All Chapters of Naked BONES OF THE BETRAYED: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
12 chapters
CHAPTER 1 — The Things Bones Remember
Screams were already echoing through the palace courtyard when they dragged Chris Oakwood in by the wrists. “Let go, please, I can walk,” he whispered.“Shut up, bone-empty,” the guard snapped, shoving him forward.Chris stumbled across the stone tiles, nearly collapsing. The morning sun hit him like a slap, bright, accusing, exposing him to hundreds of eyes waiting for the spectacle.He didn’t understand. He had been summoned to receive an award. To be thanked. To be honored for saving the governor’s dying daughter the night before.But instead… there was a stage. And chains. And rows of nobles whispering like a nest of snakes. Chris’s heartbeat thudded painfully. “Why… why is this happening?”A guard laughed. “You’ll find out soon enough.”Jenna Valeforge stood at the center of the platform, beautiful, poised, wearing a crimson dress that looked like she chose it specifically to bury him. His wife. His only family.“Jenna?” His voice cracked. “What’s going on?”She didn’t answer him
CHAPTER 2 — The Corpse-Wash Silence
Rain hammered the slums long before Chris reached them. By the time he stepped onto Hollow Street, his clothes were soaked, his hair dripping, and his pulse still shaking from the courtyard.The city’s neon lights flickered against puddles of oily water, turning every step into a smear of color, red, blue, sickly green. The gates of the upper district had slammed behind him only minutes ago…but it felt like years. He took one fragile breath. Another. Then a voice cut through the rain. “Hey! You gonna stand there all night?”Chris jumped. A gaunt older man leaned in a doorway, thin as a rake, apron stained with dried crimson. Ben, supervisor of the Hollow Street Corpse-Wash.Chris’s new workplace. “I—I’m sorry,” Chris stuttered. “I just ”“Don’t waste my time,” Ben barked. “You late?”Chris blinked. “Late…? I—I didn’t know”“You start tonight,” Ben snapped. “Inside. Now.”The door slammed open. Chris stepped in. The corpse-wash smelled of blood, iron, and disinfectant, the kind that s
CHAPTER 3 — The Bonekeeper’s Pulse
The blade should have cut through him. Chris felt the rush of air, cold and final, as the hunter’s bone-forged weapon sliced downward, but something stopped it.A shockwave burst from Chris’s palms, invisible yet heavy enough to slam every metal tray, bucket, and corpse table against the walls with a thunderous crash.Bodies slid. Instruments clattered. Lights flickered. The entire corpse-wash shook. Chris stood frozen, arms raised, breath trembling like a trapped bird.The hunter stumbled back half a step, not far, but far enough to show surprise. “You” the hunter growled. “Your seal is breaking.”Chris stared at his own hands, horrified. “I didn’t do anything!” he cried. “I don’t know what’s happening!”The bone-armored hunter pointed his blade again. “You are awakening.”Ben groaned from somewhere behind a toppled table. “What… what the hell was that?”Chris didn’t answer. He couldn’t. His chest felt too tight, his lungs too small. The hunter charged. Chris staggered backward. “Wai
CHAPTER 4 — The Hunter’s Mark
The hunter lunged. His bone-forged blade cut through the rain, slicing the air with a shriek that echoed off the alley walls. Marco yanked Chris aside just in time. “Move!” Marco barked.“I am moving!” Chris shouted back, slipping on wet concrete.The blade crashed into the ground where his head had been a second earlier, sending cracks spiderwebbing across the pavement.The hunter straightened. Rain dripped off the ivory edges of his armor, hissing like steam. “You cannot escape,” he growled.Marco swung his shock baton, striking the hunter’s shoulder with a crack of electricity. Sparks burst. The hunter barely flinched. “Primitive weapon.”“Yeah?” Marco swung again. “But it annoys you. And I’ll take what I can get.”The hunter caught the baton mid-swing, one-handed. Marco froze. “Oh. That’s bad.”The hunter jerked it from his grip and threw it aside. Chris backed away until his spine hit the brick wall. “Marco, he’s going to kill us”Marco stepped in front of him. “He’s here for you
CHAPTER 5 — The Catacombs Beneath the City
Rain chased them through the back streets of Ardenfall. Marco kept a tight grip on Chris’s arm as they ran, weaving through alleys, jumping puddles, cutting through abandoned construction yards.Chris stumbled every few steps, still shaking from the pulse that had erupted out of him. “Marco, slow down, please” Chris gasped.“Can’t,” Marco snapped. “The hunter’s regrouping. If he gets your new marrow signature, he’ll track you like a bloodhound.”“My what?!”“Later. Move!”They turned another corner, and Chris froze. A patrol of three district enforcers stepped onto the street, shields up, nightsticks crackling with low-level shock energy.“Stop right there!” the lead enforcer barked. “We heard an explosion, identify yourselves!”Marco muttered, “Oh, for, NOT now.”Chris whispered frantically, “Marco, what do we”“Let me do the talking.”“You? Talking?”“Better than you glowing!”The enforcer stepped closer. “State your names.”Marco threw an arm around Chris’s shoulders. “Evening, off
