All Chapters of SHADOWS OF THE VEIL: Chapter 91
- Chapter 100
235 chapters
CHAPTER 90 — BROKEN TRUTHS
The sky over Adesuwa University darkened earlier than usual, clouds thick as though the heavens themselves sensed the storm building among the students. Inside the Health Sciences faculty building, the atmosphere was tense—too quiet, too cold, too heavy.Rick walked down the hallway with a stiffness that betrayed the storm in his mind. The confrontation with Valentina the previous night hadn't left him. She had vanished again, leaving behind questions that screamed inside his chest.What is she hiding from me? Why does she look at Collins that way? Why does it always feel like she’s running?But Rick wasn’t the only one restless.At the other end of the building, Collins Lutherchris leaned on the metal railing, eyes fixed on nothing. His heartbeat was slow, almost painfully calm, but his mind—a battlefield.He had finally read the message Valentina sent him:“We need to talk. About everything.”Everything.He clenched his fist. He knew what “everything” meant.The truth he had been ru
CHAPTER 91 — THE SHADOW THAT KNOWS HER NAME
The abandoned music hall sat on the far edge of Adesuwa University, hidden behind overgrown trees and worn-out footpaths. Once a vibrant building filled with instruments, laughter, and memories, it now stood silent—its doors stiff, its windows coated in dust, and its corridors echoing with forgotten stories.By 9:14 p.m., Rick arrived.His footsteps were measured, but his heartbeat thundered. He pushed the old wooden door open, and it groaned loudly like it hadn’t been touched in years.Inside, the hall was dim, illuminated only by the weak glow of a few emergency bulbs.And there—standing near the stage—was Valentina.She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t trembling.She simply stared at Rick with eyes full of exhaustion, as though she had been running her whole life and finally collapsed at the end of the road.Rick froze.“Valentina…”She lowered her gaze.“You came.”“Of course I came,” Rick said, approaching slowly. “You disappeared on me—twice. You look terrified. And Collins is talking
CHAPTER 92 — TWENTY-FOUR HOURS
The emergency light flickered again, humming softly as though it sensed the tension thickening in the air.Valentina—Ariana—no longer hid her trembling.Rick wasn’t trembling.He was burning.“Explain everything,” Rick said. “Now.”Collins Lutherchris looked at both of them and drew in a long, steady breath.“We’re dealing with a syndicate called The Veilborn Circle,” Collins began.“They operated underground for years—moving weapons, information, and people. Ariana’s family was tied to them. But when her father refused to deliver something they wanted… the Circle burned everything.”Ariana flinched.Rick gently moved closer to her.“Ariana’s father stole something from them before he died,” Collins continued.“No one knows what it is. Except Ariana.”Rick glanced at her.“You know?”Ariana didn’t speak at first.Her silence was the answer.Then she whispered:“They call it The Atlas Key.”Rick frowned.“What’s that?”Ariana shook her head.“I don’t know what it opens. Only that my fa
CHAPTER 93 — THEY BREACHED THE WALLS
For a moment, none of them breathed.The envelope lay open on the table, the photo glinting under the flickering emergency light—Ariana frozen mid-stride in the hallway, unaware she was being watched.Not watched.Marked.Rick reached the window in two steps, scanning the shadows outside.Nothing.Just the courtyard. Silent. Still.Too still.Collins locked the door instantly and dragged the wooden cabinet in front of it.“No one goes out alone,” he said. “Not anymore.”Ariana pressed herself against the wall, trembling.“How did they get so close?” she whispered. “I didn’t hear anything. No footsteps. No cameras triggered—”Rick turned from the window.“They’re using magic.”Collins nodded grimly.“The Circle upgraded their tools. They used to rely on manpower. Now… they dabble in things they should never touch.”A faint humming sound drifted through the hallway.A vibration—low, slow, almost like chanting.Rick stiffened.“You hear that?”Collins grabbed his dagger.“That’s a summon
CHAPTER 94 — THE CIRCLE MOVES AT MIDNIGHT
The campus night had never felt so silent.Not peaceful—silent like a held breath.Rick, Ariana, and Collins regrouped inside an abandoned classroom on the second floor, where no student ever came because the lights always flickered and the walls carried old, strange echoes.Tonight, those flickers and echoes had purpose.They hid them.Collins locked the door and pulled the blinds.“We need to assume,” he said quietly, “that the Circle already knows the Shadelurker failed.”Ariana sat on a broken desk, catching her breath. She looked pale—her body still recovering from shattering her family’s oath.“What happens now?” she asked softly.Collins turned toward the cracked whiteboard, grabbed a marker, and drew a single circle.Then another, overlapping it.Then a third.Three rings.Rick leaned forward.“What’s that supposed to be?”“This,” Collins said, “is how the Circle attacks. They follow a pattern. They always begin by sending a summoning creature—like the Shadelurker—to test bou
