Let Them Kneel (kaelani and Julian) novel Chapter 118

Chapter 118

Kaelani frowned slightly, her arms folding as she shifted her stance.

“Invite them how?”

“Feel them,” he said, stepping beside her. “They respond to emotion, yes–but more to presence. You must lower your guard without surrendering control. Let the shadow sense you. Let it… choose you back.”

She narrowed her eyes at the dark patch ahead. It was unnerving – not just absence of light, but something deeper. Thicker.

Kaelani raised a hand, inhaled, and reached for it.

Nothing happened.

She tried again, brows knitting in frustration.

Still nothing.

A sigh escaped her lips.

“Too much thought,” Draevyn said, tone uncritical. “Let instinct speak. Shadows aren’t impressed by effort. They’re drawn to intent.”

Kaelani closed her eyes. This time, she didn’t reach outward. She reached inward–toward that gnawing hole that had lived inside her for as long as she could remember. That place between fear and rage. Between loss and hunger.

Something stirred.

A sliver of movement flickered at the edge of the darkness–like a thread twitching in windless air.

Kaelani’s eyes snapped open.

A tendril of shadow slithered toward her palm, delicate and slow, like it was testing her. With cautious breath, she coaxed it further. The shadow curled around her wrist–not cold, but sueded, as if the night itself had wrapped its fingers around her.

Her lips parted in awe.

“I did it,” she whispered.

“You did,” Draevyn said, his tone impassive but clearly watching closely. “Now again. But this time, weave it.”

Kaelani extended her other hand, trying to pull the thread forward and shape it. She imagined it like fabric – thread meeting thread, folding into form.

The shadow obeyed – but as she shaped it, it twisted sharply, like a snake resisting a leash.

1/3

+40 Bonus

Before she could react, it coiled fast around her wrist.

“Wait-”

The tendril yanked. Darkness bloomed.

And the world blinked out.

Kaelani was inside it now – but it wasn’t just black. It was void. A vast, crushing nothing that howled without sound. She gasped, but no air came. She flailed, but her limbs felt locked, weightless, drifting in

ink.

She screamed.

But the silence devoured it.

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, but even that began to fade. She couldn’t feel her body anymore. Couldn’t tell up from down. Couldn’t see.

It felt endless.

And then-

Snap.

The void spat her out.

Kaelani hit the forest floor with a jarring thud, her chest heaving as the moss cushioned her fall. She lay there for a second, gasping, arms trembling, eyes wide with panic as reality surged back around her in pieces.

The trees.

The sky.

The scent of damp earth.

She rolled onto her side, coughing hard.

Draevyn stood a few feet away, his expression ambiguous,

He finally stepped forward, extending his hand with that quiet confidence he wore like a tailored coat.

Kaelani hesitated only a second before reaching for it. His palm was warm, steady. He helped her to her feet with surprising ease, his grip firm but careful.

“Why did you let the shadows take control?” he asked, voice calm but edged with expectation.

She scoffed, brushing dirt from her slacks. “I didn’t.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify