All Chapters of Shadow bound: The beast within : Chapter 61
- Chapter 70
182 chapters
Chapter sixty-one: A Dangerous path
The smoke of the northern ridge clings to my lungs as I slip through the shadows, dagger pressed tight to my thigh. Every step away from Luca burns like betrayal in my veins, but I cannot stop. Not when his weakness, his surrender to Valeria, almost destroyed us both.I can’t let this break me. I won’t.I keep seeing him, pressed to Valeria, shadows writhing violently around them, his lips on hers, my desperate cry swallowed by his desire. That image has carved itself into my heart like fire. I want to scream, to weep, to run back and pull him out of the fire myself. But I cannot. Not anymore.I whispered it to him once, before disappearing. I will do what must be done even if it kills me inside. Every step I take now feels like a promise I cannot take back.The world outside is chaos. Villages burn in the distance and black plumes spiral into the night sky. Carrion birds circle above, waiting for bodies that have yet to fall. Rival families carve pieces of territory from the chaos, e
Chapter Sixty-Two: Beneath the Weight of Shadows
The night slowly gave way to dawn, but for me, there was no light left to find.Smoke curled through the broken city, heavy with the scent of ash and regret. The northern ridge was silent now, only ruins, corpses, and the faint whisper of dying fires. My army had scattered through the valley, their faith shattered like the sky after a storm. And Grace was gone.I felt it, not just her absence, but the hollow ache her leaving carved inside me. She had always been my anchor, my flame in the dark. Now she was a ghost haunting every breath I took.The shadows whispered her name, soft and accusing. Grace. Grace. Grace.I pressed a bloodstained hand to my face, trying to silence them. The voices were my own, echoing through the cracks of my control. “Enough,” I muttered, though the words felt empty. My reflection in a shard of broken steel glared back at me, eyes rimmed with red, skin streaked with soot and guilt.I had betrayed her. Or maybe she had betrayed me. I couldn’t tell anymore. Th
Chapter Sixty-Three: The Heart of the Enemy
The wind carried the scent of war. Iron, smoke, and lies.I moved like a shadow through the forest that bordered Leo’s camp. My shadows shifted with me, silent and predatory, drawn by the faint pull of the bond that tied me to Grace. It throbbed in my chest, familiar but distant, as if her heartbeat had learned to hide from me.Every step brought me closer to the truth I didn’t want to face.The camp below was a fortress of precision. Rows of soldiers, torches burning with cruel order, banners marked with Leo’s crimson insignia fluttering in the smoky wind. I could feel his power in the air, steady and oppressive, threaded with strict discipline. But beneath it, there was another rhythm. Softer, fragile, terrifyingly familiar.Grace.My heart stuttered when I finally saw her.She stood at the edge of the inner ring. Her cloak was half-burned, her hair matted with soot, but she moved with the same wild grace I had once loved beyond reason. What stole my breath was not her beauty but th
Chapter Sixty-Four: The Monster and the Flame
The night bled into smoke and storm. Firelight flickered across broken stone and ruined steel, the air thick with ash and sweat. I stood at the heart of the chaos, chest heaving, the faint shimmer of shadow crawling beneath my skin. My pulse was no longer human. It pounded like a war drum, wild and ancient.Valeria’s voice called through the roar of battle. Luca, don’t!The words came too late.I could feel the beast inside breaking its chains, old hunger clawing through my veins. My eyes, once grey, turned molten silver, glowing with an unholy light that made even the bravest men falter. Around me, the last of Emilio’s soldiers hesitated, not because of my blade, but because of what had awakened inside me.The shadow rose.It was not a figure, not even a form. It was an aura, an ancient darkness slithering around me like a living storm. My silhouette stretched impossibly, devouring light and bending flame. Every step was soundless. Every breath came out like smoke.I wasn’t sure I wa
Chapter Sixty-Five: Shadows of the Heart
The first rays of dawn broke across the horizon, pale and reluctant, casting long shadows over the ruins. Smoke still rose from the ground, curling in ghostly spirals, carrying the scent of blood and ash. The battle was over, but nothing about the air felt victorious.I saw Valeria standing amid the silence, the wind tugging at her hair. The battlefield stretched endlessly, burnt earth, shattered weapons, lifeless bodies half-buried beneath soot. But her eyes searched for only one thing.Luca.Her voice trembled as she found me kneeling in the center of it all, head bowed, hands resting on my knees. I wasn’t moving. The faint shimmer of energy still rippled under my skin like a heartbeat trying to decide whether to keep going or stop entirely.She hesitated. The ground around me was scorched, a perfect circle of black. Even the air shimmered, humming faintly like the echo of a spell that refused to die.Luca, she called again, softer this time.Stay back, I said.The words came low, r
