The Seventh Life Of The Soulbound Villainess
I will do my work and I will survive this assignment and I will leave when there is a way to leave and I will never — never — let him close enough to—
Down the corridor, in the direction of the compound's central hall, I heard his voice for the first time at a distance — speaking to a senior disciple, something administrative, something about the morning's training schedule. Low, unhurried, the particular quality of someone who never raises their voice because they have never needed to.
Even at this distance, the threads blazed gold and absolute.
I closed my eyes.
I know how this ends, I told the dark behind my eyelids, told the threads, told the thing in my soul that remembered without reme