Soulbound Read Online Free

future.
    As upsetting as the first paragraph had been to read, it was nothing compared to the second, which was written in an elegant, swirling script.
    Dear Kaya,
    We at Shadow Academy look forward to you joining our ranks as a student Healer. It is with deepest regrets that I must inform you that the Barron to whom you were Soulbound has perished. A new Barron has been selected for you, however, and you will be Bound to him shortly after your arrival. Please give my regards to your parents—indeed, it has been many years since their presence has graced Skilled society. It would be a shame if anything were to happen to them. I look forward to meeting you in three days’ time.
    Sincerely,
    Osamu Quill
    Headmaster, Shadow Academy
    I read the paragraph over again before setting the letter on the table. My mother had given up on dabbing her eyes with her sleeve and buried her face in my father’s shoulder. The headmaster’s letter had sounded every bit as proper and polite as it needed to pass for something dignified to the untrained eye, but my parents and I knew to read between the lines. They knew where we were now. And if I didn’t join the cause and learn my part in this unending war, the Zettai Councilwould send someone to murder my parents, for committing the crime of coupling and abandoning their stations.
    And my Barron. My Barron had died. The fact hit me in the chest like a thousand stones, paining me to my core.
    I hadn’t known the Barron I was Soulbound to. How could I? My parents had eloped to Kessler before I was born, leaving everything about Skilled society behind. But somewhere in Tril, the very moment that I had been born, another child had been born. We took our first breath together. Our hearts had beaten together for the first time. Our first cries echoed out into the world at the same exact moment. We were Soulbound, as all Healers and Barrons are when they are born. But now my Barron was dead, and though I never knew him—and it was a him, a boy, I don’t know how I knew that, but I did—my soul ached to know that he was gone, before I’d ever had the chance to look him in the eye.
    Before I could stand, my father grabbed my hand and spoke, his voice burning with fury over the entire situation. “We can run, Kaya. You don’t have to go. We can leave everything behind tonight and run for our lives.”
    Gently, I pulled my hand from his and met his gaze, shaking my head slowly. I loved him for saying what he had, but I knew that any choice we’d had had been erased, and any chance we’d had of remaining out of the watchful eye of the Zettai Council had been stolenaway the moment that the rumors of the Graplar attack on Kessler reached the council chambers. Because an Unskilled wouldn’t know to behead the beast, and certainly wouldn’t have done so with a katana—such weapons were only ever used by Barrons, and every single one of them capable of taking down a Graplar in a single swipe, like the one my father possessed, was forged at Starlight Academy. There was no doubt in their minds. They had found my parents—had found me—and if I didn’t attend Shadow Academy, my parents lives were forfeited. Really, as twisted as it seemed, the Zettai Council had been lenient by allowing my parents to live at all. They could have simply smashed in the door, killed my Barron parents, and taken me away, kicking and screaming. But they hadn’t. Maybe because they knew that my parents were some of the best trained fighters of their day and it wouldn’t be an easy task. Or maybe it was because they’d rather catch flies with honey than with ass-kicking vinegar. We’d likely never know. But I did know one thing. Avery had died because I didn’t know how to stop the Graplar from attacking. And as sweet as my father was to spar with me in the clearing behind our cabin, I knew that he’d been playacting, and would never really teach me how to fight. The only way I was going to learn to protect anyone