Soulbound Read Free

sweetness as the sugar melted on my tongue. After my second bite, I sensed something in the revelry around me change. Then I heard it, high-pitched and in the distance. Someone was screaming.

C H A P T E R
Two
    T here is a stark difference between a scream of joy and a scream of terror. Something in its pitch shakes you to the core when you hear a terrified scream, and my core was trembling. Who was screaming? What was happening? I turned around, trying to locate the source of panic, but was nearly knocked over by Louis. His face was white and drawn, and just as I opened my mouth to ask him what had frightened him, he mumbled something unintelligible through trembling lips and took off toward the north woods.
    Someone screamed again, this time so loud that it hurt my ears. The crowd pushed toward me as people rushed to flee whatever it was that was causing such fear, but I fought against the tide of running feet, pressing my way against them, toward whatever had instilled such terror in my neighbors. Bodies slammed up against me. I was surrounded by wide, frightened eyes. It was asif no one could see anyone else, just different routes of escape from whatever was behind them. Friends climbed over friends. Fathers ran ahead, leaving their children behind. And through it all, my heart slammed against my ribs in a terrified rhythm. But I pushed forward anyway, determined to see the source of all this fear with my own eyes, and help stop it if I could.
    The crowd’s movement was dizzying, and after a moment, I lost my direction. People were running everywhere, and I was spinning around, uncertain where to turn. My foot slipped on something slick, and I steadied myself, regaining my balance. Then I looked down.
    The toe of my shoe was tipped in burgundy. The ground beneath it held a puddle of something wet and dark. I inhaled slowly, forcing air into my reluctant lungs. Blood. There was blood on my shoe, on the ground. Which meant that someone or something was hurt.
    The puddle at my feet branched out and I followed the bloody trail through the crowd, my heart racing, my nerves so ramped up that I was shaking. I pushed past a woman dressed all in blue, who was sobbing uncontrollably, and stopped dead in my tracks.
    Avery was lying on the ground, covered in blood. The moment I saw her, my heart stopped completely.
    It took me a second to notice Micah lying over her, bloody and limp, his eyes staring lifelessly into the crowd. Avery cradled his head against her chest, tearsdrawing lines down her dirty cheeks. A large, mouth-shaped wound had left Micah’s neck mutilated. Something had attacked and killed him. But it hadn’t been able to take more than a bite. On the ground beside Avery lay a large, bloodied rock. Avery had apparently bashed the thing over the head a few times to stop it from eating Micah completely.
    I ran over to her, shoving my way past the thinning crowd, and dropped to my knees beside her in shock. “Oh, Avery, I’m so sorry. What happened? What…what did this?”
    Avery’s sobs grew louder, but they were drowned out by a terrible screeching noise. I stared up into the treetops, where the noise was coming from, but couldn’t make out anything in the darkness. The torches that lined the street cast a warm glow over the village, but outside of the flames’ range, the darkness was intensified. It was as if the darkness itself was crying out and hungry for nothing but the villagers of Kessler.
    Then something large and heavy dropped down from the treetops, landing with surprising grace just feet in front of me. It stood on all fours, but towered over me, its black, soulless eyes staring me down. Its skin was blue and scaly, as if the creature had been born with its own defensive armor. And its breath smelled foul, like rotten meat and blood, metallic and sour. The smell of it, even at a distance, sent the threat of vomit to the backof my throat. Snorting, it turned its head slightly, peering around me to