All Chapters of The Forgotten Heir : Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
36 chapters
Shadows In The Ledger
Kael didn’t leave the conference room immediately.Even after Mr. Desmond disappeared down the hallway, Kael stood still, staring at the door the man exited through. That last look Desmond gave him cold, dissecting, almost predatory lingered in Kael’s mind like a dark fingerprint.The sigil under his skin had reacted to it.Warned him.Ethan approached cautiously. “Sir… should we leave?”Kael inhaled slowly, steadying his heartbeat. “Yes.”As they stepped out into the marble hallway, Shen Gao joined them, expression unreadable as always. He walked in silence beside Kael, but Kael could feel the tension radiating from him.When they reached the private elevator reserved for the Aurelian heir, Shen Gao finally spoke.“You handled the meeting well. Desmond expected you to crumble.”Kael pressed the elevator button. “He doesn’t frighten me.”“No,” Shen Gao said softly, “but he should.”The elevator chimed open,
Last Updated : 2025-12-04
The Circle Of Trust
Kael barely slept.Even after he left the archive, even after he tried to distract himself with paperwork, even after Shen Gao insisted he rest, his mind refused to quiet. The shock of discovering Malcolm Drake’s involvement in the logs pulsed through him like a poison, refusing to fade. Dawn crept over the estate before Kael finally rose from bed, eyes heavy but spirit sharper than ever.The moment he stepped into the hallway, Ethan noticed the tension in his shoulders. The assistant fell into step beside him, quiet but observant. Kael didn’t need to say anything; Ethan already sensed that something had shifted inside him last night, something dangerous.Shen Gao waited in the east wing, standing near a tall window that overlooked the training grounds. His posture was stiff, more guarded than usual. Kael could tell he had been up as well, perhaps sensing the storm brewing within the heir he had sworn to protect.“You di
Last Updated : 2025-12-04
The Weight Of An Empire
Kael stepped out of the elevator and into the dimly lit lobby of Redwood Dynamics’ failing subsidiary, a division buried so deeply in the empire that most executives pretended it didn’t exist. The air smelled stale, tinged with dust and defeat, as though the building itself had given up trying to breathe. He didn’t flinch, this was the battlefield Malcolm had handed him, and Kael intended to drag it back into the light.Two security guards straightened when they saw him, instantly recognizing the name that carried the weight of the Drake legacy. Their salute was sharp but nervous, as if unsure whether to welcome him or brace for the storm he brought. Kael offered a short nod, his gaze sweeping the hall with quiet calculation.He could feel the tension in the air, a strange blend of hope and dread, because the staff had heard rumors about the "heir resurfaced from the dead." Those who suppo
Last Updated : 2025-12-04
The Quiet War Begins
The message still glowed on Kael’s phone screen long after the car began moving, its warning echoing through the quiet confines of the vehicle. He’s beginning to notice your moves. Be careful. Kael stared at the words, expression unreadable, while a cold vibration rippled beneath his skin, right over the sigil marked into his chest.The sigil didn’t burn, not exactly, but it tightened like a muscle bracing once danger entered the room. It was subtle, almost ignorable, yet impossible for Kael to dismiss. Every time threat loomed, the sigil stirred, whispering a message he couldn’t translate but instinctively understood.The car pulled into the main Drake Tower underground parking, and Kael stepped out with his usual controlled ease. The air here was colder than usual, sharpened by the metallic scent of engines and the faint echo of hurried footsteps. He sensed it immediately, an undercurrent of hostility running beneath the bust
Last Updated : 2025-12-04
The Man Who Remembered Too Much
The knock on Kael’s door echoed like a warning bell. Every muscle in his body tightened before his mind even caught up. The faint pulse under his skin, the sigil responded instantly, a whisper of heat threading along his veins. He hadn’t summoned it. It awakened on its own, as if sensing danger before his conscious mind could.Shen Gao stepped slightly in front of him, his posture straightening. “Whoever that is,” he murmured quietly, “their presence is… wrong.”Kael wasn’t sure he wanted to open the door. But the knock came again gentle, patient, deceptively polite.Danger wearing a gentleman’s coat.Kael exhaled slowly and stepped forward. When he twisted the knob and opened the door, the hallway lights spilled in and the world stopped.Malcolm Drake stood there wearing a perfectly tailored ash grey suit, hands clasped behind him with an ease that was almost arrogant. His hair was sleeked back, his jaw cleanly shaved, his eyes
