Soulbound

16

The city felt wrong in its bones.

Avery had thought the plaza was the worst of it—the writhing shadows, the pulsing shard, the flood of alien memories that had nearly drowned her—but as she and Kael moved deeper through the streets, she realized the corruption hadn’t stayed in one place. It bled outward, seeping into alleys, buildings, even the people.

A traffic light flickered red to green to red again, strobing violently until the bulb shattered. Overhead, neon signs sputtered, letters stammering like broken voices. A bus sat abandoned in the middle of an intersection, its windows smeared with handprints, its engine wheezing faintly though no one sat inside.

Everywhere, shadows moved where they shouldn’t. They crept up the sides of buildings, stretched too long across the pavement, wriggled even when there was no wind.

Avery hugged her scythe close, forcing her eyes to keep moving. The tether in her chest hadn’t eased since the plaza. If anything, it felt stronger—like a thread wound through her ribcage, tugging toward some unseen center. The shard had touched her, and now it didn’t intend to let go.

Kael walked just ahead, blade lowered but his stance sharp, like every muscle was coiled. He didn’t speak, but Avery could read the way his eyes flicked to every shifting shadow. He was cataloguing threats, mapping exits, weighing outcomes.

Avery stopped suddenly. Across the street, two men were screaming at each other outside a bar. Their words were garbled, incoherent, but the rage was real—faces red, fists flying. Around them, a small crowd had gathered, not intervening, just… watching. Eyes blank, like puppets.

One of the men lunged, and his shadow twisted upward like a jagged spear. Avery flinched, ready to move.

Kael’s hand shot out, barring her path. “No.”

She glared at him. “He’s going to kill—”

“He’s already lost.” His tone was clipped, merciless. “Interfering now wastes time and energy. You cannot save them. Focus on the source.”

Her stomach twisted. She wanted to argue, to shove past him, but the words caught in her throat. Because she knew he was right. She had seen what happened when she failed to prioritize—the corruption didn’t stop, it grew.

Still, she couldn’t stop herself from whispering, “They’re just people.”

Kael’s eyes flicked to hers, softer for only a breath. “They are victims. And if we succeed, we will spare countless more. Remember that.”

She clenched her jaw and turned away. The sounds of fighting followed them down the street.

The tether pulled at her again, harder now. She stumbled, clutching her chest. Kael caught the motion instantly.

“You feel it,” he said flatly.

She hesitated, then nodded. “Like it’s… inside me. Like it’s pulling me toward it.”

His gaze sharpened. “That is dangerous. The shard has marked you. If you let it dig deeper, it will consume you from within.”

Avery bristled. “Then maybe we can use it. If it’s tethered to me, I can find it faster than anyone else.”

“Or it can find you,” Kael countered coldly.

Before she could answer, a scream split the night. They turned a corner and found a woman collapsed on the sidewalk, clutching her head. Her body convulsed, shadow-tendrils writhing from beneath her skin like black veins. A man knelt beside her, shaking her shoulders, begging her to wake up.

The tendrils snapped at him, forcing him back. Then the woman’s body jerked unnaturally, and she rose with a shriek that made Avery’s blood run cold. Her eyes were entirely black.

A corrupted host.

The woman lunged, shadow-wrapped limbs stretching too long, claws raking the air. The man screamed and bolted, vanishing into the night. The host turned on Avery and Kael.

Kael raised his blade, but Avery stepped forward first.

“I’ve got it,” she said, voice tight.

Kael arched a brow but didn’t move. “Prove it.”

The host came fast. Avery spun, her scythe slicing wide to intercept the first strike. Sparks of Veil energy hissed against shadow as the blade cut clean through one writhing limb. The host shrieked, staggering, but recovered quickly, shadows stitching together again.

It lunged again, and Avery ducked low, rolling beneath its claw and driving her scythe upward. The blade cleaved through its chest, shadows bursting outward in a spray of mist. The host staggered back, writhing.

Avery’s pulse thundered. She could feel the tether thrumming harder, almost as if the shard itself was watching her.

The host shrieked again, shadows flaring. Avery forced herself to breathe, to remember Kael’s words: anticipate, don’t react. She studied the pattern—the way the tendrils lunged in arcs, always left then right, always high then low. She shifted her stance, waiting.

When the next strike came, she was ready. Her scythe swung in a sharp, deliberate arc, severing both limbs before driving clean through the host’s core. This time, the shadows screamed as they unraveled, dissipating into smoke.

The body crumpled to the ground, empty.

Avery stood panting, chest heaving, sweat running down her spine. She glanced at Kael, bracing for criticism.

But his expression was unreadable, save for the faintest flicker of approval in his eyes. “Better,” he said simply.

Just one word, but it lit something fierce inside her chest.

They moved on. The streets grew quieter, but not safer. They passed a row of storefronts where mannequins in shattered windows stood twisted, their shadows moving independently. A pack of stray dogs snarled at empty space, eyes glowing faintly red. A subway entrance exhaled a steady hiss of smoke, though no train passed below.

“This is spreading faster than expected,” Kael said at last, his tone grim. “It’s no longer a single soul. Its corruption is infecting the city itself.”

Avery shivered. “Then we need to stop it now.”

He shook his head. “Not without reinforcements. We report back to the Council. They must know the scale.”

She bit her lip, glancing around. The tether thrummed again in her chest, insistent, pulling at her deeper than before. “It’s not done with me,” she whispered.

Kael turned to her, eyes narrowing. “What do you mean?”

She hesitated, then admitted, “Every time I fight it, every time I touch its power, the pull gets stronger. Like it’s not just here in the city anymore. Like… it’s in me.”

The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating. Kael’s expression didn’t change, but his hand tightened on his blade.

“We’ll bring this to the Council,” he said finally, voice clipped. “And we’ll pray they see it as a tether to use—rather than a weakness to cut away.”

The words chilled her, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she cast one last look at the city. In the distance, beyond the skyline, shadows rippled across entire districts now, stretching like veins under the skin of the world.

The corruption wasn’t contained anymore. It was spreading.

And the shard inside her pulsed once, as if in answer.