Chapter 65 Into Black Hollow

• he morning broke gray and heavy, the kind of sky that seemed to press down on the earth rather than rise above it. Black Hollow lived up to its name. The ravine was carved into the land like a wound, jagged cliffs descending into a gash of darkness that swallowed light whole.
• Kelvin reined his horse at the ridgeline, scanning the valley below. The wind carried no birdsong, no rustle of small creatures. It was as if life itself refused to tread near the cursed scar.
• Behind him rode Lucia, Mirabelle, Abby, Ronald, Malcolm, Varian, and a handpicked unit of warriors. The council had agreed this first retrieval could not be left to scouts alone. Too much depended on what they learned here—both about the shards and about Devin’s reach.