Chapter 19 · Bound to the Executioner: Leveling Up With My Enemy - Chapter 19: The Leash Project

"Get the hell away from me, Vespera."

Soren didn't just say it; he spat the words. He was backed into the corner of the damp stone cellar, his breathing ragged, chest heaving under the shredded remnants of his inquisitor’s coat. The air around him smelled like ozone and burnt copper. He looked less like the empire's most lethal hunter and more like a wounded animal trying to find a place to bleed out in peace.

I didn't move back. I stepped closer, my boots splashing in the shallow, grime-filled water on the floor. "Not happening. I'm the one keeping your heart beating, remember? If you spiral into a fugue state, I'm the one who has to drag your heavy ass out of here."

"I am a tool," he hissed, his eyes flashing a dangerous, unstable gold. "A synthetic mistake. A hound bred in a vat to kill things that don't want to die. You're wasting your breath on a puppet whose strings were cut the moment I stepped out of line."

I reached out and grabbed his collar, bunching the expensive, ruined fabric in my fist and yanking him forward. The sudden movement forced him to look at me.