving the demons to deal with a plague of apocalyptic proportions.”
I just used that strategy myself, but I know the Underworld is already swarming with hollows. To think, they just sent them to wreak havoc on demons…
“They just let the hollows kill everyone?”
“Yes.”
“The hollows had to be hunted and controlled, but the unicorns were overruled, so we left. Elisheba stayed, hell-bent on guarding these sacred grounds. Somehow, her murder weakened what was left of the seal, and when you took her horn to Faerie—the last remnant of her presence here—it shattered.” With a wistful smile, Amalthea shakes her head. “We tried to warn your government, but our speeches sounded like doomsday prophecies to your leaders.”
“I don’t care about politics. I want to save my friends. There must be a way to destroy the hollows for good. If they were created by a spell, they can be unmade.”
“If you’re looking for a cure…you’re looking at it.” She raises her delicate hand to the statue. Light and power ripple through the air as she nears the dusty, understated crown that falls directly over the dead king’s brow. “The Aegis…a crown sewn from the bones of the last phoenix, the creature that created all magic-users in this realm.”
Sweat sticks to my neck. “I thought the Aegis was a legend.”
The proverbial Holy Grail. An object yielding absolute power…
“Legends live and breathe before they become whispers. I’m living proof of that. Are you familiar with the mythos of the phoenix?”
The remnants of the dead king beckon, and I observe the brittle lines in the stone. “Beth wrote about it…Before death, the phoenix sang. Mortals flocked to him, and to thank them, he parted with pieces of himself. It’s a beautiful story, a fairytale of sorts.”
Amalthea clears her throat. “Before my mother died, she told me a story, too. She said that greed would draw all sorts of creatures to our ancestral lands. She predicted that we would have to abandon them, that monsters would threaten the very fabric of magic in the universe. She was right about it all.”
Tingles run up my spine.
Her luminous gaze collides with mine. “She also promised me that, one day, a new phoenix would rise from the ashes of the last. It would come in the shape of a mortal that could cheat death. Magic from the three realms would live inside her, her destiny forged in choices, not just in blood.”
“Err—” My heart flutters.
“I didn’t think I would live long enough to see it, until Rose and Robert told me about you. A half-demon mortal that was made immortal by Elisheba’s gifts. A witch married to a Fae prince…”
“You’re saying I’m the linchpin of some prophecy? A…phoenix?”
“You made it here unarmed. You were protected from the hollows by Elisheba’s magic and blood from the three realms flows in your veins.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“The hollows depend on the Earthly king’s magic. To destroy them, one must destroy the Aegis.”
My heart beats in my throat. “If I destroy it, will my friends be cured?”
She nods, and my knees buckle. It’s too good to be true.
“Why didn’t the Earthly king get rid of them? If it was so easy, why didn’t he do that instead of herding them here?” I ask.
“Because it will also destroy all earthly magic. Ezekiel couldn’t bring himself to do it.”
All magic…
“I destroy the Aegis…”
