2026-09-15 03:42:42
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
064 A Brother's Love
The car ran east along the boulevard with two Sparta flags on the hood, and a motorcade of police bikes escorted them.Jack Hardy was engrossed in reading his phone in the back seat.One thousand and six unread messages from Selena Hart."How could you leave me in this never-ending mansion?""The Mayoress' son has played my second album four times since breakfast. He wants every doll and picture signed.""I have walked around this palace all morning so I don't have to run into Morgana.""Jack. Come back and get me out of here.""Answer me! I am the most famous idol on earth and you are reading my messages without replying!I miss you."Jack smiled and put the phone away in his jacket.A twenty-year-old girl sat beside him, her hair black and straight and cut level with her shoulders. She wore an expensive but plain grey dress with bare ears and hands.Morgana, who owned Sparta City, dressed her daughter like a scholarship student.Jill was beautiful, and she had his mother's eyes.She
063 The Black Witch
The Obsidian Palace stood on the highest ground in Sparta City with forty million people below it. It was Morgana's throne building, mirroring Fort Cromwell in Springfield.Jack Hardy walked in through the east gate with Selena Hart holding his arm. The summons had reached her hotel at eight and it was not a request.A Sparta official in grey walked them down a corridor and gave them the rules."Don't argue, misbehave, or act smart in the Mayoress's presence. Don't refuse anything she offers, and if you want to stay alive, don't mention Springfield."Morgana said my parents are no longer a problem, Jack thought. What did she mean by that?Selena had talked through a shooting the night before. But she had not made a sound since they entered the Mayoress's estate. She was terrified of the woman.The doors were black and four times the height of a man, and two soldiers pulled them open from the inside.A fire burned in a stone fireplace at the far end, and Morgana stood with her back to
062 Riddled With Holes
Juliet Forbes was lying in broken glass with Jack Hardy's arm still behind her head."Jack," she said. "What are you doing in Sparta? I got your letter—"Bullets ripping through concrete echoed in the distance.Jack raised his gaze on instinct. His eyes moved over the hall in short flat passes, up to the terrace, along the third tier, back down the aisle, and they did not land on her face once."Look at me. Talk to me. Don't pretend that we are strangers"Jack stood up off her and turned away. "You are mistaken, ma'am. I'm not who you think I am."Juliet got her hand up to catch his sleeve, but he was already three seats away, going up the aisle with his shoulders square and the dark glasses back on.Jack Hardy saved her life and then walked away pretending she was a stranger."Juliet! Oh God, Juliet."David Cross climbed out from between the seats with dust all down the front of his jacket.Dean Drummonds got up from under a cocktail table by the rail, on his hands first, then his kn
061 Banned
Morgana let the noise run until it wore itself out, and then she let it run a little longer."Sparta City," she said.Ninety thousand people went quiet so fast that Jack heard a glass being set down four rows away.Her voice through the system was low and unhurried, and it did not rise at any point in the next four minutes."Selena Hart crossed a continent to sing in a city your governments have spent thirty years telling you is dangerous."She paused."She is still alive. Do thank her on the way out."The hall laughed. Forty million people in the streets laughed with it."My son is in the glass box above this stage. He is nine, he has waited two years for tonight, and he has not sat down once."Something almost warm moved under the veil and did not reach any further than that."My daughter is with him. Be kind about the crying. She is very young and the song was beautiful."Jack stood against the wall by the door with his arms folded and let all of it go past him."Forty-one countrie
060 The Festival
Jack Hardy had taken the worst post at the Sparta Festival on purpose.He stood at the far end of the rope line in a black suit and dark glasses. Forty other men were spaced out along two hundred yards of carpet, dressed the same way.Selena Hart's security channel was live in his ear."Post four clear," one of her men said. "West gate quiet.""Copy." Jack went back to reading faces.He had put his second on the stage detail and taken the arrivals line himself for one reason. Every face entering Sparta City's biggest night walked past this post, and a man in a dark suit standing at a rope is furniture.Forty thousand people were packed against the crowd barrier behind him, screaming at every car that rolled onto the carpet."She's choosing a husband tonight!" The girl at his elbow had her phone up over her head. "Juliet Forbes! In front of the whole world, before the charity auction!""Nobody picks one at a music festival.""The broadcast said it twice!"Jack kept reading faces and le
059 Crystal Ball
Selena hooked her arm through Jack's like it belonged there. Sunglasses, a hood, a scarf over half her face, she was in disguise so that fans wouldn't recognize her."If you're meeting a woman on a hill at six in the morning, I have a right to see her."Jack didn't answer that. They were most of the way up the eastern hill when he stopped walking.Selena bumped into his shoulder. "What?"He was looking past the rooftops at the crown of the hill, where a column of smoke was climbing into the morning sky. It was coming from exactly where he was going.Jack broke into a run.St. Mirabel's stood at the top of the hill behind a rusted iron gate, three stories of gray stone, and the whole eastern face of it was burning. Flame came out of the second-floor windows in long orange tongues.Two fire trucks stood in the lane with their hoses up, and the water arced into the building and turned to steam before it reached anything.In front of the doors, an old woman was fighting four men. She was
You may also like
Return of the Powerful Young Master
AFM3191.0K viewsTop Expert in Floraville
Earth at Dawn188.1K viewsXayne Xavier, The Ironclad Protector
Blanco Burn206.0K viewsTHE SECRET HEIR AND HIS SECRET POWER
Wednesday Adaire171.4K viewsRebirth of the Fallen Heir : Shadow of Revenge
Kimochi122 viewsMy Second Life as a High-Society Disaster
Yokavelle100 viewsThe Billionaire Heir Hiding Behind a Delivery Uniform
Saber108 viewsThe Chronos Ledger
TRY222 views
Reader Comments
Please we need regular update. Story is so intriguing.