CHAPTER 6 — The Purge Squad
The purge squad stepped into the catacomb tunnel like a wall of living armor. Black bone-plated suits.Helmets shaped like skulls.Blades carved from femurs glowing with pale light. Six of them. No insignias. No hesitation. Just death. Marco muttered, “Great. A whole squad. Because one hunter wasn’t enough.”Lira stepped in front of Chris, bone-thread sleeves fluttering. “Stay behind me.”“I—I can’t fight them,” Chris whispered.“No one asked you to,” Lira said. “We’re asking you to survive.”The purge squad leader lifted his blade, voice echoing coldly under the helmet. “Christopher Oakwood. Surrender. You will be executed swiftly.”Chris’s heart hammered. “W-why? What did I do?!”“You exist,” the leader responded.Marco raised his dagger. “Wow. Subtle.”“Kill the others,” the leader ordered. “The Bonekeeper is the priority.”Chris gasped. “NO!”The purge squad surged forward. Marco met the first soldier head-on, slashing with surprising grace. Clang, his dagger struck bone armor and
CHAPTER 7 — The Chamber of Names
The catacombs shook as the echo of the purge squad’s defeat faded. Dust drifted from the ceiling. Bones embedded in the stone walls vibrated with a low, ominous hum, like they were warning Chris to run faster.Marco helped Chris stand. “Can you walk?”“I—I think so,” Chris whispered, legs trembling. “My body feels like it’s made of jelly.”“Good,” Marco said. “That means you’re alive.”“That’s your medical diagnosis?” Chris croaked.“Hey, I’m not a healer,” Marco said. “I just pretend to know things.”Lira stepped in front of them, expression grim. “Move. We don’t have time.”Chris staggered after her. “Are more soldiers coming?”Lira didn’t slow her pace. “Not soldiers. Worse.”“Worse than purge squads?!”Marco muttered, “Depends on your definition of ‘worse.’”“Marco!”“Look, some things down here don’t need armor to kill you.”Chris paled. “Marco, please tell me you’re joking.”“You ever known me to joke at the right time?”“…No.”“Then yes, I’m serious.”Chris groaned. “I want a r
CHAPTER 8 — The Prince the Bones Chose
The moment Chris said “I accept,” the marrow-crystal obelisk detonated. Light, blinding, bone-white, violent, burst through the Chamber of Names like a shockwave from the heart of the earth.The walls shook. Dust rained from the ceiling. Bones embedded in the stone hummed so loudly it felt like the catacombs themselves were screaming.Chris staggered backward, covering his eyes. “WHAT’S HAPPENING ?!”Lira grabbed his arm. “You answered the call! The chamber is attuning to your marrow!”Marco ducked behind a half-collapsed pillar. “CAN WE UN-ATTUNE!? Because the ceiling looks like it’s thinking about killing us!”The obelisk split completely open, bone-light pouring from its core like molten energy. The ancestral specter, the crowned figure of swirling bone-dust, rose higher, expanding, gaining form, gaining presence.And then, it looked at Chris. Only Chris. Its voice thundered through the chamber:The prince has accepted his marrow. The bond must be sealed.Chris yelled, “I don’t kn
CHAPTER 9 — The Fall Beneath the Bones
Chris didn’t fall. He plummeted. The fissure swallowed him in darkness, air ripping past his ears. He screamed until his voice cracked, arms flailing, nothing to grab, nothing but blackness spinning around him like the throat of a beast. “MARCOOOO !”Marco’s voice echoed somewhere above him. “STOP SCREAMING, KID, YOU’RE MAKING ME PANIC!”“I’M ALREADY PANICKING !”“PANIC QUIETER!”“That’s not how panic works!”Lira’s voice cut through the darkness, calm as stone: “Brace yourselves.”“FOR WHAT?!” Chris shrieked.The ground slammed into them. Except, it wasn’t ground. It was water. Cold, black water swallowed Chris whole, flipping him end over end. He broke the surface screaming, thrashing wildly.“HELP—HELP—I can’t—I can’t swim in the dark !”“Calm down!” Marco surfaced beside him. “You’re fine!”“NO, I AM NOT”Something yanked him under. Chris choked on water, kicking violently as something wrapped around his ankle. Panic exploded through him.He fought upward, breaking the surface wit
CHAPTER 10 — The Lower Sanctum of the Slaughtered
The deeper the bone serpent carried them, the colder the world became. Not cold like winter, cold like a grave that still remembered its dead.Chris shivered violently, gripping the serpent’s spine as it slid along the ancient tunnel. Bone-lamps embedded in the walls flickered to life at its presence, lighting the descent with eerie pulses of white flame.Marco muttered behind him, “I swear, if this thing suddenly decides it’s hungry” “It won’t,” Lira said.“It might,” Marco insisted. “Everything down here tries to eat him.”Chris’s voice wavered. “Please don’t say that right now…”The serpent hissed softly, almost… amused. Lira touched one of its ribs. “It understands fear. It was designed to respond to it.”Chris swallowed. “Designed by who?”Lira didn’t answer. The tunnel widened as they descended deeper, the walls expanding into a cavern so large Chris couldn’t even see the far end.Faint echoes drifted through the darkness, whispers that felt older than language. Chris’s breath h