Chapter 40 - The Boy Behind the Final DoorThe knocking shook the entire kingdom.
Every soldier fell silent.
The clouds twisted around the colossal doorway.
Ancient bells rang from towers that had stood silent for centuries.
Ethan stared upward.
"What is that thing?"
The future king stepped backward.
For the first time, the man who had created countless timelines looked genuinely terrified.
"It shouldn't exist."
Rowan gripped Ethan's shoulder.
"Tell us what you've done."
The older Ethan could barely speak.
"When I first opened the doorway, I believed the machine had divided time into twelve possible paths."
"And?" Ethan demanded.
"There was another path."
Queen Eleanor whispered, "The one you sealed."
The future king nodded.
"I thought I had destroyed it."
A crack appeared across the massive structure in the sky.
From within came a child's voice.
"Let me out."
Ethan felt the blood drain from his face.
The voice was identical to his own.
The black crown rose from Rowan's hands.
It floated toward the opening.
The twelve bells stopped ringing.
A sudden silence fell over the kingdom.
Then the voice spoke again.
"Mother?"
Eleanor collapsed to her knees.
"No."
The future king seized Ethan's arm.
"Whatever happens, you must not let him through."
"Who is he?"
The older man's eyes filled with tears.
"The version of us that was never allowed to live."
A pale hand emerged from the crack.
Then another.
A boy began climbing through.
He looked twelve years old.
He wore a white hospital gown.
His hair was dark.
His eyes were bright silver.
On his right wrist glowed the circular mark shared by the other children.
But his face was different.
There was no fear.
No confusion.
Only a cold, unsettling calm.
He stepped onto the edge of the giant doorway, thousands of feet above the kingdom.
Then he looked down at Ethan.
"Hello, brother."
Ethan couldn't move.
The strange boy smiled.
"I've been watching every version of your life."
King Aldric raised his sword.
Rowan reached for the broken crown.
Eleanor stood between the twins.
And the future king whispered something Ethan barely heard.
"He remembers everything."
The boy above them lifted one hand.
Immediately, the sky filled with images.
Chicago.
The royal castle.
The underground coffins.
The frozen battlefield.
Ethan's mother.
Daniel Cole.
Every life.
Every death.
Every choice.
All suspended inside fragments of light.
Then the silver-eyed boy spoke.
"You keep trying to save the people you love."
The fragments began breaking apart.
"But none of you ever asked who keeps paying the price."
Ethan stepped forward.
"What do you want?"
The boy's smile disappeared.
"The life that was stolen from me."
He pointed toward the future king.
"He opened the first door."
Then he pointed toward Rowan.
"He broke the second."
Finally, he pointed directly at Ethan.
"And you're going to open the last."
Ethan shook his head.
"No."
The stranger tilted his head.
"You will."
Suddenly, the giant doorway turned black.
Every torch in the kingdom went out.
The first king fell to his knees.
Aldric's crown shattered.
The ground began splitting beneath the capital.
And from somewhere deep inside the castle, a familiar voice screamed.
"Ethan! Don't open it!"
His mother.
She was alive.
She was inside the kingdom.
Ethan spun toward the sound.
At the far end of the throne hall stood a woman in modern clothes.
His mother.
But she wasn't alone.
Behind her stood twelve boys.
Every one of them looked exactly like Ethan.
And every one of them held a key.
The silver-eyed child smiled again.
"Now," he whispered, "let's see which one of you is real."
The throne-room doors slammed shut.
END OF CHAPTER 40
TO BE CONTINUED — CHAPTER 41
May you like
The thirteenth child has arrived. Twelve identical boys are waiting behind the throne. And Ethan has just discovered that saving his mother may require opening the one doorway that could destroy every world.
But what if the real Ethan was never the boy who fell into the medieval kingdom?
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