All Chapters of SHADOWS OF THE VEIL: Chapter 81
- Chapter 90
235 chapters
CHAPTER 80 – THE MARK WITHIN
A terrible stillness hung in the air long after the hooded figure vanished. The courtyard, once alive with quiet night sounds, now felt like it was holding its breath—waiting for something to break.Aurora’s heartbeat thundered in her ears. She stared at Collins Lutherchris, unable to ignore the strange shimmer that now pulsed faintly beneath his skin, as though something ancient had awakened inside him.Collins saw her staring and swallowed hard.“Aurora… please say something.”She stepped closer, trying to steady her voice.“We need to check you. Not because I don’t trust you—but because we can’t afford unknowns anymore.”Collins nodded, though fear flickered behind his eyes. “Do it. Whatever you need.”Aurora placed her palms on both sides of his face. A soft silver glow radiated from her fingertips as she summoned the Veil Sight—a rare ability she barely understood, one that allowed her to see hidden magical truths.Light washed over Collins.And what Aurora saw made her gasp.A s
CHAPTER 81_THE SHADOW THAT WORE RICK’S FACE
The night wind cut cold through the ruined corridors of the Hollow Sanctuary as Rick staggered forward, hand pressed to the burn on his palm. The mark from the Whispering Door still glowed faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat under his skin.Kai hurried beside him. “Rick, slow down—your pulse is unstable.”“I’m fine,” Rick muttered.He wasn’t.Something had followed him out of that door.Something he couldn’t name.Lira caught up from behind, breath sharp. “Rick, wait—your shadow—”He froze.Because his shadow……was still moving even though he stood perfectly still.A dark ripple ran through it. The form stretched long, too long, its edges bending like smoke.Kai’s jaw tightened. “That’s not normal.”“No kidding,” Rick said, stepping back.The shadow stepped forward.Lira cursed. “Guys… that’s not a shadow. That’s—”It lifted its head.And Rick felt his stomach twist.Because the shadow didn’t imitate him anymore.It looked directly at him, eyes glowing a pale fractured silver.Kai raise
CHAPTER 82_THE TEST OF THE BRIDGE RUNE
The air beneath the Sanctuary shifted as Rick followed Kai and Lira into the lower chambers—places he’d never seen, places even most Veilbreakers weren’t allowed to enter.The torches here burned blue.Not magical.Not natural.Alive.Rick watched as flames curled toward him, reacting to the glow in his palm. “These torches… why do they move like that?”Kai didn’t answer immediately. His voice came low, uneasy.“They only respond to one kind of power. Bridge energy.”Rick swallowed. Hard.Lira walked beside him, arms folded, eyes sharp. “Rick… what happened with your shadow proves your rune is waking up. We need to measure how far the awakening has gone.”Rick tried to joke, but his voice cracked. “What if it says I’m doomed?”Kai didn’t smile. “Then we deal with it.”They reached a heavy iron gate carved with circular patterns—like ripples spreading through water. Kai laid his palm on the metal, and the carvings lit up one by one.The gate shuddered open.Inside was a circular room w
CHAPTER 83_THE SEARCH FOR WHAT SHOULDN’T EXIST
Rick sat on the cold platform long after the vision faded, his palm still glowing like a coal refusing to die. His father’s face—older, scared, half-torn by some unseen force—played again and again in his head.Alive.He was alive.Or something wearing his face wanted Rick to believe that.Lira knelt beside him. “Your breathing’s too fast. Focus on me.”Rick pulled in a slow breath. “It felt real. Too real.”Kai checked the cracked runes on the platform. “The Archive Void doesn’t fabricate visions. It only reveals what’s already connected to your bloodline.”“So that shadow thing—” Rick swallowed “—is tied to my family?”Kai hesitated. “Yes. And that’s a problem bigger than we expected.”Before Rick could respond, the Sanctuary trembled—just a tiny shiver, as if the earth exhaled.Lira stood instantly. “That wasn’t natural.”Rick rose too, dizziness fading. “The shadow?”“Not sure,” Kai replied. “But the readings are strange. Something crossed the outer wards.”Rick didn’t wait. “Then
CHAPTER 84_WHAT LIES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BREATHING WALL
The ash from the Echo still drifted in the air like dying snow when Rick lowered his hand. The glowing rune on his palm dimmed again—but not fully. It throbbed in slow, unsettling pulses.Alive. Watching. Listening.Kai steadied himself. “Rick… that was no minor Echo. That was a High-Form. Those things only appear when the Door is close to breaching.”Lira exhaled sharply. “Meaning something inside is pushing harder.”Rick clenched his fists. “And it’s using me to do it.”No one disagreed.Kai moved to the stone corridor that followed. His fingers traced the crystallized scorch marks left from Rick’s blast.“Rick… your father wasn’t wrong. Something out there wants the Bridge Rune awakened. And it wants you.”Rick looked down again at the mark on his hand, burning faintly under the skin. “What does this rune even do? Everyone keeps saying it’s powerful, dangerous… ‘world-shifting’… but no one tells me what it actually is.”Lira exchanged a long look with Kai—the kind that said they kn
