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Home / Romance / SoulBound: Chosen by Darkness / Chapter 21 - Chapter 27

All Chapters of SoulBound: Chosen by Darkness: Chapter 21 - Chapter 27

27 Chapters

18—The Circle

18 — The Circle of SaltThe sanctuary didn’t sleep anymore.It dozed in shifts—breath shallow, candlelight steadying itself after every small shiver of pressure that brushed the wards. Nori could feel the difference in the air when she woke: a tautness, like the walls were listening as hard as the people inside them.Rafael was already moving.“Emergency protocol,” he said quietly, voice carrying just far enough to reach the clustered figures in the main room. “We don’t pack. We stage. Two exits, rotating pairs. No names spoken. No phones on. If the perimeter locks, we disperse into the seams.”The seams. The old routes. The forgotten stairwells and service corridors that let the sanctuary dissolve instead of shatter.Nori pulled on her jacket, fingers stiff. The bond behind her sternum throbbed with a contained ache—no flare, no broadcast. Just a pressure that matched the room’s tension.Rafael met her eyes. “They’re manufacturing conditions,” he said. “Fear. Exhaustion. Isolation.

Last Updated : 2026-02-05

19—Lorak’s Blade

19 — Lorak’s BladeThe clinic annex wore mercy like a uniform.Soft light bled through frosted glass. Rounded lettering curved across the door: BOND WELLNESS — RELIEF • REST • MERCY. The words were designed to be read without resistance, the way lullabies were designed to be heard without thought.Tharien didn’t touch the door.He stood in the shadow of a stairwell across the street, rain threading down the edge of his hood, and watched the logistics instead of the lies. Two vans idled with engines low. Staff rotated positions every six minutes. Not police. Not medics. The choreography of people who believed themselves authorized to move bodies without calling it violence.The bond behind his sternum tightened the closer he drifted to the annex—an edge-sliced feeling, like a blade testing where to cut. Not pain. Threat.Lorak is here.Tharien crossed the street with the timing of the traffic light and slipped into the service corridor that fed the annex’s back entrance. The city’s hu

Last Updated : 2026-02-05

20—Burn

20 — When the Thread BurnsiThe crisis wore a human face.It was a woman on the sanctuary steps, knees scraped, breath ragged, one hand pressed to her side like she’d taken a fall she couldn’t shake. Her eyes found Nori through the warped glass of the entryway and widened with practiced relief.“Please,” the woman said, voice carrying just far enough to sound urgent but not loud. “Someone—anyone—can you help me?”Nori was on her feet before Rafael could finish saying her name.“Wait—” he started.The bond behind her sternum surged—heat blooming too fast, too bright—like the world had yanked on a live wire. The air in the doorway felt thinner, quieter, the street beyond muffled into an unnatural hush.Watcher pressure.Rafael’s hand caught her wrist. “This is staged,” he said low. “They bait with pain.”“I know,” Nori said—and still the ache in her chest answered the sight of another person hurting. “If it’s real—”“That’s how they get you,” Bea snapped from behind her. “They dress th

Last Updated : 2026-02-05

21—Starving

21 — Starving the DarkThe sanctuary went dim on purpose.Not darkness—deliberate low light. Candle flames steadied in their glass jars, each one a small, contained presence that didn’t reach for more space than it needed. The room arranged itself into a loose circle without anyone giving orders. People sat where they landed, close enough to feel one another breathe, far enough to keep their edges intact.Rafael moved among them, quiet as a held breath.“This isn’t comfort,” he said softly, voice carrying just enough to be heard. “It’s resistance. We don’t soothe the dark. We starve it.”Nori sat with her knees drawn up, palms resting open on her thighs. The bond behind her sternum ached—present, contained. Not flaring. Not broadcasting. Just there, like a pulse she could choose to feel without letting it spill.Rafael stopped in the center of the circle. “Rules don’t change,” he said. “No names. No phones. Eyes open. Breathe with the room. If the thoughts turn cruel, you name where

Last Updated : 2026-02-05

22—Protocol Break

22 — The World Breaks ProtocolTharien learned the city’s new language by the way it moved.Not sirens. Not running feet. Clipboards. Badges. Vans that parked too neatly, idled too long. People who waited with the patience of procedure instead of the hunger of hunters.Protocol had replaced pursuit.He watched from the shadow of a service stairwell as a wellness team crossed an intersection and flashed laminated cards at a Watcher posted on the corner. The Watcher nodded once and stepped aside. No wards tested. No pressure shift. Just permission passing hands.Paperwork cuts deeper than knives, Tharien thought.His phone buzzed with a burst of data he hadn’t asked for—an unsecured channel he’d learned to listen to because institutions were sloppy when they were confident.— Annex cleared for entry.— Compliance route approved.— Noncompliant pairs flagged for “assessment.”Tharien’s jaw tightened. That was how the Watcher had walked into the sanctuary. Not through ritual. Through aut

Last Updated : 2026-02-05

23—What Stays

23 — What StaysThe sanctuary felt smaller than it had yesterday.Not because the walls had moved—but because the rules had.Nori stood in the narrow hallway near the back exit, her jacket half-zipped, the low light catching on the edges of packed bags that hadn’t been there an hour ago. People spoke in murmurs, their voices shaped by the knowledge that quiet was no longer camouflage—it was just a pause before notice.The bond behind her sternum didn’t flare.It steadied.Not warmth. Not absence. A pressure that felt like alignment.If she stayed, Tharien would remain the blade they held over her.If she moved, she would become the choice they couldn’t make for her.Rafael appeared at the end of the hall, already knowing. He always knew when people decided something that broke protocol. “No,” he said softly, which was worse than shouting. “We don’t trade one target for another.”Nori met his eyes. “They’re using him because I’m hidden,” she replied. “That makes me complicit.”Bea was

Last Updated : 2026-02-05

24—Devotion

24 — The Devotion They FearThe street went quiet in the way predators make silence.Not empty. Not safe. Just… held.Nori felt it before she saw it—the pressure drawing the world inward, sound thinning, color draining at the edges of her vision. The ritual architecture was already in place. Salt lines glimmered faintly against wet pavement, half-circles completed by careful hands that never stepped into the wards. The air tasted metallic, like rain before a storm that never broke.Lorak stood at the center of the geometry.He wasn’t dressed like a priest. He wasn’t dressed like a hunter. He looked like a tired man in a clean coat, eyes shadowed with the weight of choices he told himself were necessary. In his hand, he held a small, pale token—bone or ivory or something made to resemble both.Consent token.The bond behind Nori’s sternum tightened, a living wire pulled too hard.Rafael’s voice was a low line of steel at her shoulder. “This is where they narrow your choices,” he said.

Last Updated : 2026-02-05

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