Chapter Forty-Seven

Harry meticulously rechecks the sigils of the greater circle, then positions allies: Lara to observe and advise on White Court Hungers, and Mab to support. Mab warns that when Thomas is freed, they will have mere seconds before the Hunger kills him. She decides to stretch time instead of lending raw power, hinting at severe consequences.

Harry dons sentimental items tied to Thomas, calls on Demonreach to raise Thomas’s stasis crystal, and sees his brother frozen in agony. He lights the ritual, powers the circle, and opens his Sight. He perceives the complex energies and Thomas’s immense, skeletal Hunger gripping Thomas from within.

Invoking authority, Harry forbids the “Outsider” Hunger and shatters the stasis. The unleashed Hunger lunges for him on the spiritual plane as Mab chants and the world slows to a painful crawl. Harry grapples the entity, trying to drag it across the infinity sigil, while repeating his interdiction. The Hunger taunts that Thomas’s taste for danger and battle came from it, then reverses the hold and starts choking Harry.

Time snaps back. Thomas’s body crumples to the floor, unconscious and failing, while the Hunger seizes Harry’s heart-center and drains his life. Lara rushes in to brace Harry physically as he weakens, but he cannot answer. The Hunger exults in the Empty Night, and the cold of annihilation engulfs Harry.