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All Chapters of Replacing my Ex: The Matriarch’s Revenge: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

66 Chapters

The Water Wall

Chapter 51I closed my eyes. I waited for the pain.It never came.I heard a loud clang of iron on iron, and I opened my eyes. Standing over me, with his short sword raised, was Thomas. He had blocked Draven's blow with all his strength, and his arms were shaking. His face was red, and there was blood on his lip."You are not killing my best friend today, you big metal pig!" Thomas screamed."Thomas!" I gasped."Keep turning, Arthur!" he yelled back. "I will handle this!""You cannot handle him!"Thomas gave me a crooked grin, though blood was running down his chin. "Remember when we were ten? And you said we would be heroes someday?""I was ten! I did not mean it!""Well, I did." He turned back and lifted his sword. "So go and be one.""I know! But I will make it look good!"Draven laughed, a low and tired laugh. He pushed Thomas's sword aside and kicked him in the chest. Thomas flew backward and hit the wall, and slid to the floor with a groan.But those few seconds were enough. Ele

Last Updated : 2026-10-20

The Night Ride South

Chapter 52 "Can you stand?" Elena asked."Of course I can stand," I said. Then my legs folded like wet paper, and she caught me before I hit the stone steps."Of course you can," she said gently. "Just not right now.""I am only resting my knees.""Sure you are."The sun had gone down behind the mountains. The big lake behind the dam was dark and still. My chest felt hollow, as if someone had scooped out my insides with a spoon. Every small movement made me tired. The pendant lay cold in my hand. It had no light now, no voice, nothing. It looked like a plain silver coin again.Thomas limped over and sat beside me. He held his side with one hand. "I think I have a broken rib," he said. "I want everyone to know that I was very brave about it.""You were very brave," I said."Thank you. Say it louder. Maren is not listening.""I am listening," Maren said from the top step. "You were adequate."Th

Last Updated : 2026-10-21

The mill on the Black River

Chapter 53"It looks like a sleeping giant," Thomas whispered."A giant with a lot of guards," Elena whispered back.We lay on our stomachs at the top of a muddy hill, looking down through a screen of dry grass. Dawn had just come. A thin white mist floated over the Black River, and in the middle of it sat Ash Hollow.It was bigger than I had imagined. A thick stone wall ran around it in a square, and every corner had a small tower. Inside the wall stood a long old mill with a huge wooden water wheel on one side. The wheel turned slowly, groaning in the water. Behind the mill there were three low barns with iron bars on the windows. Smoke came from one chimney. A row of carts stood near the gate, and a few thin horses waited in front of them."The hostage barns," Draven said, pointing. He was lying beside me, and he had taken off his helmet so it would not shine. "Women in the left one. Children in the middle. Men in the right. The grain cellar under the mill is for punishments.""How

Last Updated : 2026-10-22

A prisoner on purpose

Chapter 54"Walk faster, boy!" Draven barked. "You are not on a holiday!""I am walking as fast as I can," I said. "My hands are tied.""Then walk faster with tied hands!"I almost laughed. Draven was doing a very good job of being a mean Marshal. Maybe too good. The rope around my wrists was real, and it was tight. Elena walked behind me with her own hands tied, her face calm and sulky. She was very good at pretending to be sulky.Our feet crunched on the muddy road. In front of us, the gate of Ash Hollow rose up like a gray tooth. Two guards stood on top with crossbows. They had already seen us."Halt!" one of them shouted. "State your name!""Marshal Draven," Draven called. "Open the gate."There was a pause. I heard whispering. Then a bell rang inside, and the great gate began to creak open.My heart was beating so hard that I thought the guards would hear it. I kept my head down and my shoulders slumped, like a boy who had lost everything. It was not hard. I did feel like that, a

Last Updated : 2026-10-23

Mina

Chapter 55 "You are squishing me!" Mina said."I do not care.""I cannot breathe!""You can breathe later."She laughed, a wet, hiccuping laugh, and hugged me even harder. Her arms were thinner than I remembered. Her braids were messy, and she had a smudge of flour on her nose. She was twelve years old, and she looked like she had grown three years in a week.When I finally let go, I held her by the shoulders and looked at her. "Are you hurt? Did they hit you? Did they feed you? Tell me everything.""I am fine." She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I bit a guard once. They put me in here for two days. But I am fine."Elena let out a small, shaky laugh behind me. Mina looked past my shoulder, and her eyes went wide."Who is that?""That is Elena," I said. "She is my friend.""Your friend." Mina looked at me. Then she looked at Elena. Then she looked at me again, with a very smart, very twelve-yea

