Semua Bab The Blood Bound Legacy: Bab 51 - Bab 60

The ruins were crumbling. A tremor of magic pulsed through the chamber, breaking like an earthquake that had lain in wait for centuries along the stone. The air was thick with dust that clogged my lungs, but I barely registered it. My blood was thunder in my ears, my skin quivering with something I couldn’t name.The woman — the First — remained still, safeguarded from the turmoil about her. Her void-black eyes were fixed on me. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t running.Because she already knew what was going to happen.And she knew it would be me who had to decide.Jameson coughed, waving the dense air out of the way. “All right, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I vote we run.”Soraya’s magic sizzled, keeping the buckling ceiling at bay. “Agreed! Whatever you’re going to do, Lena, do it fast.”Maxwell reached for my arm and pulled me to him. His grip was tight, urgent. “Lena. We’re leaving.”I didn’t move.Because the second I did, it meant that something was over.The First

The sky above him spun, a swirling mass of unwinding constellations and unnatural darkness. The air hung thick, heavy, electric, buzzing against my skin. Something shook the ground beneath my feet, not like an earthquake, but like some deep thing beneath the earth’s crust was trying to be free.“I can’t believe you’re here,” Jameson said first. “I just want to say, for the record — I told you so.”Soraya didn’t reply, not even sparing him a glance, her fingers fluttering with spells already, tracing sigils in the air. This is not simply a response to the ruins. Something else is moving.”Maxwell stood next to me, sword still drawn, jaw set. His hand floated close to mine, as if he didn’t know whether he should touch me. “Lena.” His voice was measured, controlled — but his eyes held something bordering on panic. “Tell me what’s happening.”I swallowed, my heartbeat an urgent bass drum in my chest. I wanted to say I didn’t know. I hoped this was some relic magic of the ruins reacting to

“You are ours.”“You are ours.”No.A searing ache cracked through my skull, a fire behind my eyes. I gritted my teeth and shoved my way past the pressure in my chest, the static in my head.“I didn’t agree to anything,” I managed, hands shaking. “You said you would wait.”“And we have.”The voices swirled around me, soft as silk, snug as a noose.“But you are here now.”I drew in a gasp as another wave of power crashed through my body, every inch of me igniting with something old, something foreign — something that curled up into the deepest parts of my soul like it had always existed there.A memory surfaced, unbidden.A voice in my ear, my grandmother’s voice, the same words she had whispered before I was taken: You are a bridge, child. And bridges go both ways.I balled my hands into fists, willing my body to remain still against the pull. My heart was pounding in my ears, racing. Maxwell. The baby. I had made a choice. I had chosen. I wasn’t theirs.I wouldn’t be their bridge.I

The estate seemed smaller than ever before. The walls that once felt so comforting now felt claustrophobic — a cage, rather than home. Each breath felt heavier than the rest, the weight of the truth pressing down on my chest.I sat on the nursery’s windowsill, one hand pressed against my belly. Outside, the wind rustled through the trees, bringing the smell of rain and something darker — something watching. My child shifted inside of me, a tiny reminder of the life I was fighting for.But the question still lingered in the air.The Old Ones were coming.And I was their key.I swallowed hard. How do you battle something that’s already within you?”I clenched my jaw. I couldn’t afford to break down now. I had too much to lose. My mother. My father. My friends. Maxwell. My child. I had battled too hard, suffered too much, to allow the Old Ones to take any of them.But in truth, I could still hear the voices. Waiting. Whispering.I was running out of time.The sound of Maxwell’s voice bro

The council chamber was thick with silence, but it wasn’t empty. It was filled with tension, with unspoken fears clawing at the edges of the conversation we weren’t ready to have. The Old Ones were here. They had woken up. And no one in this room knew what that meant—except me.And I wasn’t sure if I could say it out loud.Jameson leaned back in his chair, rubbing his face. “Alright, so just so I have this straight—our options are: one, we fight the cosmic horrors and die horribly. Or two, we talk to them and maybe die slightly less horribly.”Soraya shot him a sharp look. “That’s not helping.”Jameson threw up his hands. “Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe you can explain it in a way that doesn’t sound insane.”I exhaled slowly, my fingers tightening around the edge of the table. “We don’t have a choice.”Jameson’s brows shot up. “No, see, that’s where I disagree. We could all just pack up, fake our deaths, and disappear into the mountains. Live off the land. Maxwell and I would make great hunters