Jace didn't remember falling asleep.
One second, he was staring at the ceiling of the bunker, watching rust curl across the old support beams. The next, he was standing in an endless field of ash.
No sky.
No sun.
Just grey.
The ground crunched beneath his boots like bones. Wind blew sideways, carrying whispers he couldn't quite make out.
He wasn't alone.
She stood there.
Barefoot.
Knees dusted in soot. Hair long, tangled like a shadow's scream. A simple black dress fluttered around her legs like it was underwater, though no breeze touched her.
And her eyes—
They weren't human.
Not fully.
Not anymore.
"Why now?" he asked, surprised to hear his voice echo like it didn't belong to him. "Why are you speaking to me now?"
Her head tilted. Barely. Almost like she didn't understand the question.
Then, she smiled.
A small, broken thing.
Like someone remembering what it meant to have a face.
"Because you finally bled enough to see me."
Jace swallowed. "What are you?"
She stepped forward. The ash curled away from her bare feet like it was afraid.
"I'm what was left behind when the Hollow was sealed," she said softly. "The chain that snapped. The scream that didn't stop. I'm the part that remembers."
He frowned. "The Hollow… it's a weapon?"
Her eyes gleamed. "It's a promise. One made in fire and sorrow. One broken."
She lifted her hand, and the air shimmered. Suddenly, he saw flashes—images crashing into his skull.
A battlefield of stone towers and red skies.
A woman screaming as her skin peeled away like petals.
A blade carved from someone's soul.
And in the center of it all—him.
Not as he was now.
But older.
Colder.
Smiling as the world burned.
Jace stumbled back, gasping. "That's not me."
"No," she whispered. "But it will be. Unless…"
He caught his breath. "Unless what?"
Her eyes pierced his.
"You remember me."
Jace blinked. The ash whispered louder now, and the sky—if there even was a sky—shivered.
"I don't even know your name."
She stepped forward again, close now. Her fingers brushed his cheek.
"You gave it to me once," she said. "Before you broke the world."
His heart thundered in his chest.
"I don't remember."
"You will."
The dream began to splinter.
The ground cracked beneath them. The air howled like a thousand voices sobbing at once.
The girl leaned in, lips close to his ear.
"The Thorn Order fears you."
He gritted his teeth. "Good."
"But they don't fear you," she said. "They fear what's inside you. And if you keep running… if you keep bleeding… it will wake up."
The ash swirled like a storm around them.
Jace shouted through it.
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do?!"
She looked at him, sorrow softening her face.
"Find me. Set me free. And maybe this time… we die right."
And then—he woke up.
Reya sat beside him, arms crossed, her face pale but alert.
"You were thrashing," she said. "Muttering something about ash."
He sat up, breath ragged.
Lena looked over from the door. "Nightmare?"
"No," Jace said. "Message."
They stared at him.
He stood, eyes sharp again. Focused.
"She's real. Not just a voice in my head. She remembers the Hollow. And she wants out."
Reya tensed. "She? Wait—who?"
Jace's lips thinned.
"I don't know her name."
"Convenient," Lena muttered.
Jace ignored her. "But she knows mine. She knows what I'm turning into."
Reya looked uneasy. "And?"
"She says I've done this before."
The room went still.
Then Lena whispered, "Reincarnation?"
"Something like that."
Silence.
Then Reya exhaled. "Well… shit."
Jace turned toward the dark corridor leading deeper underground.
"She's down here. Somewhere. Buried under the city. Waiting."
"And you're going to find her?" Reya asked.
He nodded.
Lena scoffed. "Of course you are."
Reya looked thoughtful.
Then she stood, favoring her wounded side.
"Then we better move fast. The Order won't take that loss quietly."
Jace looked at them both.
And for a rare second—he smiled.
Not wide.
Not cocky.
Just real.
"If either of you starts calling me 'chosen one,' I'm leaving you down here."
Lena smirked. "Deal."