Chapter 43 - The Forgotten KingThe seventh door shattered.
A black wind exploded into the chamber, extinguishing the remaining crystals.
Rowan pulled Ethan behind him.
King Aldric stumbled backward, his face filled with horror.
A tall figure emerged from the darkness.
He wore armor made from overlapping plates of black steel. A fractured silver crown rested above his brow. His face was pale, scarred, and impossibly familiar.
Ethan recognized the eyes.
The shape of the nose.
The small scar above the eyebrow.
He was looking at himself.
Only decades older.
The stranger regarded the boy with quiet sadness.
"So this is what I looked like before the world taught me to hate it."
Ethan couldn't speak.
Aldric raised his sword.
"Stay away from him, Malachar."
The stranger smiled.
"Malachar. Another name you invented so the kingdom could pretend it wasn't fighting its own founder."
Ethan looked from one man to the other.
"You're Ethan Cole?"
"I was."
"Then what happened to you?"
Malachar glanced at the six numbered doors.
"Six lives. Six deaths. Six times betrayed by the people I saved."
Aldric shouted, "That's not true!"
Malachar turned toward him.
"Would you like me to show him?"
He lifted one hand.
The first door burst open.
An image appeared inside.
Ethan saw himself standing in a burning village, pulling frightened children from collapsing houses.
The image changed.
He stood before an army, holding back an enormous shadow.
Then another.
Ethan lay on the floor of the throne room, dying while Aldric knelt beside him.
Another vision appeared.
This time, Aldric held a strange golden dagger.
And Ethan was on the ground.
The king had blood on his hands.
Ethan recoiled.
"You killed me?"
Aldric dropped his sword.
The silence that followed was worse than any confession.
Malachar approached.
"He remembers every death. But he never told you who caused the last one."
Ethan looked at the king who had protected him since his arrival.
The man who had offered him shelter.
The man he had begun to trust.
"Is it true?"
Aldric whispered, "Yes."
Ethan's chest tightened.
"Why?"
Aldric's eyes filled with tears.
"Because you begged me to."
Malachar laughed bitterly.
"That's what he wants you to believe."
He held out his hand.
"Come with me, Ethan. I'll show you the truth."
The chamber trembled.
The boy hesitated.
May you like
Then the black-armored king said something that changed everything.
"I can take you home."
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