All Chapters of The General's Return: Chapter 81
- Chapter 90
170 chapters
Chapter Eighty – When the Earth Trembles
The night split apart. The ground heaved beneath them, soil cracking wide as though some ancient beast clawed its way from below.Flames guttered and flared, trees bowing until their trunks snapped like brittle bones. The trembling was so violent that even Fowler, still clutching Selene in his arms, was forced to plant a hand against the earth to steady them both.Selene’s scream cut through it all. It wasn’t her voice, it was too deep, too many layered, a chorus of fury.The sound made Vivienne drop to her knees, her hands clamped over her ears as blood trickled from her nose. Even the scarred man writhed in terror, clawing at the dirt as if to bury himself from the sound.“You dare… break what was forged in Carter blood?” the curse bellowed through Selene’s body. Her back arched, her fingers digging trenches into the earth. Black smoke poured from her mouth and eyes, staining the night.Fowler pulled her tighter against him, refusing to let go. “If I broke one chain, I can break the
Chapter Eighty-One – The Return of Alexander Carter
For a moment, none of them breathed. The world itself seemed to hold its lungs, suspended in the stillness of shock.Selene’s fingers clutched at Fowler’s shirt, her nails digging into his chest as if to confirm he was real, that she was real. But her eyes never left the figure that rose from the earth her father.Alexander Carter.Dead. Buried. Burned in memory and oath. Yet here he stood, broad-shouldered, regal even in the ruin of the clearing. His face was unmarred by death, unaged by time, as though the grave had never touched him.“Father…” Selene’s voice cracked. A whisper, raw and breaking. “No. I… I saw your body. We buried you. I buried you.”Alexander’s eyes flicked toward her, those storm-gray eyes so like her own. But there was no warmth, no fatherly recognition. Only a cold authority that sent a shiver through the marrow of her bones.“You buried what I allowed you to bury,” Alexander said, his tone measured, each syllable ringing like a gavel. “But an oath does not die
Chapter Eighty-Two – The Cloaked Stranger
The clearing quaked under the tension. Alexander’s blade of shadow, suspended inches from Fowler’s chest, trembled against an invisible force.The stranger stood at the treeline, cloak whispering in the night wind, his silhouette stark against the ruin of the earth. His voice had been calm, but its echo lingered, carrying a weight that made even the shadows falter.Alexander’s eyes narrowed, the first flicker of uncertainty crossing his face. “Who dares speak my name as though it were theirs to wield?”The figure stepped forward. His cloak shifted, revealing the faint shimmer of silver insignia across his chest military, but not of any nation Fowler recognized.His movements were deliberate, measured, as though every step was calculated to claim ownership of the ground beneath him.Fowler’s arm was still raised in guard, his body tense, Selene’s hand clutched tightly in his. Blood streaked down his jaw, but his eyes locked onto the newcomer.“Who the hell are you?” Fowler demanded, hi
Chapter Eighty-Three – Between Two Storms
The earth split beneath them as shadow and silver collided. Alexander moved first, his arm cleaving through the air, shadows erupting into a jagged storm of blades that screamed toward the cloaked man.But the silver-eyed stranger lifted his palm, light sparking into a shield of crystalline brilliance. The blades shattered harmlessly against it, raining sparks into the night.“Still the same,” the stranger said coolly, his voice carrying over the roar. “All brute force. No wisdom.”Alexander snarled, his eyes burning with fury. “And you still hide behind tricks.”He slammed his fist into the ground. The clearing buckled, chains spearing upward from the soil, writhing like vipers.They lashed at the cloaked man from every angle, a tide of darkness that no man should have been able to withstand.The stranger didn’t retreat. His silver eyes flared, and the air shimmered. Each chain that struck him dissolved on contact, bursting into clouds of black ash that swirled harmlessly around his
Chapter Eighty-Four – Into the Abyss
The ground yawned open with a sound like the world itself breaking. Selene screamed Fowler’s name as the earth split between them.Her outstretched hand reached for him, but the moment their fingers brushed he was gone. Swallowed whole by the black fissure.The roar of collapsing rock drowned her voice, dust billowing upward like a storm of ash and fire.“FOWLER!”Vivienne caught her before she could throw herself into the pit, her arms locking around Selene’s waist. “Selene no! You’ll fall!”“Let me go!” Selene’s voice was hoarse, raw with panic. Her body convulsed against Vivienne’s grip, her nails clawing at the ground, trying to hold onto something that wasn’t there.“He’s down there! I can feel him, he’s alive!”The fissure belched smoke and shadow, the air humming with residual power. It wasn’t just an ordinary hole it pulsed, like something living, breathing. The curse itself had opened its mouth.Vivienne’s voice shook. “That whatever that is it’s not a place the living can fo