Last Updated : 2026-10-24

The Captain in the Grey Cloak

Chapter 56 "You are not eating," Sorrel said."I am not hungry," said Draven."That is a shame. The cook made a very nice stew." Sorrel raised his spoon and tasted it, slowly. "It is the last good meal many of us will have."I could not see this. I was in the cellar, a floor below. But later, Draven told me every word, and I will tell it as he told it.Sorrel's room was at the top of the mill, with a round window that looked out over the river. A long table stood in the middle. On it were two bowls, two cups, and a folded grey cloak. Draven noticed the cloak at once. It was muddy at the bottom, and a little wet."You were out last night," he said."A walk.""In the mud.""I enjoy mud." Sorrel put down his spoon. "Marshal, let me ask you something. A message bird came to me this morning from Oak Wood. It was from Commander Brask. He said a young guard with a thin mustache gave him a paper with your seal on i

Last Updated : 2026-10-25

Down the Wheel pit

Chapter 57 "Ow! You stepped on my hand!""Sorry, Thomas.""I am not Thomas. I am Draven.""Oh. Sorry, Marshal.""It is fine," Draven said in the dark. "My hand has had worse."It took us two hours to dig through the back wall of the cellar. Mina was right. She and Lysa had done most of the work already. Behind the grain sack, there was a hole about the size of a barrel, and behind the hole, an old wooden chute that sloped steeply down into the dark. It smelled of wet flour and old mice.Mina went first. She did not even look afraid. She put the spoon in her belt and slid down the chute like a girl going down a hill in winter.Elena went next. Then me. Then Draven, who was so big that he got stuck halfway.There was a loud scraping sound, and then a heavy THUMP. Draven landed at the bottom in a heap of dust and wet straw. For a moment, nobody said anything."I would like everyone to forget this happen

Last Updated : 2026-10-26

Vance Holds the Door

Chapter 58 "Faster!" Elena cried. "Everyone, faster! Do not stop!"The tunnel was full of people. They splashed through the knee-deep water with their bundles held over their heads, whispering and sobbing and praying. A small boy cried out when he slipped. Thomas picked him up without a word and put him on his shoulders, and the boy stopped crying at once and began to pull Thomas's hair."Ow," said Thomas. "That is my hair.""It is soft," said the boy."Thank you. Please stop."Above us, the whole mill had gone mad. Boots pounded on stone. Men shouted. Doors slammed. I heard Sorrel's voice, cold and loud, calling orders. It was the first time I had ever heard him raise it."Search the cellars! Check every barn! Find the Star Lord!""They know," Draven said. He stood beside me, dripping, and his hand was on a long iron hook that he had pulled from the wall. "It is only a matter of time.""It is the number I

Last Updated : 2026-10-27

The Iron King Arrives

Chapter 59 "That is the King's horn," Draven said.We stood on the riverbank in the dark. All around us, hundreds of people were crouching in the reeds, shivering and holding each other. Maren was running up and down the line with blankets, scolding anyone who coughed. Thomas had gathered the children into a ring and was telling them a very silly story about a goose who wanted to be a soldier. The children were giggling quietly. It was the best sound in the world.But the horn did not stop. It came again, long and low, from the road beyond the trees. Then I heard the sound of horses, hundreds of hooves, drumming on the hard ground."How many riders?" I asked.Draven closed his eyes, listening. "Two hundred. Iron Guards. The best he has."My stomach sank. We had three hundred hostages, most of them women and children. We had one Marshal, two wounded men, an old woman, a girl with a bow and no arrows, a boy with a sore rib, and m

Last Updated : 2026-10-28

The Last Words of the Pendant

Chapter 60 "My brave boy," my mother said.Her voice was soft and tired, and it floated over the river like a song. Every person on both banks heard it. The soldiers stopped moving. The torches seemed to burn lower. I could hear the whole world listening.I could not breathe. I stood there in the freezing water with my mother's face in my hand, and I felt nine years old again."If you are hearing this, then you have closed the gate," my mother's voice went on. "I am so proud of you. I wish I could say it to your face. But I made this pendant a long time ago, and I put my voice in it, so that I could speak to you when you were old enough to hear."Her face was thin and pale, but her eyes were warm. She looked exactly like I remembered her, bent over her sewing in the lamplight."Now I must tell you the last secret. I kept it from you all your life, and I am sorry. I was afraid. The Iron King is not only our enemy, Arthur."

Last Updated : 2026-10-29

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