CHAPTER 95_THE FALTERING SHIELD
The night lay thick over Velora Academy, the kind of silence that felt like held breath. Rick moved swiftly across the deserted courtyard, his steps steady but charged with tension. The message he’d received from the Veiled Circle was brief—too brief.A new threat moves toward the academy. Protect the girl. Protect the heir.He didn’t need any further explanation. The moment Collins Lutherchris—his friend, his responsibility—became tied to the prophecy, the shadows started shifting more violently around them.But tonight, something else weighed on Rick’s mind.Mara.He paused near the entrance of the old library, where a faint lamp glowed through the frosted windows. He knew she was inside. She always went there when her thoughts grew heavy.And lately, her thoughts had been a storm.Rick entered quietly. Mara sat at a corner table, a stack of old manuscripts before her, her fingers trembling over a page she’d been reading for too long.“You’re not sleeping,” Rick said softly.She loo
CHAPTER 96_THE MAN BEHIND THE VEIL
The courtyard fell into a frightening stillness.Only the crackle of dying torch flames and the distant groans of wind rose through the night as Mara stood frozen, unable to tear her gaze away from the man approaching—her father.Except… he didn’t look like her father.The softness she remembered, the warmth, the careful way he had once lifted her as a child—none of that lived in his eyes now. They were sharp. Calculating. Carrying the kind of coldness that came from power misused for too long.He stepped into the torchlight, the shadows flickering across his obsidian cloak.“Mara,” he repeated, voice firm. “Enough running.”Rick stepped in front of her instinctively.“She isn’t going anywhere with you,” he growled.Mara’s father tilted his head, almost amused.“Always the stubborn one. Still pretending to be her shield.”Collins Lutherchris stepped forward, jaw set.“You sent your people to attack the academy. You put every student here in danger.”The man’s gaze flicked to Collins,
CHAPTER 97_THE GATHERING STORM
The academy did not sleep that night.Lights burned in every corridor.Wards flickered uneasily around the towers like wounded fireflies.Whispers spread through the halls—fearful, confused, urgent.A breach of that magnitude…A man appearing and disappearing without triggering a single alarm…A power that ancient…It terrified even the professors.But in the infirmary, the world felt very small.Rick sat beside Mara’s bed, his elbows on his knees, head bowed.She lay sleeping at last—exhausted, shaken, helpless in a way Rick had never seen.Kai leaned against the wall, arms folded tightly. “So,” he muttered, “her father is basically the spearhead of an underground faction with forbidden magic and plans that involve destroying half of existence?”Rick didn’t answer.He just kept staring at Mara, quiet, unmoving.Kai exhaled. “Bro, you haven’t blinked in ten minutes.”Rick finally spoke, voice low and hard.“I should’ve stopped him.”Kai stared. “He cracked the courtyard with a gesture
CHAPTER 98_THE FIRST FRACTURE
The academy woke before dawn.Not because of routine—but because of fear.Every tower, every courtyard, every hallway hummed with nervous energy.Students whispered.Professors marched.Wards glowed and flickered like restless flames.But Rick?Rick wasn’t thinking about wards.He was thinking about the man who had looked him in the eyes and called him “the Bridge.”The same man who threatened Mara.The same man whose magic felt ancient and wrong.Rick sat on the training grounds at sunrise, hands wrapped, knees bent, breathing uneven.He tried to meditate.He tried to calm the storm inside him.He failed.Lira approached quietly, her steps gentle as morning wind.“You’re shaking,” she said softly.Rick opened his eyes slowly.“Didn’t sleep.”“I figured.”She sat beside him.“You’re carrying too much alone.”Rick’s jaw tensed.“I’m not alone.”Lira studied him for a moment.“Then stop acting like you are.”Rick looked away.“I should’ve stopped him,” he murmured.“You couldn’t have,”
CHAPTER 99_THE PATH THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
Night fell fast.Too fast.The academy’s lights flickered as if the darkness outside was swallowing them one by one.Wind howled through the towers like something alive.Shadows stretched unnaturally across the ground, bending in ways shadows should never bend.Rick felt all of it.Not with his eyes.Not with magic.But with something deeper—a pull in his chest, like a thread tightening around his ribs.He stood at the balcony overlooking the courtyard, gripping the stone railing until his knuckles turned white.Something was calling him.From far beyond the forest.Beyond the Veil.He didn’t understand it.He only felt it.And he hated that feeling.Footsteps sounded behind him.“Rick?”He turned as Mara stepped into the moonlight—still pale, still shaken, but trying.He straightened instantly.“You shouldn’t be out of bed.”“I couldn’t sleep,” she said softly. “Not after what I saw.”Rick swallowed.“What did you see?”Her voice trembled even before she spoke.“You, Rick.”“You sta