The Chain Kindle Novels & Stories

Head tilted, eyes half-lidded, as if watching something that existed just beyond sight. Alessio watched him like a hawk. Nathan stayed close to the guards, senses prickling. Then Ezekiel crouched. His knees bent smoothly, robes pooling around him like spilled silk. He reached out — not grabbing, not seizing — just letting two fingers brush a snapped iron chain half-buried in dust. The instant his skin touched it, his breath hitched. A tremor ran through him. His lips parted. And he began to murmur again — softer this time, almost coaxing, like speaking to a frightened creature.

Fully standing now. No chains remained around his arms. Or shoulders. Or chest. Only one remained. A massive chain wrapped around his heart. The largest of them all. The First King's smile returned. "There it is." Lucien followed his gaze downward. The final chain pulsed with black resonance. Unlike the others, it wasn't made from failure. Or guilt. Or fear. Althea could feel it immediately. This chain was different. The First King noticed her realization. "Do you know what that one is?"

Such was the indomitable might of the Firmament Chain, that whatever the giant skeletal hand had robbed from Chu Xun, it was being drawn back in full. The monster inside the cave let loose a series of angry, guttural howls. Forged by the very laws of Nature, the Firmament Chain had been consuming Chu Xun's True Energy while keeping him in check, and the gigantic skeletal hand's draining away of Chu Xun's life had angered it. The Chain pulsed with another blinding glow, then it withdrew quickly. Crack! An ear-splitting clap of bones cracking resounded and the skeletal hand began splitting. "What devilry is this, you puny ant! Take it away! Take it away now or I'll smash you to bits!"

He asks immediately. “No. I… I have something for you. A gift.” I admit. He takes a seat beside me, placing our food on the coffee table. He waits, anticipation clear on his face. I slowly hand him the navy blue box that Cam dropped off not too long ago. He opens it, and reads the card that she included which explains the spells on the chain. He looks increasingly incredulous as he reads and by the time he finishes, he is absolutely beaming. He clasps the chain around his neck and runs a hand over it lightly.

Became a roar that shook the marrow of the world. The flames burst from her skin in a ring of gold and violet, weaving through the cracks of the altar, dancing up the walls like justice remembering its own name. And the Chain of Thrones, Burned. Fully. Not with chaos. But with clarity. Each link flared once. Just once.

"Have you thought about cutting the chains you have placed on yourself? I know you are scared to let lose that part of you and finally be whole, but It might be easier for you to figure out what is going to happen. Or is it that you just don't know how to do it, because you don't exercise your gifts as much as you did when you were younger? I don't know, I just remember you said something to the fact that you put chains on your gifts a long time ago to make sure you weren't a bright light in the darkness when you had V." In a nervous tone, I replied. "I'm just not sure if I should. I am not the person I was then. I guess you can say, I am scared. But I'm not scared of what I put chains on. I

Chapter Eight Noah drives us to the hotel where the party is going to be, and the city lights sparkle like diamonds. I sit in the passenger seat, outwardly calm, but my stomach does flips of anticipation and apprehension. Noah has been off, distant a lot lately, and mentioning Isabella Stone—his old partner—made me uneasy.

The ritual was over, but the chain's warmth still burned against my hip like a brand I couldn't scrape off, and the world had just started watching. Dawn gold bled across the ridge, cold and thin as watered blood. My nose remained clogged with the last of the silver-mercury ash, every breath a jagged scraping of soot against raw tissue. The chain—1.5 meters of quartz and soul—throbbed once: slow, steady, the only thing left of Kael that still answered when I pressed my palm to it.

Now, we had to face the Guilt. "The Chain is about the cellar, isn't it?" I whispered. "It’s about every link you’ve ever worn, Emma," Nathaniel said, his eyes full of a weary compassion. "And it’s coming to pull you back into the dark." I stood up, my amber eyes fixed on the Alabaster Spire. Nine chapters left. The Crown was broken. Now, it was time to break the iron. "Let the chain come," I said, my voice a steady, sovereign resonance. "I’ve got the bolt-cutters."