2025-11-16 20:01:32The 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, not me.”
“That doesn’t help!”
“Not meant to.”
The hunter advanced. Chris’s breath lodged in his throat. His hands shook violently. “I—I don’t want to fight him,” Chris whispered.
“You don’t have to,” Marco said. “You just have to survive.”
“How?”
“By not dying.”
“That’s not a strategy!”
“Better than nothing!”
The hunter lunged again. Chris ducked, and once more his palms sparked, a pulse of invisible force erupting without warning.
The shockwave blasted outward, throwing the hunter across the alley and slamming him against a dumpster so hard the metal dented inward. Marco blinked. “You did that?”
Chris stared at his shaking hands. “I didn’t mean to!”
The hunter rose, armor cracking and repairing itself with grotesque clicks.
“You are awakening faster than expected,” he snarled.
“Stay DOWN!” Marco shouted, grabbing a broken pipe and swinging. “Seriously, just quit!”
The hunter slapped the pipe aside without effort. Marco stumbled. “Okay—uh—Chris? Any more shockwaves? Now would be great.”
Chris shook his head wildly. “I can’t control them!”
“Try being terrified. That seems to work!”
“Marco!”
The hunter strode toward them, implacable. “You cannot run from your bloodline,” the hunter said. “You cannot run from fate.”
Chris trembled. “I don’t have a bloodline! I’m nobody”
“That is the lie they fed you.”
The hunter bowed his head briefly, then lifted his blade. “You carry the marrow of the Bonekeeper Princes. You are the last heir of the forbidden line. And it is my duty to erase you.”
Chris whispered, “Why? Why erase me?”
“Because your existence threatens the city.”
Marco snorted. “The nobles threaten the city. Chris can barely threaten a sponge.”
Chris shot him a look. “Marco!”
“I call it like I see it.”
The hunter swung. Marco grabbed Chris and dove sideways. The blade tore into the wall, sending bricks crashing around them. “You cannot protect him,” the hunter growled.
Marco pulled Chris behind a dumpster. “Chris. Listen. You gotta use whatever’s inside you.”
“I can’t!”
“You already did it twice!”
“That was an accident!”
“Good. Do it again accidentally!”
“I CAN’T CONTROL IT!”
The hunter’s footsteps grew louder. Closer. Bone scraping pavement. Marco gritted his teeth. “Kid, if you don’t react, we die.”
Chris swallowed, nausea twisting in his stomach. “I don’t know how to make it happen.”
The hunter rounded the dumpster. Chris’s heart stopped. “There is no place left to hide,” the hunter said.
He raised the blade for the killing blow. Chris shut his eyes. “No… no, please… I don’t want to die…”
A whisper slid through him, soft and ancient.
Then rise.
Chris gasped. His eyes snapped open. A deep vibration moved under his skin, like something old, buried, waking.
“Chris?” Marco whispered. “What’s happening to you?”
Chris didn’t answer. His heartbeat thundered, fast, heavy, shaking the air around him. The hunter paused mid-strike. “Your pulse, impossible.”
Light, pale, bone-white light, began to pulse from Chris’s chest. Marco shielded his eyes. “Holy, Chris??”
Chris clutched his shirt over his sternum as if something inside was blistering outward. “I—I can’t—Marco—help”
The hunter’s voice sharpened. “The Bonekeeper core. He is manifesting it.”
“I WHAT?!” Chris shrieked.
The hunter lunged to strike him before the transformation completed, but the pulse hit. Not a shockwave. Not an explosion. A rhythmic force, beating outward in concentric rings, like a heartbeat echoing through the very air.
The hunter was thrown back, armor splintering. Marco was knocked to his knees. Chris floated. Actually floated, lifted inches from the ground by the pulsing light.
Rain parted around him, droplets splitting as they touched the shimmering aura. Chris screamed. “MAKE IT STOP!”
The hunter roared, shielding himself. “No—NO—this is not possible”
Marco stared in disbelief. “Chris… you’re glowing!”
“I DON’T WANT TO GLOW!”
