The Hollow King's attention fell upon Kit like a physical weight, pressing against her mind with the force of centuries of accumulated hunger. Through the empty sockets where eyes should have been, she felt something vast and alien studying her, measuring her, finding her wanting.

  'Ah,' the King whispered, its voice carrying easily across the valley despite being no louder than falling leaves. 'The new Guardian. How... inadequate. The old one at least had the courtesy to bind himself properly before facing me. You, child, are barely begun.'

  Kit's hands tightened on the rifle, though she suspected iron bullets would be about as effective against this creature as harsh language. Around her, she could feel her companions' terror—even ancient beings like Sylvana and the root-man trembled before the King's presence.

  'The binding failed,' she said, surprised by how steady her voice sounded. 'But that doesn't mean you've won.'

  The King's laugh was like the sound of a forest fire consuming everything in its path. 'Won? Oh, sweet child, this was never about winning. This was about inevitability. I am what comes after. I am the answer to every question your kind refuses to ask. What happens when the resources run out? What happens when the forests are gone, when the rivers run poison, when the very earth grows sick of supporting your endless appetite? I am the solution your world has been building toward with every greedy breath.'

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  As it spoke, the wrongness around the King began to spread. The twisted trees grew more twisted, their bark turning black and beginning to weep a substance that looked disturbingly like blood. The grass beneath its feet withered to ash, and that ash began to blow outward on a wind that touched nothing else.

  'It's not just consuming,' Kit realized with dawning horror. 'It's converting. Turning everything into more of itself.'

  'Exactly!' The King's joy was terrible to behold. 'I offer unity, child. An end to the endless, exhausting struggle between order and chaos, growth and decay, life and death. Everything will be hollow, and in that hollowness, perfect peace.'

  The crow on Kit's shoulder dug its talons deeper into her jacket. 'Guardian,' it whispered urgently, 'we need to retreat. Rally the others, find another way—'

  'There is no other way,' Kit said quietly, her gaze never leaving the King. 'And there's nowhere to retreat to. Look.'

  She gestured toward the edges of the valley. The contamination was spreading faster now, racing through the forest like a plague. Already she could see it reaching the outer boundaries, touching the stones that marked the border between the deep woods and the human world.