Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Blood Bound Legacy: Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

The air shifted.The figure stepping forward was massive, easily towering over me by at least a foot, his broad shoulders cutting through the dim light like a living shadow. His eyes—black, bottomless, unnatural—locked onto me with a quiet kind of hunger, not like a prey, but like something calculating, something measuring.Lilith smiled as she leaned against the crumbling stone. “This is Kieran. He’s our best.”Kieran cracked his neck, his expression unreadable. “You don’t look like much.”Jameson snorted. “Wow. How original.”Kieran ignored him, his focus entirely on me. “They say you’re strong.”I met his gaze, steady, unflinching. “They say a lot of things.”His lips curled slightly, almost amused. “Let’s find out what’s true.”The moment the words left his mouth, he moved.I barely had time to react before he was on me, closing the distance too fast for something his size. His fist shot forward, aimed directly at my ribs.I twisted at the last second, narrowly avoiding the hit, b

Moonlight spilled through the shattered glower windows of the rustic cathedral, stretching long shadows across the chill stone ground. It was as if the world was holding its breath, caught in this moment between the past and the unknown future bearing down on us.The members of the Forgotten Clans were silent, gathering in the hall, where what few remained, the very ones who would determine if we would live or die. Maxwell was beside me, but the tension in the air made it feel like we were on opposite sides of a chasm.Bastian, the head of the Forgotten, still had his eyes on me. His face gave nothing away, but his eyes — his eyes were sharp, calculating.“You’ve motivated us to fight. Now, you’d better prove it.” Bastian’s voice was raspy, as though gravel lay beneath it. “You tell us you want us to stop the Council. You say you want to win. But the reality is you’re asking us to walk into the unknown with you. To throw everything into a war that we’ve avoided for centuries.”I looke

Long after Maxwell had turned the corner, the weight of his words stuck to me like a second skin.“Promise me you won’t get lost in all this.”I had promised.And we both knew it was a lie.I exhaled, fingers to my temples, the night stretching thick and suffocating. Through the cathedral’s ruins, the wind howled, whispering secrets I was not ready to hear. The Forgotten Clans had agreed to fight, but it had always been a shaky sort of loyalty. This war was inevitable and whether or not we were ready, and I was running out of time to see to it we were.A presence settled beside me.Lilith.I didn’t look, but I felt her sharp stare examine me, dissecting me as if she were reading something in my bones that I couldn’t even see.“You’re conflicted.” Her voice was smooth, drolly amused, even. “Doubt doesn’t suit you.”I let out a humorless laugh. “You say that as if I can just turn that off.”Lilith smirked. “Maybe you should.”I finally turned to face her. “You think doubt makes you weak

I was losing him, and the scariest part was, I wasn’t sure I wanted to change that. The old me, the one who had grasped at hope, who had believed in something bigger than war and power, would have fought for him, would have done anything to keep the one person who had been at my side through it all. But that girl was gone, and in her place was someone colder, someone who viewed people in terms of necessity rather than emotion. I could no longer afford to fight for relationships. I was battling for my life, for dominance, for the right to live in a world that wanted to kill me.Maxwell must have read it on my face because something in his expression hardened, his golden eyes dulling in a way that made my stomach turn. “You’re not even going to attempt, right? It wasn’t an angry voice, wasn’t a demanding one. It was just tired as if he already knew the answer but needed me to say it aloud anyway.I swallowed in the face of the dryness in my throat, my hands bunching fists by my sides. “

---------------The Calm Before the StormThe fortress was alive with activity, warriors and weapons being sharpened, low prayers whispered to gods who had long since stopped paying attention. The air was charged with expectancy, the sort that descended into bones, into fate.I was standing outside, watching the sun get lower, setting the sky on fire. It felt fitting.In the fading light of day, Maxwell spots me there, a storm behind me.“I don’t like this” he said softly.I exhaled. “I know.”He drew nearer, voice raw. “You don’t have to do this.”I finally turned to him. “Yes, I do.”Maxwell shook his head. “No, you want to.”I didn’t deny it.His voice dropped lower. “Do you even remember why you began fighting? Or has it simply become about winning?”I clenched my fists. “Winning is survival.”“Is it?” His gold-flecked eyes blazed into mine. “Or is it more about not losing?”I swallowed hard. “What’s the difference?”Maxwell’s voice dipped to a softer tone, but it was no less desp