All Chapters of The Rise Of The Forgotten King. : Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
46 chapters
Chapter 31
I squeezed.My hand was like iron around his neck, holding him tight. I could feel his heart beating fast against my palm, like a scared bird trying to escape. “Say it again,” I whispered, my voice sounding rough. “Say his name. I dare you.”Hot blood from his beaten face smeared across my gloves. He was badly battered, but his eyes still had a glow in them.Then, he smiled. It was a slow, bloody grin.“Wait,” he whispered hoarsely. “You’ll want to hear this, Ethan.”I squeezed his throat harder until my knuckles turned white.“I know who is really behind all of this,” he choked out, his eyes pleading. “And I know why they chose your brother.”My anger didn't go away, it just froze. It felt like a heavy block of ice in my chest that made it hard to breathe. My fingers shook, but I didn't let go.“You’re lying,” I said, but I didn't even really believe my own words.I looked into his eyes to see if he was lying. I’ve spent my whole life figuring people out, and I could tell he was tel
Chapter 32
As the spikes came out, the walls made a loud screeching sound. It sounded like the building was in pain. The spikes moved faster now, shining like cold teeth under the lights.I didn't have time to wait."DOWN!" I yelled at them. "GET DOWN NOW!"Noah didn't move. He was too scared to even breathe. I didn't wait for him to react, I just reached out, grabbed his shirt, and threw him flat against the dirty floor.The big man did exactly what I said. He quickly lay flat on the ground, holding his hurt arm close to his chest.The spikes flew right through the spot where our heads had been a second ago. The air was filled with the smell of hot grease and crushed concrete, making it hard to breathe.I looked at the walls, searching for a weak spot in the steel. I saw a rough gap under the main wall, hidden behind the loud machinery. It was dangerously small, but it was an opening. I didn't know where it led, but it didn't matter. It was our only means of survival.I grabbed the grenade fro
Chapter 33
“Quickly, we have to move,” I said. “ We don’t have much time.”The man crawled through the opening first, then suddenly stopped. Just as I stepped forward with Noah still slung over my shoulder, he suddenly turned back and raised a hand, blocking my path.“What is it?” I snapped.He looked at me, with seriousness in his eyes, not the mocking or arrogant stare I was used to.“Ethan,” he said quietly. “If we’re going out there… you’re going to need all the help you can get if you want to protect your brother while we try to escape.”I frowned. “What are you saying?”“I need a weapon.”For a second, I almost laughed.After everything he’d done, breaking into Noah’s house, holding a gun to my head, forcing me to jump from a burning building, now he wanted me to arm him?My grip tightened instinctively around Noah. Humans were unpredictable, just because he came back to save Noah or volunteered to throw the grenade didn't guarantee that he couldn't switch sides at any moment. This could
Chapter 34
The loading bay exit was shut tight, like a predator that had cornered its prey, but I still kept my foot on the gas.The SUV sped forward as the engine roared and the tires screeched on the concrete. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Noah, who was gripping his seat tight with his seat belt holding him in place. I could see the fear in his eyes as we prepared for impact, I couldn't let him down now, not ever.Suddenly the man in the back leaned forward.“Ethan!” he shouted. “Give me a grenade.”But I didn’t answer.Not because I didn’t hear him, but because I didn’t want to deal with it. My hands were glued to the wheel and my eyes were locked on the steel wall ahead, calculating what angle would leave us with the least impact. Every part of me knew that even one second of slowing down would get us all killed.“Ethan!” he yelled again, louder with desperation. “Listen to me or we're all dead!”“What the hell is wrong with you?” I snapped. “We’re almost out!”“No we’re not,” he s
Chapter 35
The worst part wasn't the blood or the mess we left behind. It was what this man knew. He knew things about Noah and me that he shouldn't have known. He had studied me so well that he was able to get into Noah’s house without me noticing. But it was even worse than that. He knew specific details about a secret mission I had never even written on paper. It was a ghost operation, a job I kept locked away in the darkest part of my mind. Some secrets are so dangerous that you can't even share them with your friends. They were dark and private, and they should have stayed buried forever. Knowing those things made him more dangerous than any weapon aimed at me, and right now, he was lying in the back of my car, bleeding on the floor. I had to get answers. I needed the real truth, and he was the only person left who could tell me. I felt a deep sense of doubt, that I couldn't wave off. What if this whole thing was a trick? What if the chase and our narrow escape were just parts of a