CHAPTER 85 — THE WHISPERS OF VENGEANCE
The night settled over Aether High like a heavy cloak, the kind that made every shadow look alive. Rick felt it. The shift. The silence. The storm brewing beneath the surface of their world.He wasn’t wrong.1. The Confession That Changes EverythingLiora stood in the empty music hall, hands trembling as she held a folded piece of paper—an old letter. The handwriting was unmistakable. Rick’s father.Rick approached her slowly.“Liora… why did you call me here?”She didn’t speak at first. She simply handed him the letter.Rick unfolded it.One line made his vision blur.“If anything happens to me, know that Collins Lutherchris was the last person I trusted.”Rick’s breath froze.His father never mentioned that name to him. Ever.“Where did you get this?” Rick asked, voice tightening.Liora swallowed hard.“It was hidden in the old dorm archives. Someone didn’t want you to see it… Rick, your father wasn’t just betrayed—he was hunted.”Rick closed his eyes, jaw clenching. Pieces of his p
CHAPTER 86 — THE VEIL BEGINS TO TEAR
The storm raged through the night, but inside Aether High’s ancient library, a different storm brewed—quieter, colder, and far more dangerous.Rick stood between towering shelves, his fingers running across dusty volumes his father once researched. Liora watched him quietly from the entrance, knowing he was searching for something… even if he didn’t yet know what.But someone else had been waiting.A soft echo of footsteps.A shadow moving at the far end.And then—his voice.“You came.”Rick stiffened instantly.Collins Lutherchris stepped into the lantern light, his presence sharp, controlled, unreadable. His coat fluttered with the wind leaking through the gray windows.Liora gasped quietly.Rick didn’t look away.1. The Confrontation“Why didn’t you tell me you knew my father?” Rick demanded.Collins stared at him, expression unreadable.“Because the day your father died,” Collins said, “I made a promise to protect you from everything he feared.”Rick’s voice dropped to a razor edg
CHAPTER 87 — THE SHADOW THAT WATCHES
Night draped itself over Aether High like a funeral cloth.Rick couldn’t sleep.Not after what Collins told him.Not after realizing his father hadn’t died accidentally—but had been killed.He stood at his dorm window, staring at the moon—thin, sharp, and watching.Liora sat on the edge of his bed, her voice soft.“Rick… you’ve been silent for too long. Please talk to me.”Rick exhaled shakily.“How am I supposed to talk when everything I knew about my life is a lie?”She walked closer.“Then let me help you carry the truth.”He met her eyes—full of fear, yet fiercely loyal.But before Rick could speak, the lights flickered.Once.Twice.Then—darkness swallowed the room.Liora froze.Rick’s pulse spiked.A low hum vibrated through the walls, like something massive breathing behind them.Rick whispered, “The Veil…”No.It wasn’t the Veil.It was something moving through it.---1. THE WARNING IN THE DARKThe shadows along the wall began to swirl—slowly, deliberately—like ink stirring i
CHAPTER 88 — THE ORDER’S HAND
The symbol on the floor pulsed—slow, cold, and rhythmic—like a heartbeat that didn’t belong in the human world.Rick stared at it, barely breathing.“That’s… the same mark from my father’s research,” he whispered.“The Hollow Eye.”Collins nodded, eyes locked on the burning sigil.“This is worse than I expected. If they’re sending markers, it means one thing…”Liora clutched Rick’s arm, voice trembling.“…they’re already inside the city.”Collins didn’t look up.“They’re not just in the city.”He swallowed.“They’ve been here… for years.”---1. THE MARK SPEAKSThe floor trembled.The sigil cracked.A faint whisper seeped from the burning eye—flat, distorted, and inhuman:“Bridge… we see you…”Rick’s heart slammed against his ribs.The voice bled through the room like icy smoke.“You cannot run from what you are…”Collins snapped, “Rick—don’t respond. Do NOT speak to it.”But the voice felt like it was drilling directly into Rick’s mind.“You are the doorway…The path…The blood our m
CHAPTER 89 — THE SHADOW WITHIN
Rick didn’t feel the shadow hit him.He felt it enter him.A cold shock punched through his chest—not pain,not force,but an icy emptiness that felt like something crawling under his skin.Rick gasped and fell to his knees.Liora screamed, running toward him—but Collins grabbed her arm.“Don’t touch him! Not yet!”Rick’s hands shook violently as black cracks spread up his arms like living veins.His own shadow was inside him.Moving.Searching.The Hunter stepped forward.“Do not resist, Bridge. The division must be completed.”Collins snarled, “Over my dead body!”But the Hunter barely acknowledged him.Rick trembled on the floor, teeth clenched.“G—get out of… my head…”The shadow inside him whispered—a familiar voice…his own voice.“You cannot run from what you are.”Rick screamed.The room dimmed.The walls bent and twisted.Liora clutched her head, trying to block the psychic pressure.Collins braced himself, raising the talisman.“Rick! Listen to me! The shadow is trying to