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Chapter 15: The Heart of the Beast
Last Updated:
2025-03-04 00:02:06
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The city had a different look at night. Shadows stretched longer, corners felt more pronounced, and the world itself was holding its breath, waiting. Maxwell seemed to be on standby next to me as I walked the deserted streets. Neither of us had spoken since the meeting with the Council, but the silence that lay between us wasn’t comfortable; it was crackling, laden with everything we weren’t saying.Finally, Maxwell broke it.“You’re making a mistake.”I didn’t stop walking. “That’s what you think.”“That’s what I know.” The edge in his voice came from the frustration he was barely able to contain. “You’re letting them drag you into something you don’t understand, Lena.”I turned to him, my jaw tense. “And what am I supposed to do, Max? Ignore it? Walk away? “Pretend that all of this doesn’t exist?”His fists closed, fists at his sides. “You don’t have to be them to fight them.”“I’m not becoming them.”“Then why does it seem like I’m losing you?The words landed harder than I thought
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And yet, the file was heavy in my hands, even being nothing but paper. My fingers hovered above the photograph of Jameson Calloway, the weight of my choice sitting on my chest like a rock.“You’re hesitating.” Elias’ voice was smooth but had an undercoating of sharpness to it. He knew what he was doing, exactly.I raised my eyes to his and maintained an impassive expression. “I didn’t know the Council killed its own.”Elias brought his hands together on the table, tilting his head some. “Jameson is not one of our own anymore. He betrayed us.”I choked on my own bitterness rising in my throat. “How?”Silence stretched between us. Elias didn’t respond immediately, and that told me all I needed to know. This had nothing to do with Jameson being a threat. This was about control. About me.“You want me to do this without knowing the whole story?” I asked, my voice steady.Elias offered a smile, but it was a cold one. “I expect you to trust us.”Maxwell scoffed beside me. “That’s not how tr
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I drove in silence. The weight of what I was about to do hung around my chest like a vice, each breath a little more difficult to take. It had been a straightforward plan—convince the Council that I’d killed Jameson without really doing it. But the execution? That was when things got dangerous.”Maxwell was sitting next to me, his jaw clenched, arms folded across his chest. He hadn’t spoken much since we’d left Jameson’s safe house, his silence weighing on me more than any fight we might have had.I was the one who finally broke the stillness. “Say something.”Maxwell didn’t look at me. “What do you want me to say, Lena? That this is a great plan? That I wouldn’t expect it to explode in our faces?”I seized the steering wheel more tightly. “We don’t have an alternative.”His laugh was grim and humorless. “We always have options. You just keep selecting the ones that might kill us.’”I sighed, the weight of the world settling deep into my bones. “I’m trying to protect him, Max. And mys
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The burden of my deception rested heavy in my breast, against my ribs like iron. Perhaps it was because I had walked away from the Council’s headquarters alive, but the truth was watching me everywhere, plowing its way towards its moment to unravel.Maxwell’s words reverberated in my brain. You’re not going to be able to run from this forever.He was right. But I wasn’t running. Not yet.What game was I playing where the only way to win was to last long enough to change the rules.The car ride back to the estate was quiet. Maxwell squatted in the passenger seat, arms crossed, his jaw clenched so tight that I feared he would shatter his teeth. He hadn’t said a word since we’d left the Council, and I didn’t know if that was because he’d been furious with me or afraid about what lay ahead.Eventually, I realized I could no longer bear the quiet.“Say it.”Maxwell didn’t move.“Max,” I pushed. “Just say what’s on your mind.”His voice was low, his fingers tightening against his biceps. “Y
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My father’s words loomed over me like storm clouds. Now, we wait. And we prepare for the moment the Council learns what you’ve done.”I wanted to think that I still had time — a couple of days at least, maybe weeks, before Elias or the others began suspecting the story I had fed them. But deep down, I knew better.I was not only playing with fire.I was on the edge of a blade, waiting for the surely inevitable slip.Maxwell walked back and forth across the length of the study, his agitation evident in each of his paces. My father was standing near the fireplace, arms crossed, eyes on me. My mother remained silent, her fingers clamped around the edge of the chair, her face unreadable.No one had said anything for a few minutes. The silence was suffocating.“Please move,” Maxwell spun, his voice serrated. “So what’s the plan, Lena?”I took a deep breath, trying to control myself. “We keep the lie alive. Until the Council is convinced Jameson is dead, we have the upper hand.”Maxwell gav
