Page 66 of Shadebound
I stayed still, clinging to my sister’s corpse. Clinging to the mirror image of me that had been created with joy and life, instead of darkness and decay.
Death’s voice pushed harder into my head.You are what remains. What they couldn’t destroy. You are not to blame for any of this; only the monsters who caused it are.
The memory twisted again, darkness pressing against every part of me. But the more it tried to pull me under, the more forceful Death’s voice in my head got.
You are not the plague, Jinx. You are the darkness gifted form, and no shadow can break you. This plague will bring you no harm. Neither should anyone else.
You just have to hold on.
Hold on to the nightmares and remember that you control them.That you are more powerful than they will ever be.
I held on. With every ounce of self-control I could muster.
And then suddenly I was back.
Cold punched into my chest like it had claws. My lungs spasmed, dragging in air thick with salt and spite. The beach snapped back into view, bleak and grey beneath an overcast sky that was more like a lid than a ceiling. My hands stung, and when I looked down, blood welled from crescent moons torn into my palms by my own nails.
I’d clawed myself trying to hold on. Or maybe to let go.
Either way, I was back. Unfortunately. Fortunately. It was hard to decide which.
Professor Varl didn’t blink as I stumbled back to my feet. “Acceptable. You got out of that rather fast, Miss Draconis. I’m almost impressed.”
He turned away without another word. I took a few steps back, forcing my body to move like it wasn’t trembling, like I hadn’t just crawled through the worst day of my life all over again. Zayden caught my hand as I returned to the edge of the circle and gave it a brief squeeze—reassurance in the only form he seemed capable of offering.
My shoulders trembled, and a single tear escaped, hot against the wind-chilled skin of my cheek. I didn’t wipe it away. Even when I caught eyes with Alessandro, who was watching me from the other side of the circle.
I didn’t even care when he smirked at me. As though my pain brought him joy. I just turned my head.
Maya stepped closer. Her eyes met mine with quiet understanding. She didn’t smile, didn’t speak. Just gave me that look, soft and open like she saw the cracks in my ribs and decided not to reach in and fix them. She knew she couldn’t.
Eris didn’t say anything. She stared, calm and still, but there was something there—a shadow flickering in her gaze that saidsame. That saidI know. That said she’d been down the same slope, scraping her hands bloody trying to claw her way back up. For the first time since Bells died, I saw something in someone else that resembled my own agony. A kindred rot. A mirror without the shine.
And I hated that it helped. Hated that she knew how losing loved ones felt.
Still trembling, still aching, still half-buried in that ruined memory, I heard the voice again as the lesson carried on.
You can endure this. Death said.You have to. Worse will come, and you will have no choice but to prepare.
For some reason, that didn’t soothe me.
At all.
Field Journal — Entry #671 - Classified
There are not many shadebound. Fewer with each generation. No spell can summon us. No ritual can force the change. We are rare, and always have been. No one knows why. Death doesn’t explain.
Perhaps it’s because most souls go easily—tired, ready, at peace with the story they’ve lived. Even the ones who burn to come back often vanish too quickly, slipping from his reach before he can offer the choice. He cannot save what he cannot hear.
But the shadebound... perhaps we are the ones who scream the loudest. Who fight the hardest. Who cling to the edge of the world with bloodied fingers and refuse to be forgotten. And Death—silent, watchful—hears that defiance. He listens. And sometimes, he answers.
Not out of kindness.
But curiosity.
Chapter Twenty, The Night That Sleep Evaded
That evening after dinner, everything dragged like someone had poured concrete into my bloodstream. I walked with the others through the halls, but none of it registered. Not the stone floor chilled by sea winds, not the flickering wallsconces that threw warped shadows across the walls, not even the murmur of students moving around me. My limbs burned. My eyes stung. The taste in my mouth was metallic.