His voice cracked with terror. The pulse intensified. The bones in the surrounding buildings vibrated. Streetlamps flickered violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across the pavement. And for the first time…
The hunter retreated. “This is not over,” he snarled. “Bonekeeper.”
He vanished into the rain with unnatural speed. Chris collapsed as the light snapped off. Marco lunged forward and caught him before he hit the ground. “Hey—Chris—stay with me”
Chris shivered violently. “I—I didn’t mean to, I don’t know what that was, I don’t know what’s happening to me”
Marco steadied him. “You just awakened something ancient. Something powerful.”
“I’m not supposed to have power,” Chris whispered. “I’m not supposed to be anything.”
“Well,” Marco said softly, “seems the universe disagrees.”
Chris’s breath shook. “He said I was a prince.”
Marco squeezed his shoulder. “Yeah. That part’s complicated.”
“No—no, princes don’t get thrown into corpse-washes,” Chris said, voice breaking. “Princes don’t get betrayed by their wives. Princes don’t get hunted.”
Marco sighed. “Kid… you’re not wrong. But you’re also not just some nobody.”
Chris squeezed his eyes shut. “I want all of this to stop.”
“Chris…”
“I want to go back,” he whispered. “To before today. Before everything broke.”
Marco didn’t answer. Because there was no going back. Footsteps splashed from the far end of the street, soldiers approaching, responding to the explosion. Marco pulled Chris up. “We have to move.”
Chris stumbled. “Where?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“There’s nowhere safe,” Chris whispered.
Marco hesitated. Then he said: “There is. But you’re not gonna like it.”
Chris’s stomach twisted. “Where?”
Marco met his eyes. “The Bonekeeper catacombs.”
Chris’s blood went cold. “The WHAT?!”
Marco grabbed his arm. “Move. Now.”
Behind them, the hunter’s voice echoed faintly through the rain: You cannot run forever, Prince.
Chris’s fear spiked. But so did something else. Something new. Something waking. And for the first time, He wasn’t sure if the fear belonged to him, or the hunter.
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CHAPTER 19 — Where Names Drown
The Bone Sea swallowed them whole. Cold, not freezing, but heavy, pressed in from every direction as Chris plunged beneath the surface. The water wasn’t clear. It was thick with drifting bone fragments, glowing faintly like submerged stars.Chris thrashed instinctively.“No...no...no...!”A hand locked around his wrist. Lira. Her eyes were open underwater, glowing softly as bone-thread symbols flared along her arms. She tugged him downward, not letting him fight the descent.Marco flailed beside them, bubbles exploding from his mouth as he pointed frantically upward, then downward, then at himself.I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS, his expression screamed. Chris tried to scream back. Water flooded his mouth. Pain exploded in his lungs. And then, Something shifted inside him. The pressure eased. The panic dulled.His chest expanded, and he inhaled. Water did not enter his lungs. Instead, marrow-light flowed through him, warm and steady, forming a thin internal sheath that let him breathe.
