All Chapters of THE SHADOW BRIDE: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

25 Chapters

Chapter 11 — Beneath the Dust

*Avery*I don’t scream.I can’t. My throat locks up the moment the flashlight flickers out, sealing me in pitch-black silence. No light. No echo. Just a thick, pressing void that tightens around my skin like a second, unwelcome body.I should be panicking. I should be clawing up the stairs, pounding at the trapdoor, screaming for Elias. But none of that comes. The fear is too deep—older than me, older than this room. It’s not panic. It’s recognition.I feel it again. That presence. Watching me from the corner that shouldn’t be there. From the shadow that crawls just outside the edge of sense.You’re a return.Those words weren’t in my ears. They were in my bones.“Who are you?” I whisper.The shadows shift, and in the hush that follows, I don’t hear a voice—but I see something.A flicker of a memory. Not mine.A girl stands in this room. Maybe sixteen, maybe seventeen. Her dress is faded, her hands stained with dirt and blood. She looks like me—but she isn’t me. Her eyes are wide, too

Last Updated : 2025-04-22

Chapter 12 – In Her Blood

I used to think my family had no legacy. That we were the footnotes in someone else’s story—the offshoots, the accidents. But now I’m starting to think we were erased on purpose.After that night in the cellar, I don’t sleep. I don’t eat much, either. Elias gives me space—probably out of guilt. Or fear. Maybe both. We barely speak, and when we do, it’s clipped, cold, transactional. Good.But I can’t sit still.I’ve been staring at the letters for hours, scattered across the bed like puzzle pieces made of ghosts. Elara Maddox. Ellis Maddox. The Watcher. The line between madness and legacy feels paper-thin.And then there’s the word from that dream—or whatever it was:You’re a return.Not just a bride. Not just a stand-in.A return.I don’t know what that means, but I can’t find the answer in

Last Updated : 2025-04-23

Chapter 13 – The Hollow

I’ve heard of Gatlin Hollow. It’s one of those towns people whisper about. Not quite forgotten, but its name feels old, worn out by the years. The kind of place you drive through and forget about the second you cross the county line. If you ask anyone, they’ll tell you it’s full of people who are as twisted as their family trees. It’s all fire and ash and secrets buried deep in the ground.But I have to go there. I’m standing at the gas station just outside of town, staring at the road ahead. The tires of my car screech as I turn down a dirt road that winds through a forest of skeletal trees. The sun is setting, blood-red and heavy in the sky. It’s like the world knows I’m stepping into something I can’t turn back from.The address Ruth gave me was vague, just a name and a description: “spiritualist bookstore.” I’m starting to feel the weight of the whole town on my shoulders as I drive deeper into

Last Updated : 2025-04-24

Chapter 14 – The Lake of Secrets

The fog has thickened by the time I arrive, the low mist curling around the trees, like it’s trying to hide the secrets that lie beneath the surface. My car comes to a stop at the edge of the lake, its waters black as oil, reflecting nothing. The moon is hidden behind the thick clouds, leaving everything in a dull, oppressive darkness.I can feel it—the pull, that invisible thread that ties me to this place, this water. There’s something here, something ancient, something I don’t understand but can’t escape. I leave the car running, its engine a steady hum behind me, and step out onto the soft, damp earth. My boots sink into the mud with each step, but I don’t care. I’m walking towards the water, towards the source of all this, and I can’t turn back.As I reach the shoreline, I stop. The air is cold, the kind of cold that cuts through you like a knife. It wraps around my chest and throat, tightening until I can’t br

Last Updated : 2025-04-24

Chapter 15 – The Watcher’s Grasp

(Elias’s Point of View)I watch as Avery stares at the lake, her fingers trembling by her side, and I feel the knot in my chest tighten. It’s never easy to explain what the Watcher is, let alone why it’s still here, still watching. I should have stopped her the moment she came to this cursed place. Should have kept her away from this town, from this fate. But I didn’t. And now it’s too late.I’ve watched her since the day she walked into this house. She doesn’t know it, of course. She doesn’t know how closely I’ve been watching, how deeply this bloodline runs in her veins. But I know. I know what she is.More than that, I know what she’s about to become.The wind picks up again, whipping through the trees, pulling at her hair like invisible fingers. I want to warn her, want to tell her to stay away, but the words get stuck in my throat. The curse is relentless. I’ve learned th

