All Chapters of Buried in shame. Rising in power : Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
39 chapters
CHAPTER ELEVEN — THE FIRST STRIKE
The night air was thick with tension as Ethan and Mia crept through the abandoned industrial district. Shadows clung to every corner, broken glass crunching underfoot, echoing like a warning. Even in the chaos of escape, Ethan’s focus never wavered. Every muscle tensed, every sense alert.Mia struggled to keep up. Her wrists still throbbed from the binds, and fear clung to her like a second skin. But every time she glanced at him, her pulse steadied. His crimson aura had faded to a faint glow, but the intensity in his eyes never wavered.“We need to move,” Ethan whispered, keeping his voice low. “They’ll know we escaped within minutes. Hale won’t waste time.”Mia nodded, gripping his arm. “Where do we go?”“Somewhere we can regroup. I need to see Cole again. He knows the hidden routes—he’s the only one who can guide us safely to a place Hale won’t find immediately.”They navigated the labyrinth of rusted machinery and decaying warehouses, each step bringing them closer to the heart of
CHAPTER TWELVE — BLOOD AND FIRE
The depot smelled of oil and iron. Dust hung in the air, catching the harsh fluorescent lights and making shadows dance like sinister spirits. Ethan crouched behind a stack of crates, blood humming in his veins, every sense on high alert. Hale’s enforcers moved like predators, methodical and cold, but Ethan’s crimson aura flickered, warning them that the hunt had just begun.Mia stayed close behind him, gripping his forearm. Her palms were slick with sweat, but her eyes never left him. Fear was there—sharp and biting—but so was resolve. He’s doing this for me. I have to stay strong for him.Ethan’s voice was low, steady. “Two of them flank the main hall. The third patrols the perimeter. We hit fast, or it’s over.”Mia swallowed. “And if we’re caught?”Ethan shook his head. “We won’t be. Trust me.”They moved in sync, shadows among shadows. The first enforcer approached the crates, unaware of the danger crouched above. Ethan struck like lightning—fist colliding with jaw, arm snapping u
13: BLOODLINE
Mia didn’t look back.Her breathing tore from her lungs as she sprinted through the corridor, boots pounding on cold metal floors. Sirens screamed overhead, red lights flashing in rapid, dizzying bursts. Every corner felt like a trap, every shadow like a hand reaching to drag her back into darkness.But Ethan’s voice echoed louder than her fear:I’ll find you. Run.So she ran.She pushed through a half-open door, stumbling into a long hallway lined with pipes and flickering bulbs. The air reeked of dust and oil. Somewhere far behind her, she heard fighting—blows landing, bodies hitting steel, the low, savage grunt of Ethan fighting like a man possessed.Her heart squeezed.“Please be safe… please…”Footsteps thundered behind her.Mia spun, panic slicing through her chest—only to see a guard lunging at her from the intersecting corridor, gun raised.“No—!”He grabbed her arm, yanking her back—Mia screamed—Then he froze.His eyes rolled back.And he collapsed at her feet with a heavy
14: THE SHADOW HEIR
The storm had finally broken. Rain hammered against the black towers of Highmarch Fortress as if trying to wash away the sins housed within it. Lightning carved jagged scars across the sky, illuminating the watchtowers, the parapets, and the massive iron gates that had not been opened for decades.Beneath that rumbling sky, Selene stood alone in the central hall, one hand braced against the stone pillar as she forced herself to breathe through the searing pain behind her eyes. It came in pulses now—deep, controlled, deliberate. As if someone was knocking from inside her skull.Julian.He wasn’t shouting anymore. He wasn’t clawing, screaming, or battering her mind. He was waiting. And that was infinitely worse.The torches dimmed for a heartbeat.Then a whisper: You feel it, don’t you? The door between us thinning.Selene squeezed her eyes shut. “You don’t get to walk through it.”You will open it yourself, Julian murmured, his voice silken, confident. Because you’ll have no other choi
15: THE BREAKING POINT
Ethan had been warned his whole life about the Hale methods — the way they stripped a person down, layer by layer, until even their silence broke. He just never imagined he’d hear Mia’s voice echo through that same darkness.He crouched in the bunker’s surveillance alcove, fists clenched as Cole replayed the intercepted feed.There it was again —Mia’s scream.Raw. Forced. Tortured.Ethan’s vision wavered, fury sparking at the edges. He dug his nails so hard into his palm that blood pooled in crescents across his skin.“You need to breathe,” Cole said quietly.“I am breathing,” Ethan snapped.“No, you’re detonating.”Cole killed the audio and turned, his face pale beneath the bandage wrapped around his side. “Hale wants you unstable. You go in like this, you’ll die before you even reach her.”Ethan didn’t respond.Because all he could see — all he could feel — was Mia tied to that chair, trembling, struggling to breathe while Hale’s men circled like wolves.He pushed away from the con
16: THE FOUNDRY BREACH
The abandoned steel foundry sat at the edge of the city like a carcass left to rot — rusted beams, shattered windows, and a single chimney stabbing the sky like a warning. No one came here anymore. No one survived here anymore.Which made it the perfect place for Adrian Hale.Ethan stood at the tree line with Cole, watching the old building flicker with faint red security lights. The hum of generators echoed beneath the ground.“They’re running this place like a fortress,” Cole muttered.Ethan didn’t respond. He hadn’t spoken since they left the bunker — his silence darker, sharper, like a blade being honed with every passing second.Cole adjusted his gear. “Alright. Surveillance picked up three patrols looping the perimeter. Snipers on the roof. And underground—”“I know where she is,” Ethan said quietly.Cole looked at him sharply. “What do you mean you know?”Ethan’s gaze locked onto a distant point, pupils narrowing. “They put her in the lower east block. Room with concrete walls.
