Chapter 69: The Graveyard of Forgotten Names

The first corpse charged.

Kai swung the axe.

The blade struck the corpse’s shoulder and buried itself deep in the rotten flesh. The impact should have dropped a normal person, but the corpse continued moving. It grabbed the axe with both hands and pulled Kai toward it.

Kai released the weapon.

The corpse opened its mouth.

"Kai."

The voice belonged to his father.

Kai froze for half a second.

The corpse struck him across the chest and sent him rolling through the wet grass. Pain spread through his ribs, but the body was not broken. He pushed himself up and saw three more corpses climbing from the open graves.

Lysa ran toward him.

"Don’t listen to their voices!"

"That would be easier if they stopped using my family."

A corpse lunged at her.

Kai reached her first. He grabbed the back of her coat and pulled her aside. The corpse’s fingers closed around empty air. Kai kicked its knee, but the leg bent in the wrong direction and snapped back into place.

Lysa threw a knife into the red line around its throat.

The mark cracked.

The corpse collapsed into the mud.

"Hit the lines," she said. "The bodies don’t matter."

"I figured that out last time."

Lysa stared at him. "Last time?"

Kai did not answer.

The dead surrounded them.

Some crawled from the graves. Others stood at the edges of the cemetery, wearing old clothes and carrying tools. Their red throat marks glowed beneath the rain.

The man from the registration hall stepped through the gate. He no longer carried the silver pistol. His cracked badge hung from one hand, and his face had lost its calm expression.

"You broke the seal," he said.

Kai picked up the axe from the ground. "You keep saying that as if it’s a bad thing."

"You do not understand what you released."

"I released people."

"You released the part of them that remembers dying."

The dead moved closer.

A woman at the front lifted her head. Her throat mark flickered, and her face changed into Kai’s mother’s face.

"Kai," she said. "Come home."

Kai’s axe lowered slightly.

Lysa grabbed his arm. "It is not her."

"I know."

"Then why are you looking at it?"

"Because knowing something does not stop it from hurting."

The woman attacked.

Kai blocked with the axe handle. Her strength drove him backward, but Lysa struck the red line around her throat. The mark cracked without breaking.

The woman screamed.

The scream became his mother’s voice.

"Kai, you left me again."

Kai’s grip tightened.

He turned the axe and struck the mark a second time.

It shattered.

The woman collapsed, and the false face disappeared. Beneath it was an old man with gray hair and a scar across his cheek.

Kai stared at him.

The old man opened his eyes.

"Name," Kai said.

The man’s lips moved, but no sound came out.

Kai leaned closer.

"Tell me your name."

The old man whispered, "Tomas."

The red lines across his body faded.

He became still.

Lysa looked at Kai. "You freed him."

"For a few seconds."

"Is that enough?"

"No."

Kai turned toward the remaining dead.

"But it’s more than the Company gave him."

He charged.

The graveyard became chaos.

KaI swung the axe at the red marks, never staying in one place long enough for the dead to surround him. Lysa moved beside him, cutting the lines with her knife. Every time a mark broke, a name escaped from the corpse beneath it.

"Marna!"

"Elias!"

"Jon!"

Some died immediately.

Others stood for a few seconds, confused and terrified, before their bodies turned to ash.

The man from the registration hall watched from the gate.

Kai noticed.

"You’re not helping."

"I am waiting."

"For what?"

"For you to understand that every person you free brings the palace closer."

Kai struck another red line.

A young boy fell into the mud.

He looked no older than twelve.

"Name?" Kai asked.

The boy’s eyes were wide. "Milo."

"Where is the palace?"

Milo pointed toward the hills.

"Beyond the bell tower."

"Why?"

The boy grabbed Kai’s sleeve.

"Because they keep the real people there."

A red thread pulled through the boy’s back.

His body jerked.

Kai cut the thread before it could drag him away.

Milo gasped and clung to him.

The man at the gate finally moved.

He crossed the cemetery in an instant and struck Kai in the shoulder. Kai fell, and the axe flew from his hand.

The man reached for Milo.

Kai grabbed his ankle.

The man turned and kicked Kai in the face.

Kai’s head struck the earth. Rain filled his eyes.

The man lifted Milo by the collar.

"Return to the hall," he ordered.

Milo kicked and screamed.

Kai pushed himself up. "Put him down."

"You have already interfered twice."

"Then you should be used to it."

The man tightened his grip around Milo’s throat.

A red line appeared beneath the boy’s skin.

Kai looked around the graveyard.

The dead were no longer attacking. They stood in a wide circle, watching. Their marks pulsed in rhythm with the man’s badge.

The village was connected to him.

Not just the registration hall.

Him.

The man had become the keeper of the cycle.

Kai looked at the cracked badge in his hand.

The first time, he had torn it from the man’s chest. The second time, the man still held it. The badge was not merely a key. It was the anchor keeping the village reset in place.

If Kai destroyed it, the cycle might break.

It might also kill everyone still connected to it.

The man smiled when he saw Kai looking at the badge.

"You understand now."

"You’re the anchor."

"I am the caretaker."

"You don’t remember the cycles."

"I remember enough."

"How many times have you killed me?"

The man’s eyes darkened.

"Only once in this attempt."

"That wasn’t what I asked."

The man looked toward the registration hall.

"Every time you return, the village changes. Every time you die, something remains. A wound. A memory. A name."

Kai stared at him.

"You remember me."

"I remember what you leave behind."

Milo’s face was turning blue.

Kai’s attention snapped back to the boy.

"Release him."

"Give me the badge."