Chapter Eighty-Five – The Dead Beneath
Darkness had a sound. It wasn’t silence, it was breathing. Slow, measured, too deliberate to be natural.Fowler Reddington opened his eyes into blackness so absolute it felt solid. He could taste the air metallic, ancient, the faint tang of rot layered beneath something stranger.Magic. Old magic. The kind that had lived here long before humanity had words for fear.His body screamed in protest as he tried to move. His right shoulder throbbed dislocated. His ribs felt like glass. And beneath him, the ground pulsed faintly, as though he were lying on the skin of something enormous.He forced himself upright, one knee digging into the damp, uneven surface. For a moment, vertigo hit him so hard he nearly blacked out again.Then he heard it. A voice. “You shouldn’t have come back here.”Fowler froze. The voice didn’t echo it simply existed, everywhere at once, whispering and vibrating inside his skull.“Show yourself.” His own voice came out hoarse, but steady.Something moved in the dark
Chapter Eighty-Six – Bloodlines of Ruin
The light from the fissure exploded into a thousand burning veins across the cavern ceiling. Shadows twisted upward like smoke, forming shapes that almost looked human faces screaming soundlessly as they dissolved into the black.Selene shielded her eyes, her pulse roaring in her ears. The magic here was alive wild, ancient, and hungry. It clawed at her skin, tasting her fear.Her gaze locked on Fowler. He was on one knee, blood streaking his temple, his body trembling but unbroken. Her heart clenched so tightly it hurt.“Fowler!” she screamed, taking a step toward him.“Stay back!” His voice cracked through the chaos, raw and commanding. “It’s feeding on us!”But she didn’t stop.Not when she saw Alexander standing only a few feet away, lips curled into a predator’s smile. Not when she saw the man beside him hood down, eyes so heartbreakingly familiar it made her stumble.Adrian. The name flickered through her mind before she could even process why.He looked like Fowler same stance,
Chapter Eighty-Seven – The Heart of the Curse
It was like drowning in smoke. Selene’s body felt weightless, unmoored, her senses flickering in and out like faulty lights.The world around her wasn’t darkness, it was memory. Shards of moments drifted past her in the black haze: her mother’s laughter, Fowler’s hand brushing hers under the oak tree, Alexander’s voice whispering promises that were really commands.Each one brushed against her like a ghost. Then came the pain. Not burning, not cutting emptying. The curse wasn’t trying to destroy her body. It was peeling away everything else.Her fear. Her anger. Her love. No. The word didn’t come from her mouth it came from deeper, from the core of who she was. The light that had always been hers flared again, defiant, a single spark in an infinite abyss.You can’t have that. The darkness stirred. You invited me, a voice whispered, everywhere and nowhere. You said “take me.” And I have.It was her father’s voice and not it shifted constantly, tone sliding between male and female, huma
Chapter Eighty-Eight – The Fractured Crown
Fowler’s first sensation was silence. Not the kind that followed battle, the kind that existed before sound. Thick, unbroken, oppressive.He opened his eyes to find himself standing in what looked like a reflection of the world, drained of all color. The cavern, the fissure, the stone everything was frozen in grayscale. Even the air felt motionless.He exhaled shakily, watching the mist of his breath fade into nothing. “Where…” he muttered, voice rasping, “…where am I?”The answer came not as sound but as vibration. Inside her.He spun around. The speaker was not a person, but a shape. Human once, maybe but now a silhouette of smoke. Eyes like hollow stars, voice layered with echoes of dozens of others.She opened the gate to save you. And in doing so, invited us in. Fowler clenched his fists. “You’re the curse.” The shadow tilted its head.We are the sum of what she absorbed. What was left when love failed and history rotted. He stepped forward, rage and fear warring in his chest. “W
Chapter Eighty-Nine – The Shape of Light (Part I)
The world had no edges here. Fowler floated between light and shadow, his body weightless, his mind a thousand miles away from the limits of what he could call real.The air shimmered with broken memories Selene’s laughter in some forgotten courtyard, the echo of her anger, the smell of gunpowder and roses.Every breath he took brought fragments with it pieces of her voice, of his own regrets, dissolving before he could hold them.“Selene…”Her name left his lips like a prayer, fragile and trembling. He reached for her in the dark, and the dark reached back.When his hand found hers, it wasn’t flesh but light warm, pulsing faintly, the same golden hue that once glowed behind her eyes.“Fowler?” Her voice was distant, but real.He turned and there she was. Selene stood in the half-light, barefoot, her hair drifting like smoke. Her skin shimmered with faint traces of gold beneath the black veins that curled across her arms.She looked at him as though he were a ghost she’d forgotten how