17: THE PRICE OF WAR
The room tightened around Ethan like a closing fist.Adrian Hale stepped forward, his polished shoes clicking against the concrete as if he were entering a ballroom instead of a battleground. Cole held his gun steady, but Hale didn’t spare him a glance. His eyes were fixed entirely on Ethan.“I must say,” Hale mused, “I expected you to arrive in pieces. Instead, you walk into my den as if you own it.”Ethan didn’t blink. “Let Mia leave. Then we finish this.”Hale chuckled softly. “You still think you’re the one negotiating.” His head tilted, and his gaze sharpened with amusement. “You came here driven by love. Noble. Predictable. Pathetic.”Mia tensed behind Ethan. He felt her trembling, sensed her fear like it was wired into his bones.Ethan stepped forward once, blocking her from Hale’s view. “Talk while you still have breath.”Cole whispered from the door, “Ethan… something’s wrong.”He was right.Deep beneath the foundry, a vibration pulsed—steady, mechanical, growing. Like a hear
18: THE MOTHER OF SHADOWS
The fire painted the concrete walls orange, flickering across the steel beams like a living, breathing thing. Smoke crawled through the Foundry, choking, burning, suffocating. Adrian Hale staggered back, eyes wide, and for the first time, fear cracked his calm facade.Ethan pressed himself closer to Mia, blade still in hand, though his other arm supported the blood seeping from his shoulder.Then she stepped forward—Evelyn Rose. Tall, imposing, eyes sharp as broken glass. Her hair fell over her shoulders in wild waves, dark as night but catching the light of the flames. Every step she took toward Hale carried weight, authority, and history.“Mother?” Ethan whispered, disbelief tinged with awe.Evelyn’s gaze softened for a fraction, then hardened again. “Not now,” she said quietly. “Hale is not to be trusted, Ethan. Not ever.”Hale laughed nervously, trying to reclaim control. “Mrs. Rose, what a surprise. I didn’t expect—”“You never expect strength,” she interrupted, voice slicing thr
19: THE FALL OF HALE
The Foundry shook as if it had a pulse of its own, steel beams groaning under the heat and force of unleashed power. Smoke curled along the floors and walls, catching in every corner, lit by the flickering blaze. The air was thick with electricity and fear.Adrian Hale stumbled backward, eyes wide, mouth open in disbelief. Every step he took left scorch marks on the concrete. For the first time in his life, the calculated, cold predator felt vulnerable.“You… you can’t…” he spat, voice shaking. “I’ve built—control, power, fear! I’ve survived everything!”Ethan stepped forward, blade raised, shoulder still bleeding, but his posture radiated something Hale had never encountered: absolute dominance. He moved like a shadow given life, precise and unstoppable. Behind him, Mia pressed close, holding his uninjured arm, her trust and fear melding into something protective, sacred.Evelyn Rose’s voice rang out like a bell: “Hale, you underestimated the bloodline. You underestimated all of us.”
20: BLOODLINES UNITED
The Foundry lay in ruins, the air thick with smoke, ash, and the acrid scent of burnt steel. Shadows clung to the corners of the massive space, moving like living things, remnants of Hale’s empire now crumbling under the weight of the Rose bloodline.Ethan leaned against a twisted beam, shoulder still throbbing from the bullet wound, but his eyes burned with a quiet fire. Mia knelt beside him, wiping soot from his face and pressing a cold cloth to his shoulder.“You’re insane,” she whispered, half-laughing, half-crying. “Completely insane. But… you did it.”Ethan’s lips twitched. “I told you… no one touches you.”Mia pressed her forehead against his chest. “I knew you’d come. I never doubted it.”Behind them, Evelyn stepped over debris, her robes singed but her stance regal, commanding. She surveyed the destruction with sharp eyes, calculating, precise, yet strangely relieved. “Hale is gone,” she said, voice echoing against the concrete walls. “For now. But his followers… they scatter