The King Of War Returns (Jaden Rift) novel Chapter 96

A heavy silence had settled over the area, the crowd frozen like statues.

Williams Gravesend stepped forward with a slow, deliberate gait. His black shoes splashed lightly in the pool of blood as he knelt beside the lifeless form, a white sheet half-soaked in red.

With a trembling hand, he pulled the sheet back.

And his world stopped.

“Peter...?”

His voice cracked. The chill that ran through him wasn’t from the wind.

It was Peter—his last protégé. His chosen successor. The future of the Gravesend name.

Now reduced to a mangled corpse.

“No... no no no!” Williams growled, his face twisting with rage and grief. His teeth clenched so tight the muscles in his jaw pulsed. “How could this happen... again?!”

He pulled Peter’s limp body closer, the boy’s head rolling lifelessly in his arms.

Just days ago, he’d buried his only son, Baron—cut down in a mysterious assassination that left more questions than answers. And now this.

His last hope, gone. Snatched away before his eyes like some kind of cruel joke.

“I raised you like a son,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “You were supposed to carry on the name... not die like this.”

The crowd watched, stunned into silence. Nobody dared speak.

Williams slowly stood, grief giving way to fury.

“For the sake of the Gravesend family... I’ll endure this pain,” he declared, fists shaking, voice low but thunderous. “But I swear this—whoever did this… whoever dares spill blood during the King of War’s ceremony… I will fight them to the last breath!”

He turned to the stunned onlookers, his eyes bloodshot.

“WHO THREW THIS BODY?!” he roared. “ANSWER ME!”

But the crowd only murmured, confused and frightened. No one stepped forward.

He spun on the two guards closest to him.

“Get this body out of here. Now. Clean every drop of blood—this place must be spotless. I won’t let a tragedy like this stain the arrival of the King of War!”

The guards bowed and moved to lift the corpse.

But before they could get far—

Wham!

A blur of black streaked through the air.

One of the guards was kicked clean across the square, his body crashing into a car door with a sickening crunch.

The second tried to draw a weapon, but it was too late.

Drax landed in front of him like a shadow from hell, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground with one arm.

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