Novels by Milky-Grip

The vault doors groaned wider, stone grinding against stone, the sound drowning the cries of battle. An eerie light spilled into the hall pale, unnatural, pulsing like a living thing.The air itself thickened, every breath heavy with centuries of secrets. Victor clutched Ethan’s arm. “What… what’s in there?”Ethan didn’t answer. His eyes never left the yawning dark. Julian stepped into the glow, the master key still burning in his grip. His smile stretched wide, triumphant, unhinged. “At last,” he breathed.“The empire’s true heart.” Garrick snarled, dragging his axe against the floor. “Don’t you dare set foot in there, boy.”Julian turned, mocking. “Or what? You’ll kill me? You’ll kill the only man with the key?”Garrick lunged, but Ethan’s hand shot out, halting him. “Wait,” Ethan growled. “If you strike now, you destroy the key. And then nothing will stop the collapse.”Julian chuckled darkly. “Listen to him. He understands. He always did.” Victor shouted, his voice trembling. “Jul

The hall froze in a crucible of fire and shadow. The traitor stepped forward, master key glinting in torchlight. His face once familiar, once trusted was now a mask of cold triumph.Victor staggered back, clutching his chest. “No… no, it can’t… Julian?”Julian Hale Ethan’s cousin, once his sparring partner, once the brother he chose smiled faintly, his eyes stripped of warmth.“Yes, Victor. It’s me.” He held the key aloft, its edges glowing faintly with the encrypted power pulsing within. “And tonight, the empire sheds its old skin.”Ethan’s voice was iron. “You.”Julian’s gaze flicked to him, mocking. “Me. The shadow you overlooked. The one you thought too weak, too quiet. But weakness has teeth, cousin.”Victor stammered, “But why? Why would you”“Why?” Julian laughed, sharp as glass. “Because I grew tired of being nothing. Tired of watching you always you crowned before the crown even touched your head. Tired of being your shadow while the family bled for scraps.”His smile curved.

The courtyard was chaos incarnate gunfire rattling, blades clashing, smoke choking the air. The marble floor was slick with blood, torches flickering against shattered stone.But nothing struck Ethan harder than the sight of Hale guards men born and raised under the family’s banner turning their rifles inward.Victor stumbled beside him, pale, his voice strangled. “Ethan… they’re ours. They’re ours!”, Ethan’s jaw locked. “Not anymore.”One of the traitor guards leveled his gun at Victor. Ethan moved faster than thought his blade flashed, and the guard dropped in a spray of red.He grabbed Victor’s collar, dragging him back into cover. “Get it through your head,” Ethan snarled. “Blood doesn’t mean loyalty.”Victor’s voice cracked. “But… but how why would they ”“Because someone paid them. Or promised them more than I did.” Ethan’s eyes burned. “And until I rip the mask off, you trust no one.”Gunfire shredded the balcony above. Cousins screamed as arrows turned inward, piercing their o

The estate shook again, plaster raining down from the vaulted ceiling of the war room. Alarms blared, their shrill wails drowning out the panicked shouts of guards scrambling outside.Victor clung to the table, his eyes wild. “They’re here, they’re inside the perimeter!” Ethan stood motionless, his hand braced on the console, his jaw locked like iron. “Not inside. Not yet.”Garrick stormed forward, spittle flying as he roared. “This is your doing, boy! Your paranoia, your arrogance you’ve dragged war to our very door!”Ethan turned his head slowly, his gaze a knife. “If you think this attack came because of me, Garrick, then you’re blind. It came because a traitor inside this family opened the gates.”Murmurs rippled through the chamber. Suspicion poisoned every glance. Lady Miriam’s voice sliced the air, calm, deliberate. “He isn’t wrong. Someone let the wolves sniff our walls. The only question is… who?”The tension was a living thing, pressing against every throat. Cousins shifted,

The alarms wailed like banshees. The map in the war room bled crimson across the Atlantic, the New York hub flashing with violent pulses.Victor staggered forward, his voice breaking. “It’s happening oh God, Ethan it’s happening again!” Ethan didn’t flinch. His jaw tightened, his knuckles white against the edge of the console.“Patch me through,” he ordered.Technicians scrambled. A wall of screens lit up live feeds from the New York vault command center. Sirens blared in the background, workers shouting over each other, faces drenched in sweat.A frantic operator appeared on-screen. “Master Hale! We’re under digital and physical assault! Systems are collapsing, locks failing someone’s overriding the core encryption from inside!”Ethan’s heart stilled. “Inside? You mean an infiltrator?”“Yes, sir one of ours! They knew the protocols they walked right past security! We can’t”The feed jolted, static ripping across the screens. Shouts cut off mid-scream. The connection went black. Silen

Victor’s voice trembled, his hands shaking visibly. “So you’re saying… we’re all targets now?”“Not yet.” Ethan’s tone cut like steel. “But we will be, the moment the thief uses the key.”Lady Miriam tilted her head slightly, her voice smooth as poison. “And what if the thief is not outside these walls? What if the thief is family? Would you still speak of ‘we’?”Her words spread a ripple through the chamber. Heirs exchanged uneasy glances. Ethan caught it every twitch, every nervous swallow and he pressed forward.“Yes,” he said, slowly. “Because if it is family, then the threat isn’t at our gates. It’s sitting at this very table.”The silence that followed was suffocating. Hours later, the council broke apart, but not in resolution. Guards doubled at every door. Lights blazed through every corridor of the Hale estate.The old fortress groaned under the weight of paranoia. Ethan retreated to the war room a long chamber lined with digital maps, screens, and archives of family records.