Chapter 36
He opened his eyes very slowly. And he his head jerked back in confusion, his eyes scanned the ceiling, moving through the dim light and the shadows on the walls. Finally, his eyes landed on me and a slow, creepy smile spread across his bruised and bloody face. "You were always so good at hiding, Ethan," he whispered. My body moved before I could even think and my hand went straight for my gun. I pulled it out and aimed it right at his forehead. But then he spoke again. “There's a lot I know about you, and your past, including the graveyard mission” My eyes narrowed slightly. “Yes don't be surprised, I know you didn't hesitate in tearing up that corpse to pull out those red diamonds.” My grip tightened on the gun. How did he know about the specific details, something that was unconfirmed and a private mission. He cleared his throat. “Oh that's nothing, I wonder how you'll react if I told you, I knew your partner on the mission didn't die by accident.” he said. Suddenly,
Chapter 37
For the first time since he woke up, the smile on Yuri’s face completely disappeared. It was like someone had flipped a switch in his character. The smug look was gone, and the humor was no longer visible in his eyes. He stared at me for a long time, looking at my face as if he were weighing the importance of what he was about to say. Then he took a slow breath. “So,” he said quietly, “if I tell you... You’re going to go after him, aren’t you?” I didn’t say anything. He nodded to himself. “That means you never really left this life. You were just waiting around. You said you quit, then your brother gets hurt and things go wrong, and suddenly you’re right back in the middle of it.” He tilted his head. “Or let me guess, you actually missed the game. And now you want to drag him in with you.” A small, cold smile formed on my lips before I could stop it. “Now that you’ve told me who you really are,” I said calmly, “we don’t have a problem, but if you speak about my family anyho
Chapter 38
One thought lingered in my mind louder than anything else. How did Albert’s son know so much about my secret base? He seemed to be in control of everything in there. He knew where the traps were and how the systems worked. That meant he didn’t just find the place by accident. He knew me. Not just my name, he knew how I thought and worse, he knew exactly how to get under my skin, how to push me until I lost my cool. None of it made sense. Albert never brought his son around me. Not once. The kid was never at our meetings or anywhere near the base. Albert was always careful and always protective of his family. Even though Albert and I spent years together, there was no way he could have told the boy enough to know my base this well. So how did he do it? How did a kid who barely knew me learn my habits, my weaknesses, the way my mind worked? The pieces didn’t fit. Then there was Yuri. He had already admitted he’d been following me, watching my movements, learning how I operate
chapter 39
I sat there in the driver’s seat, my foot pressed hard against the brake pedal. It was an automatic reflex, a way to keep myself from either fleeing or jumping out to help. . Outside, the world was falling apart. Yuri was a complete mess. He wasn't the composed, dangerous man I had met earlier. He looked broken as he stood just a few meters away from the car, waving his arms like a madman, his movements were shaky and uncoordinated. Even in the dim evening, the streetlamps cast a shadowy glow. I could see the dark blood everywhere, dripping from his fingertips, staining his sleeves, and leaving small, dark circles on the grey asphalt. His face had a look of pure terror, one that you never forget once you’ve seen it. His eyes were bulging, and I could see his chest heaving. But I didn't move to help him. For a moment, the world felt like it had gone on mute, and I stared through the windshield, but I wasn't really seeing the road or houses. I was looking through them, thinki
Chapter 40
I floor the pedal, pushing the car past its limit. The needle on the speedometer climbed up steadily, and the car began to vibrate under the strain. Outside, the world turns into a blur. The streetlights overhead didn't look like lights anymore, they stretch into long, glowing streaks of yellow and white, flying past the windshield like tracer rounds in a night firefight.As we moved away from the residential areas, the city started to feel smaller. The buildings up ahead were shorter, the spaces each house became wider, and the environment was very quiet. It was as if the city itself knew something bad was coming and was holding its breath.Yuri didn’t say a single word, he sat perfectly stiff in the passenger seat as his body was locked in place by the seatbelt. His hands were clenched together in his lap and his knuckles were still smeared with the dark, dried blood from his house. His eyes stayed fixed on the road ahead but he wasnt focused on it. It was as if whatever horror