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"Hollow," Jax said.

"No." The word came out more sharply than I intended, and I lifted my head. "That's the first lie. For three hundred years, a blank Beastglass didn't mean Hollow. It had a classification: Wildheart: Dormant. The Assessors knew exactly what it meant. Then, forty-one years ago, the Council removed those pages, cut the classifications out of the ledgers, and started stamping people Hollow instead."

Silas's expression shifted.

"So Hollow isn't real."

"Not the way they teach it." I looked down at my bandaged palms. "There was something in me the entire time. They just erased the word for it."

Tamsin's eyes had filled completely now. She stared down at her notebook with a furious concentration, as though she could keep herself from crying if she focused hard enough on the page.

"What is a Wildheart, then?" Jax asked quietly. "Really. Not the Council version."

That was the question I had spent most of the night trying to answer.

I drew my knees up and rested my arms across them. "Master Crewe said Wildhearts were parasites. He said they attached themselves to shifters, drained them, and hollowed out entire packs. But that isn't what the old records say. According to those records, a Wildheart anchors the beast." Jax's expression sharpened. "The Red has a harder time taking hold of someone who's bonded to a Wildheart," I continued. "And if it does take hold, the Wildheart can call that person back through touch or voice."

Silas stared at me.

For several seconds, he didn't move. Then his gaze dropped to my hands.

"The Pit."

"Yes."

"And the ravine."

"Yes."

He let out a slow breath.

"That's why it gets quiet."

My throat tightened. "When you're with me?"

He nodded once.

"The roaring is always there somewhere," he said. "Even when it's far away. Except around you."

Something tightened painfully in my chest, and I looked away before I lost the thread of what I was trying to explain.

"The numbers got worse after the Hollowing," I said. "The records tracked Red incidents for forty years after the Council got rid of the Wildhearts. They quadrupled."

Silas became very still.

"They killed the people who could bring us back?"

"Yes. Then they built Culling squads to kill the people they couldn't."

Nobody spoke after that. There wasn't much to say.

After a moment, I looked at Jax.

"Wildhearts can also form more than one bond."

A fraction of his crooked grin returned. "Now we're getting somewhere."

"Jax."