Kai looked at the cracked piece of silver in his palm.

The man extended his free hand.

"Your friends are waiting beneath the palace. Your family is being taken there. You cannot reach them without me."

"You said they were all waiting there."

"They are."

"Then tell me why I died beneath the city and woke in this village."

"Because the palace rejected you."

Kai’s eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because the body already had an owner."

The words echoed through the graveyard.

Lysa whispered, "Kai."

Kai ignored her.

"What happened to the owner?"

The man looked at Milo.

"He is still beneath the palace."

Kai’s breathing slowed.

The original Kai was alive.

Not as a memory. Not as a mark. Somewhere beneath the capital, the boy whose body he had taken was still trapped.

The man continued, "He has been waiting for you."

Kai looked at the child in the man’s grip.

"Let him go."

"Give me the badge."

Kai threw it.

The man caught it.

The moment his fingers closed around the silver piece, Kai lunged forward.

He did not attack the man.

He attacked Milo’s red line.

His hand tore through the mark around the boy’s throat. The red thread snapped, and Milo fell free. Kai caught him against his chest and rolled across the mud.

The man raised the badge.

The dead screamed.

Every corpse in the graveyard stood upright at once.

Their red marks exploded with light.

Lysa dragged Milo away from Kai.

"What did you do?"

"I gave him the key."

"That was not the plan."

"It was the distraction."

The man pressed the badge against his chest.

A red circle opened beneath his feet. The ground cracked outward, and chains erupted from the graves. They wrapped around the dead, the trees, and the stone gate.

The entire cemetery began sinking into the earth.

The man’s voice echoed over the storm.

"You will return to the palace."

Kai picked up the axe.

"Not with you."

The man pulled one of the chains.

A dead woman flew through the air and struck Kai. He crashed into a grave marker. The stone broke behind him.

Lysa threw her knife at the man.

He caught it without looking.

Then he snapped the blade between two fingers.

"You cannot stop the caretaker."

Kael’s voice suddenly echoed from the hillside.

"Kai!"

Kai looked up.

At the top of the hill stood Kael, Sarah, and Jax.

They were alive.

Kael’s clothes were torn, and Sarah’s face was covered in blood, but they were standing together. Dorian was not with them.

The man from the hall turned toward them.

"Impossible," he whispered.

Kai understood.

The first attempt had taken him to the hall alone. The second attempt had separated him from his friends. But they had not died. They had been redirected to the hill.

The cycle was not repeating perfectly.

It was adapting.

Kai shouted, "Kael! The badge!"

Kael saw the silver object in the man’s hand.

Jax vanished from the hill.

The man raised his arm.

Red chains shot toward the three of them.

Sarah created a wall of light. The chains struck it and wrapped around the barrier. Kael charged through the opening, sword raised.

The man sent three dead villagers toward him.

Kael cut through the first red line, blocked the second, and took the third attack across his shoulder. He kept moving.

Jax appeared behind the man and reached for the badge.

The man turned and grabbed him by the throat.

Jax kicked wildly.

"Little help!"

Kai ran.

His body was tired, but the pain was familiar now. He knew how far he could push his legs. He knew where the mud was deepest. He knew the exact moment the man would turn toward him.

Kai lowered his axe and struck the man’s knee.

The joint bent.

The man dropped Jax and fell sideways.

Kael’s sword cut through the red chain around his arm.

Sarah’s light struck his chest.

The man lost control of the badge.

Kai caught it before it hit the ground.

The cemetery stopped sinking.

Every corpse froze.

The man looked at Kai with genuine fear.

"Give it back."

Kai held the cracked badge between his fingers.

"How do I reach the palace?"

"Destroy that, and the village dies."

"How do I reach the palace?"

The man gritted his teeth.

"Follow the bell."

A bell rang in the distance.

The sound came from beyond the graveyard, near the hills.

Kai looked at Lysa. "Take Milo."

Lysa nodded.

"Kael, stay with them. Sarah, keep the villagers alive if you can. Jax, find the road."

Jax rubbed his throat. "And you?"

Kai looked at the man on the ground.

"I’m taking him with me."

The man laughed weakly. "You cannot force me to leave."

Kai crouched beside him and pressed the cracked badge against his chest.

The man’s body stiffened.

"You’re right," Kai said. "But I can make staying more painful."

The red marks across the man’s body began to crack.

He screamed.

The dead villagers turned toward the hills.

One by one, they began walking toward the bell.

Kai dragged the man behind him while the others followed. The cemetery gate opened, revealing a narrow road covered in white flowers.

The flowers were shaped like small hands.

Each one reached toward Kai as he passed.

Milo whispered, "They know you."

Kai looked down at them.

"What do they know?"

"That you killed the palace before."

Kai stopped.

Kael stared at him. "You killed the palace?"

Kai looked toward the hills.

A massive black structure rose beyond them, its towers twisting into the gray sky. Hundreds of bells hung from its walls, but none of them moved.

The palace had been waiting for him.

And according to Milo, he had destroyed it before.

The man in the uniform coughed behind him.

"You never reached the palace," he said.

Kai turned. "Then who did?"

The man’s eyes moved toward the pale face visible in the highest tower window.

The original Kai was standing there.

The boy pressed one hand against the glass.

His lips formed the same words as before.

Please tell them I’m still here.

Kai closed his fingers around the badge.

"Keep walking," he said.

The road to the palace opened.

Behind them, the dead began to follow.

Above them, the bells started ringing one after another.

The man in the uniform looked at Kai and whispered:

"This time, the palace will kill you before you reach the door."