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BOOK 2Chapter 239 – When the City Blinks
The city didn’t feel different.That was the problem.Rick stood on the roof of a half-abandoned parking structure, staring down at flickering streetlights and slow-moving traffic. Horns blared. A train rattled somewhere underground. Neon signs buzzed like tired insects.Normal.Too normal.Behind him, Kaela adjusted her jacket, trying—and failing—to blend in. The city didn’t suit her. The Veilborn forest had sharp edges and honest danger. This place hid its teeth.“You feel it too, don’t you?” she asked.Rick nodded. “The Veil’s thinner here.”Kaela frowned. “Cities should be loud to it. Crowds. Belief. Fear.”Rick exhaled slowly. “Something’s dampening it.”As if summoned by his words, the hairs on his arms rose.The air blinked.Not shifted. Not tore.Just… blinked.Rick’s shadow jerked sideways, lagging half a second behind him.Kaela swore under her breath. “That’s not natural.”“No,” Rick agreed. “That’s deliberate.”A low hum rolled across the rooftops, barely audible, like a s
BOOK 2Chapter 238 – The Price of Being Known
Rick didn’t sleep.Not because he couldn’t close his eyes—but because every time he tried, the Veil pushed back.He sat against the base of a twisted tree near their temporary camp, elbows on his knees, watching the slow drift of glowing spores through the air. The forest hummed softly now, like a distant engine idling.Kaela slept a few steps away, one hand resting on the hilt of her curved blade. Even unconscious, she looked ready to fight.Rick envied that.His shadow stretched long across the roots, darker than it should have been. It twitched once, then stilled.“You’re not subtle,” Rick muttered.The shadow didn’t answer—but it leaned closer.Rick swallowed. “Yeah. Thought so.”He flexed his fingers. The silver-and-black sensation stirred under his skin, restrained but alert, like a coiled wire. Ever since the Memory Well, something had shifted. Not power—clarity.He understood now why the Veil watched him.Why it whispered.Why it waited.Footsteps crunched softly through leave
BOOK 2Chapter 237 – What the Veil Remembers
The forest didn’t return to normal.Not fully.Even after the Shadowbound withdrew, the air stayed tight, like the world was holding its breath. Leaves glowed dimmer now, their light pulsing in slow, uneven rhythms. Somewhere far off, branches cracked—too heavy to be wind.Rick stood where the ash had settled, staring at the dark smear soaking into the roots.“You felt that, didn’t you?” he said.Kaela nodded. “The Veil recorded it.”Rick frowned. “Recorded?”“Everything that matters leaves an echo,” she said. “Especially choices.”Rick exhaled slowly. “So now the forest knows I can kill Shadowbound.”Kaela looked at him. “No. Now it knows how you kill them.”That didn’t make him feel better.They moved again, deeper this time. The path Kaela chose wound downward, sloping into a shallow ravine where the trees grew close and tangled, their roots clawing out of the soil like exposed bones.Rick’s shadow stayed close now. Too close.It moved half a second slower than he did, like it was
BOOK 2Chapter 236 – Lines in the Bark
They didn’t run.That was the first thing Rick noticed about himself as they moved deeper into the forest. His legs worked, his heart raced, but there was no panic driving him forward anymore. Just purpose—and a tight, coiled awareness that something would break soon.Kaela led them along a narrow path where the glowing leaves thinned and the air grew cooler. The Domain changed here. The trees were older, thicker, their bark carved with faint symbols that looked less like writing and more like scars.Rick slowed. “These markings… they’re not natural, are they?”Kaela shook her head. “No. They’re boundary lines.”“Between what?”“Between those who hunt,” she said, “and those who are hunted.”Rick exhaled. “Great. And we’re standing where?”Kaela didn’t answer right away. She stopped near a massive tree whose trunk split into three twisting columns. Pressing her palm to the bark, she whispered something Rick didn’t recognize.The tree responded.The symbols lit up, crawling across the b
BOOK 2Chapter 235 – The Weight of Being Seen
The forest exhaled.Rick felt it—deep in his chest, like the world itself had just finished holding its breath. The silver glow dimmed slightly, shadows settling back into their natural places, but the pressure didn’t leave.If anything, it grew heavier.Kaela straightened slowly, eyes scanning the trees. “Do you feel that?”Rick nodded. “Yeah. Like… everything’s watching again. Just quieter about it.”“That’s worse,” she muttered.They moved out of the clearing carefully. Each step Rick took felt different now, as if the ground recognized him. Roots shifted subtly beneath his boots, never tripping him, never blocking his path.“Okay,” Rick said, trying to keep his voice light. “That’s new. And unsettling.”Kaela didn’t smile. “The Domain responds to status. Before, you were an anomaly. Now you’re… acknowledged.”“By everything,” Rick guessed.She glanced at him. “By things we don’t even have names for.”They hadn’t gone far when Rick’s mark began to itch.Not burn.Not pulse.Itched.
BOOK 2 Chapter 234 – The One Who Returned
Light didn’t fade.It pressed.Rick felt it crush against him from every side—hot, cold, sharp, and numb all at once. His body twisted as if being pulled through a narrow opening that refused to fit him.Then—He slammed into the ground.Air rushed violently back into his lungs. Rick coughed, rolling onto his side, hands clawing at soil instead of bone, heat instead of cold.Grass.Real grass.The scent of earth and rain hit him so hard he almost laughed.Rick pushed himself up, heart hammering. He was kneeling in a wide clearing beneath a dim, silver-lit sky. Towering trees ringed the area, their leaves glowing faintly like frost-touched glass.The Veilborn Domain.But something was different.The forest was silent.No whispers.No moving shadows.No watching eyes.Too silent.“Rick.”He turned.Kaela stood several feet away, her swords lowered but ready. Her face was pale, eyes wide—fixed on him like she wasn’t sure he was real.“Hey,” Rick croaked. “You look like you just saw a gho
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