CHAPTER 18 — The Relic with No Name
The Spine Market didn’t celebrate. It braced. The last civilians vanished into glowing passages as the Undercity sealed itself in layers, bone shutters sliding into place, marrow-lanterns dimming to emergency glow.Chris sat slumped against a pillar, breath ragged, sweat soaking his shirt. “I can’t… keep pulling on it like that. It feels like my bones are trying to tear themselves out.”Marco crouched beside him. “Yeah, that’s usually your body’s way of saying please stop before I explode.”Lira pressed two fingers to Chris’s wrist. “Your pulse is erratic. The city responded because you asked it to protect, but it exacted a price.”Chris managed a weak smile. “Of course it did.”A low thrum echoed through the plaza, rhythmic, deliberate.Marco stiffened. “Tell me that’s not more boots.”Lira closed her eyes, listening. “No. That’s… deeper. Older.”The old woman from before stepped forward again, leaning heavily on her cane. “The Watchbones are waking.”Chris frowned. “The what?”“Guar
CHAPTER 17 — The Question the City Asked
The city didn’t wait for his answer. Stone groaned. Bone rang. Somewhere above them, metal screamed as ancient mechanisms, forgotten, buried, awake, began to turn.Chris staggered, clutching the wall. “What… what’s happening now?”Marco listened, eyes wide. “That is not panic. That’s… coordination.”Lira closed her eyes, focusing. “The Undercity is opening its arteries. Safe routes. Old sanctuaries.”Chris swallowed. “Because of me?”“Yes,” Lira said. “Because it recognizes you.”Chris shook his head weakly. “I didn’t ask for that.”“No one who leads ever does,” she replied.A deep boom rolled through the tunnel. Dust shook loose. Far-off voices echoed, shouts, confusion, fear.Marco winced. “Okay, so the city’s alive, the nobles are angry, and your wife is definitely plotting something dramatic. What’s the move, Your Bone-ness?”Chris shot him a look. “Don’t call me that.”“Fair,” Marco said. “But we still need a plan before someone drops a building on us.”Lira turned sharply toward
CHAPTER 16 — When the City Listens
Jenna stared at Chris like she was seeing a ghost crawl out of its own grave.“You broke the seal,” she whispered again, disbelief cracking her composure. “That’s not possible. It was reinforced by the Council.” Chris’s voice came out low. Steady. Dangerous.“Then the Council doesn’t understand bones.” The Undercity answered him.A low hum rolled through the tunnel, not sound exactly, pressure. Memory. The walls pulsed faintly, ancient marrow-lines glowing as if the city itself had opened one eye.Marco swallowed audibly. “Okay… I’m officially voting we never make him angry.”Lira didn’t look away from Jenna. “Chris. Focus. She’s still dangerous.”Jenna pushed herself to her feet, blood smearing across her lip. “You think this changes anything?” she snapped. “You’re one man against an empire.”Chris tilted his head. “I’m not alone.”Behind him, the bone wall reshaped, arms lowering, ribs knitting back into the stone like soldiers standing down but not leaving.Jenna laughed sharply. “
CHAPTER 15 — Come Home, Darling
“Come home, darling.”Jenna’s voice slid through the tunnel like a blade wrapped in silk. Chris froze. His heart didn’t race, it stopped.Marco whispered, “Nope. Don’t like that. Don’t like that at all.”Lira stepped forward slightly, bone-thread blade humming. “Chris. Don’t answer.”“I… I know that voice,” Chris said hoarsely. “That’s her. That’s really her.”From the darkness ahead, torchlight flared to life, cold blue marrow-flames lining the tunnel walls. Shadows stretched long and distorted. Then footsteps. Measured. Calm. Unhurried. A woman emerged from the glow. Jenna Oakwood.She wore noble marrow armor, elegant, white, etched with command sigils. Her dark hair was braided neatly down her back, her face serene, almost gentle. Almost. She smiled when she saw him.“There you are,” she said warmly. “You look terrible.”Chris’s breath came shallow. “You… you sent someone to kill me.”Jenna tilted her head, as if disappointed. “Oh, Chris. Must you be so dramatic?”Marco barked, “D
CHAPTER 14 — Collapse Into the Unknown
The ceiling came down all at once. Stone. Bone. Dust. Screams. Chris barely got his arms up before Marco tackled him sideways.“DOWN, DOWN, MOVE!” Marco shouted.The chamber erupted, giant slabs of bone crashing around them like falling teeth. Lira threw up a bone-thread barrier, sparks flying as null energy hammered against it from above.Chris coughed through the dust. “Where’s, where’s my father?!”Lira yelled, “His echo shattered, MOVE!”Chris tried to look for Arlon’s fading light, but another explosion ripped through the ceiling, forcing them deeper into the chamber.Marco grabbed Chris’s hand. “Kid! No stopping for ghost parents, we’re in a cave-in!”“I didn’t hear his last words!”“NEITHER DID I, MOVE!”A giant bone pillar cracked in half and crashed where Chris had been standing seconds earlier. The corrupted Bonekeeper shoved them aside, taking the blow across its back. Bone shards exploded from its body, but it remained standing, shielding Chris with a trembling frame.Chri
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