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Jameson’s words hung in a lead ball in my gut."They disappeared."I let my breath out and concentrated on holding my hands still. “So you mean to tell me the only person who ever tried to take down the Council is dead?”Jameson nodded. “Vanished without a trace.”I shook my head, the frustration simmering under my skin. “Then how do you know they existed at all?”Jameson leaned against the crates, arms crossed. “Because I knew them. And because they left behind something the Council couldn’t quite erase.”Maxwell, who had remained silent until this point, now broke her silence. “Which is?”Jameson shot a glance at him and then at me. “A journal. Notes. Plans. Everything they learned about the Council’s secrets before they vanished.”Inside me, hope flickered, momentary and brittle. “And you have it?”Jameson’s mouth shifted to a not quite smile. “Not exactly.”I narrowed my eyes. “Then where is it?”Jameson sighed. “That’s the problem. They hid it somewhere safe from the Council befo
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It was still dark when we left that morning.Jameson had given us just the barest facts — enough to reacquaint ourselves with the idea that Black Hollow was the kind of place you didn’t just pick off a map. It was a town erased from the record, that few spoke aloud, muttered between those who trafficked in secrets.A place of disappearance.Maxwell gripped the wheel tightly and set his jaw. He hadn’t said much since we’d made the decision to go, but I could feel his unease in the way he gripped the steering wheel, in the way his eyes flicked to the rearview mirror every couple of minutes, as though he was expecting something to be following us.Jameson sat in the back, his face a mask.I gazed out the window as the surrounding scenery faded from city streets to long stretches of highway lined with forest. The farther we traveled, the more the world began to dissolve around us, as if we were moving into something unreal.“How much farther?” I asked finally.Jameson glanced at his watch
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With each footfall, the burdens of Black Hollow weighed heavy on me.We walked back to the car without talking, all of us contemplating whatever went through our minds. The napkin Marion had handed me was weighed down with more than its size, holding an address that was a warning as much as a destination.I glanced at Maxwell. His shoulders were tight; his jaw was clenched. He had fought against coming here from the start, but now that we were in Black Hollow’s grip, I could see he was on edge in a way I’d never known before.Jameson walked a step behind, but his calm demeanor held deeper waters. He knew more than he had spoken. I could feel it.“We have to be careful,” Jameson finally said, his voice low. “The thing here… things don’t work as they should.”Maxwell scoffed. “Yeah, no kidding. The road moved to let us in.”Jameson nodded. “That was the easy part.”I paused in my steps and turned to him. “What aren’t you telling us?”Jameson paused and then released a sigh. “This town…
Last Updated : 2025-03-04
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The Blood Bound Legacy Chapter 27: The Road to Shadow's end
The morning came too quickly.I hadn’t slept much — none of us had. We could not bring ourselves to rest under the weight of what we were about to do. Shadow’s End. A place that — as Jameson came to write — was not merely dangerous but wrong.And yet that’s where we needed to go.Maxwell spoke first as we gathered in the kitchen of Jameson’s safehouse. “I hate this plan.”Jameson took a sip of his coffee and smiled. “You hate all our plans.”Maxwell shot him a look. “Yeah, but this one? This one is particularly bad.”I sighed, rubbing my temples. “We don’t have a choice. Soraya is the only one who might have answers. If she is alive, she is in Shadow’s End. And if she isn’t…” I trailed off. “Then at least we’ll know what became of her.”Maxwell stopped and exhaled sharply, walking the length of the small room. “That is assuming that we return.”I looked at him and kept my voice even. “We will.”He halted his pacing, fixing me with an intent stare. “And what if we don’t?”There was a c
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Maxwell stared at me, and so did Jameson, both of them processing what I had just said in their own way. I could see the storm brewing behind Maxwell’s eyes, how his jaw clenched as if he were physically restraining the words. Jameson’s face, though, was inscrutable.I swallowed hard. “I’m aware this is not a perfect plan. I know it’s dangerous. But what choice do we have?”Maxwell raked a hand through his hair, breathing hard. “You keep saying that, Lena. It’s literally this or total annihilation. But you’re asking us to bet everything on a hunch.”I looked up at him, anger surging through my chest. “No. I’m asking you to risk it all on the truth we just discovered. You are fed on something that predates time itself. Because they just will keep sacrificing people so that they can stay in power if we don’t stop them.”Maxwell shook his head. “And you think we’re just going to… what? Break this deal? Kill the Council and pray whoever they’re bound to doesn’t kill the rest of us in the
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The journal lay between us on the table. It was like the very weight of truth that it carried had kept pushing down on our chests, cornering us to a reality that we were not prepared for. The stakes had changed — this was no longer about battling for control. It was about survival. And we weren’t just battling the Council.Something much older, far darker, lay behind their power. Something that could rip the world apart if it ever escaped.The journal grew heavier in my instinctive grip, and it seemed as if the pages were whispering secrets to my soul. Secrets I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. But I couldn’t walk away now. Not after what we’d learned.Maxwell faced me, jaw set, hands on the lip of the table. His eyes were dark and intense. I saw the conflict swirling in them, the anger, the fear, the frustration. We were both hovering over something. And I didn’t know if either of us was ready to take that last step.“You’re sure about this?” he asked, his voice quiet, almost a whisper.