Last Updated : 2025-12-04
The Negotiator They Didn't Expect
Kael barely slept after Shen Gao left his office that night. His mind replayed Malcolm Drake’s name, now tied not only to his kidnapping, but to the empire’s earliest fractures. Each passing hour sharpened his focus, turning lingering questions into a blade hungry for answers. His sigil pulsed several times, faint but consistent, as if pushing him toward whatever came next.Morning arrived with a summons from the Executive Council. The message was brief, too formal, and carried the unmistakable tone of a test. Representatives from Concord Dynamics, one of their oldest allies had requested a high level negotiation over a strategic materials contract. Kael was assigned as the lead envoy, a role usually reserved for seasoned tacticians. The sudden promotion was unusual enough to make him wary.Shen Gao met him at the elevator, arms folded behind his back and gaze sharp. He studied Kael’s expression with the quiet intensity of
Last Updated : 2025-12-04
Shadows In The Ranks
The figure vanished behind the pillar so quickly that Kael wasn’t even sure if it had been a person or a ripple of light playing tricks in the wind. But the pulse in his sigil was unmistakable, sharp, urgent, and cold enough to crawl under his skin. Shen Gao took a single step forward, scanning the plaza with a calm that was far too controlled, the movement of someone prepared for an attack in plain daylight. Kael, however, felt something different. It wasn’t fear. It was the sense of being studied.They stood still for several seconds longer, but the plaza remained empty. People passed in cars, in clusters, in business chatter but none spared a second look at the two of them. Yet the sigil continued to throb under Kael’s ribs, slow but deliberate, like a warning tapping from the inside. The sensation didn’t fade until they entered the armored car again, the doors shutting with a heavy metallic thud that swallowed the outside
Last Updated : 2025-12-04
The Edge Of Control
The intruder stepped farther into the dim monitoring room, and Kael’s hand drifted instinctively toward the holster at his hip. He didn’t draw the weapon, but every muscle in his body tightened as the figure closed the door behind them with a soft hiss. The sigil beneath his skin blazed with a sharp, slicing heat, a reaction so sudden that it made Kael’s breath falter for half a second. Whoever this person was, the sigil did not trust them. And that alone put Kael’s mind on high alert.The figure slowly lifted their hands to show they were empty. Even then, Kael didn’t relax, watching the faint reflection of surveillance screens glint along the edges of their dark sleeves. “You’re in far more danger than you realize,” the figure repeated, voice quiet but carrying a weight that suggested they knew exactly what Kael had just uncovered. Kael stepped closer, noting the silhouette, taller than Shen Gao, leaner than Corvin, deliber
Last Updated : 2025-12-05
Threads Of Power
Kael hadn’t slept.Not truly.His body lay still, his breathing remained even, but his mind stayed coiled like a spring beneath his ribs, replaying the flares, the tremors in the sigil, the feeling of his own pulse vibrating unnaturally under his skin. Every time he drifted toward sleep, he jolted awake, always at the exact moment the sigil pulsed.By dawn, the inner crisis had hardened into something sharper, almost cold. He stood over the small desk Shen Gao had given him a piece of oak older than the Academy itself and stared at the open notebook where he had catalogued the night’s reactions in uneven handwriting.The sigil’s energy now had a mind of its own.That meant one thing, he no longer had the luxury of being passive, he needed strategy. He needed information and he needed to know everything there was to know about Malcolm Drake.The man who had acted like Kael was beneath him.The man who had dared to laugh.The man wh
Last Updated : 2025-12-05
Quiet Restructuring
Kael woke before sunrise, the warning messages from the night before still echoing in the back of his mind. The threat hadn’t frightened him, it had sharpened him. Whoever sent it had made a mistake by revealing they were watching, because now Kael knew which direction to push.He entered the executive hall with a calm that felt almost unnatural, the sigil lying quiet beneath his skin like a beast pretending to sleep. The board members were already gathered, their faces arranged in stiff lines of practiced politeness. Kael sensed suspicion in the room, but also tension, tension that worked in his favor.He took his seat at the head of the table, a position he technically wasn’t expected to command yet. No one questioned it, though several eyes flickered nervously toward each other. Power wasn’t taken by force here, it was taken by certainty, and Kael was the only one in the room who radiated it.The meeting began with rou
Last Updated : 2025-12-05