Chapter Sixty-Six: Ashes and Blood
The air reeked of iron and smoke. I could taste it—blood, burnt steel, and something older, darker, pulsing beneath the ground like a heartbeat buried deep in the ash.The horizon was alive again, trembling with the sound of drums. The second army was coming. Emilio’s banner, the blood sun, fluttered against the wind. Thousands of men. Spears glinting like a field of stars, marching to finish what my brother had started.The world had given me no time to rest, no moment to breathe. Maybe it was justice. Maybe this was what I deserved.The wind carried whispers. My shadows answered them before I did.Kill them all.The voice was not mine. It had become clearer lately, smooth, malevolent, patient. It spoke in rhythm with my pulse.They will die if they step closer, I murmured.My shadow stirred at my feet, stretching across the earth like liquid night, wrapping around broken spears and corpses. It drank everything it touched—light, sound, warmth—leaving only stillness behind.I knew I s
Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Last Promise
The world burned beneath a blood-red sky. Smoke curled through the valley, swallowing the last light. I stood at the edge of what had once been a battlefield, though there were no lines anymore — only ash, bones, and silence.The new army had stopped advancing. They were watching. Waiting. Even they could feel it — the weight of what I had become.My hands trembled, though not from fear. The shadows coiled beneath my skin, restless, whispering for release.You could end this in seconds, the monster said. One breath, one thought — and the world would kneel.I swallowed hard, throat aching from the screams I hadn’t realized were mine. I don’t want to be a god, I whispered.Then be a monster, it hissed.I dropped my sword. The ground hissed where it hit, molten lines spreading in every direction. The power thrummed, demanding, alive. It pulled at me, ripping apart the fragile line between man and nightmare.And then I heard her voice.Luca.Valeria stood a few feet away, her white cloak
Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Hollow King
The world was quiet when I woke.Too quiet.The air still smelled of fire and ruin, and when I tried to move, ash slid beneath my palms like sand. My chest ached with every breath. The battle was gone. The screams, the clash of steel, even the voice of the monster. Only silence remained.For a moment I thought I was dead.Then I felt it. A faint rhythm inside me. Not my own heartbeat, but something softer. A second pulse, calm and steady. It moved through the dark like a thread of light, reaching places I could never touch before.Valeria.Her name formed in my mind, and with it came pain sharp enough to tear through the numbness. She was gone. I had seen it happen. I had felt her hand slip from mine. But she had not left completely. A part of her still lived inside me, woven into the shadows she had tried to save me from.I sat up slowly. The world around me was unrecognizable. The ground was cracked open in every direction, the sky still bleeding red from the smoke. My sword lay a few feet
Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Weight of the Crown
The Black Citadel stood against the storm, its towers cracked but unbroken. Once, it had been his father’s fortress—a place that reeked of pride, power, and blood. Now, it was quiet. The halls smelled of smoke and salt, the faint scent of the sea carried through the broken windows.Luca walked through the corridors with a strange calm. His boots left trails of ash on the marble. The soldiers who had survived the war knelt when he passed, not in reverence, but in fear. No one dared to meet his eyes. They whispered his name as if it were a curse.The Hollow King.He didn’t correct them. Maybe that was what he had become. Hollow. Half man, half the thing Valeria had tried to save him from.In the great hall, the throne waited beneath the fractured dome of glass. Rain leaked through the cracks, dripping onto the black stone. The chair was still there—the same one where his father had ruled, where men had been judged and killed for less than a thought.He stood before it, staring at the empty s
Chapter Seventy: The Silence Between
The nights grew longer after the crown found its way to his head.Time had begun to lose meaning inside the citadel. The torches burned slower, the air stayed colder, and the silence pressed heavier on the walls.Luca learned to live with it.Or at least, he tried.He attended the council meetings in a hall that felt too big and too empty. The voices of his advisors blurred together, all speaking of trade routes, alliances, broken towns, and losses too large to count. He listened, nodded, and gave orders when he had to. But his mind stayed elsewhere.Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the ruins where she had fallen. He remembered her hand slipping from his, the light fading, and the sound of her breath. Then nothing.At night, he stopped sleeping.He would wander through the upper corridors when the citadel was dark, moving like a shadow through the same hallways where his father once ruled. The portraits of the old kings watched him from the walls, their eyes hollow, their crowns bright