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A woman entered, her hood low over her face. She hurried, ghosting through the tables and slipped into the booth directly across from us.I didn’t even have time to respond before she talked.“You shouldn’t be here.”Her voice was low, rough. She pulled aside her hood to show sharp features, dark eyes with something unreadable in them.I studied her. She seemed young — late twenties, maybe — but there was an age to her gaze that belied her face.1“For you know who we are,” I said cautiously.She scoffed. “I know who he is.” Her gaze flicked to Jameson. “And if he brought you here, you’re desperate.”I clenched my jaw. “I need the journal.”She laughed briefly and without humor. “Of course you do.”Jameson exhaled. “Well, listen, we don’t have time for games. The Council—”“I know about the Council,” she said, her voice sharp as glass. “You think I’m not aware of why my parents went missing? Why did I have to spend my whole life running?”I hesitated. “Then you see why we need the jour
The Blood Bound Legacy Chapter 23: The Town That Watches
With each footfall, the burdens of Black Hollow weighed heavy on me.We walked back to the car without talking, all of us contemplating whatever went through our minds. The napkin Marion had handed me was weighed down with more than its size, holding an address that was a warning as much as a destination.I glanced at Maxwell. His shoulders were tight; his jaw was clenched. He had fought against coming here from the start, but now that we were in Black Hollow’s grip, I could see he was on edge in a way I’d never known before.Jameson walked a step behind, but his calm demeanor held deeper waters. He knew more than he had spoken. I could feel it.“We have to be careful,” Jameson finally said, his voice low. “The thing here… things don’t work as they should.”Maxwell scoffed. “Yeah, no kidding. The road moved to let us in.”Jameson nodded. “That was the easy part.”I paused in my steps and turned to him. “What aren’t you telling us?”Jameson paused and then released a sigh. “This town…
The Blood Bound Legacy Chapter 22: Into the Hollow
It was still dark when we left that morning.Jameson had given us just the barest facts — enough to reacquaint ourselves with the idea that Black Hollow was the kind of place you didn’t just pick off a map. It was a town erased from the record, that few spoke aloud, muttered between those who trafficked in secrets.A place of disappearance.Maxwell gripped the wheel tightly and set his jaw. He hadn’t said much since we’d made the decision to go, but I could feel his unease in the way he gripped the steering wheel, in the way his eyes flicked to the rearview mirror every couple of minutes, as though he was expecting something to be following us.Jameson sat in the back, his face a mask.I gazed out the window as the surrounding scenery faded from city streets to long stretches of highway lined with forest. The farther we traveled, the more the world began to dissolve around us, as if we were moving into something unreal.“How much farther?” I asked finally.Jameson glanced at his watch
The Blood Bound Legacy Chapter 21: What You Pay for Betrayal Part 2
Jameson’s words hung in a lead ball in my gut."They disappeared."I let my breath out and concentrated on holding my hands still. “So you mean to tell me the only person who ever tried to take down the Council is dead?”Jameson nodded. “Vanished without a trace.”I shook my head, the frustration simmering under my skin. “Then how do you know they existed at all?”Jameson leaned against the crates, arms crossed. “Because I knew them. And because they left behind something the Council couldn’t quite erase.”Maxwell, who had remained silent until this point, now broke her silence. “Which is?”Jameson shot a glance at him and then at me. “A journal. Notes. Plans. Everything they learned about the Council’s secrets before they vanished.”Inside me, hope flickered, momentary and brittle. “And you have it?”Jameson’s mouth shifted to a not quite smile. “Not exactly.”I narrowed my eyes. “Then where is it?”Jameson sighed. “That’s the problem. They hid it somewhere safe from the Council befo
The Blood Bound Legacy Chapter 20: What You Pay for Betrayal Part 1
My father’s words loomed over me like storm clouds. Now, we wait. And we prepare for the moment the Council learns what you’ve done.”I wanted to think that I still had time — a couple of days at least, maybe weeks, before Elias or the others began suspecting the story I had fed them. But deep down, I knew better.I was not only playing with fire.I was on the edge of a blade, waiting for the surely inevitable slip.Maxwell walked back and forth across the length of the study, his agitation evident in each of his paces. My father was standing near the fireplace, arms crossed, eyes on me. My mother remained silent, her fingers clamped around the edge of the chair, her face unreadable.No one had said anything for a few minutes. The silence was suffocating.“Please move,” Maxwell spun, his voice serrated. “So what’s the plan, Lena?”I took a deep breath, trying to control myself. “We keep the lie alive. Until the Council is convinced Jameson is dead, we have the upper hand.”Maxwell gav
The Blood Bound Legacy Chapter 19: Shadows in The Dark
The burden of my deception rested heavy in my breast, against my ribs like iron. Perhaps it was because I had walked away from the Council’s headquarters alive, but the truth was watching me everywhere, plowing its way towards its moment to unravel.Maxwell’s words reverberated in my brain. You’re not going to be able to run from this forever.He was right. But I wasn’t running. Not yet.What game was I playing where the only way to win was to last long enough to change the rules.The car ride back to the estate was quiet. Maxwell squatted in the passenger seat, arms crossed, his jaw clenched so tight that I feared he would shatter his teeth. He hadn’t said a word since we’d left the Council, and I didn’t know if that was because he’d been furious with me or afraid about what lay ahead.Eventually, I realized I could no longer bear the quiet.“Say it.”Maxwell didn’t move.“Max,” I pushed. “Just say what’s on your mind.”His voice was low, his fingers tightening against his biceps. “Y