Last Updated : 2025-04-25

Chapter 16 – The Breaking Point

(Avery’s Point of View)The silence between Elias and me stretches, thick and suffocating. My heart pounds in my chest, each beat louder than the last. The weight of his words hangs in the air like a fog, thickening around me until it’s hard to breathe. I try to steady myself, to pull back from the edge of something I don’t fully understand. But every part of me, every instinct I’ve ever had, is telling me I need to know. I need to understand what’s really happening here.“You’re the key?” I ask, the words tasting foreign on my tongue, as if they don’t belong to me. “To what, exactly?”Elias doesn’t answer at first, his gaze flicking to the lake once more, his jaw tightening. The muscles in his neck are rigid, like he’s holding something back. I know he’s scared. He doesn’t want me to know what’s at stake, but I can see it now. I can see how this all fits together, how this cursed, suffocating town has wrapped itself around us both.“You’re not just a pawn,” Elias finally says, his vo

Last Updated : 2025-05-08

Chapter 17 – Into the Depths

(Avery’s Point of View)I can’t sleep.Every time I close my eyes, I see the lake. I hear the faint whisper of wind through the trees, the distant murmur of the water lapping at the shore. My body feels as if it’s been pulled toward it—toward the place where it all began. The thing that has been waiting for me, hiding in the dark corners of my mind, is now impossible to ignore.I can feel the weight of Elias’s words pressing down on me. The Watcher. The curse. The bloodline. Every detail that he so carefully left out, the dark truths he’s kept hidden from me—it’s all starting to make sense in the worst way possible. The pieces of the puzzle, once scattered, are slowly falling into place. But the bigger picture? It’s still out of focus, hazy, like trying to see through fog.I stand by the window, looking out at the mist rising from the lake. It’s the early hours of the morning, and t

Last Updated : 2025-05-08

Chapter 18 – The Weight of the Curse

(Elias’s Point of View)I watch as Avery walks away from me, her back straight, her pace determined. She doesn’t look back. Part of me wants to call after her, to stop her, but I know better. She’s already made up her mind. The truth is out, and there’s no taking it back. The burden I’ve carried for so long—the burden of the Maddox family curse—has been handed to her now. She may not realize it, but she’s deeper in this than she thinks.I turn to the water, the still surface reflecting the pale moonlight like some kind of cruel mirror. The lake has always been a place of death for the Maddoxes. A place of bargains made in the shadows, of promises bound in blood.And now, Avery is part of that bloodline, too. She thinks she’s just a replacement for Camille, but I know better. The Watcher has chosen her. He’s always chosen her.The weight of the truth settles heavy on my chest. I don’t know h

Last Updated : 2025-05-08

Chapter 19 – Fractured Bonds

(Elias’s Point of View)I’m not sure when it happened, but the walls between Avery and me have slowly begun to crumble. They’re still there—there’s too much pain, too many secrets—but there’s something undeniable about the way she looks at me now. It’s not hatred anymore, not entirely. There’s confusion, yes, and fear. But beneath all that, there’s something else. Something raw.I catch her staring at me when she thinks I’m not looking. She doesn’t even try to hide it. It’s like she’s trying to piece me together, like she’s trying to figure out how much of what I’ve said is the truth and how much is just another lie. I don’t blame her for it. I’ve done nothing but lie to her from the very start.Tonight, it’s quieter than usual in the house. The shadows feel heavier, the silence oppressive. After everything we’ve learned about the Watcher, the curse, the Maddox legacy, I’m not sure how to move forward. It feels like we’re standing on the edge of something far worse than either of us c

Last Updated : 2025-05-17

Chapter 20 – The Ties That Bind

(Avery’s Point of View)The moonlight spills in through the window like a pale veil, casting long shadows across the floor. I can’t sleep. I haven’t been able to for days. Every night feels like I’m drifting on the edge of something, caught between two worlds. The one where I’m Avery Harper, just a girl trying to survive her sister’s death and the mess of a life I never asked for, and the other where I’m Avery Maddox, tangled up in a curse I don’t understand, married to a man whose secrets are darker than his eyes.I sit on the edge of the bed, the room feeling too quiet, too heavy. The only sound is the faint crackling from the fireplace downstairs, the only sign of life in this house that feels more like a tomb than a home. It’s a mansion in name, but the walls feel too close, the halls too empty. I’ve started seeing things in the corners of my vision—flickers of movement, shadows that shift when I’m not looking directly at them. It’s not just the Watcher anymore. Something else is

Last Updated : 2025-05-17

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