His Bride, Her Revenge

Chapter 121: The Reckoning of Shadows

The war room was unnaturally quiet.

Cambria stood at the head of the obsidian table, her fingers curled tightly around the edges. Maps sprawled before her, soaked in red ink and annotations from the last battle. Her council surrounded her with what was left of it. Evelyn stood to her right, arms folded, eyes unreadable. Lucien Vale stood across from her, watching the daughter he had both saved and doomed with a face carved from stone.

"We lost half the Blackwatch in the northern front," General Carrow reported, voice hoarse. "The perfected Pandora units overwhelmed our defenses. We weren’t prepared for that kind of precision."

Cambria didn’t blink. She had expected this. She had counted every casualty in her mind long before the reports came in.

"The moment Evelyn was revealed as the first key, they were reactivated," she murmured. "Sophia Drake always had a failsafe. And we walked into it."

"Project Echelon has been activated too," Evelyn added. "It’s worse than Pandora. These new units, Subject Five through Nine, don’t need handlers. They’re controlled by a central core. And that core is "

"Knox," Cambria finished.

No one questioned it.

Not anymore.

A silence fell, heavy with realization. Then Lucien spoke, his voice slow and deliberate.

"There’s only one place Knox could be hiding: the central control unit. The Eyrie."

Cambria’s heart twisted. The Eyrie. A fortress on the edge of the old kingdom. It had been the Blackwood family’s ancestral seat before the fall. And now it served as the crucible for the most dangerous weapon the world had ever seen.

"If we strike now, we’ll be marching straight into his territory," Carrow said. "It’ll be a slaughter."

Cambria turned her gaze to Evelyn, her once-dead sister now the unexpected ally. "Do you still have access to the override codes for Subject One?"

"I do," Evelyn said. "But they’re locked behind a biometric seal. I’ll have to be there in person."

"Then we go," Cambria said. "We strike the Eyrie before Knox completes the merge with the God Engine."

Lucien’s voice sharpened. "Do you even understand what that means? If he completes that merge he becomes more than king. He becomes sovereign over life and death."

Cambria’s eyes glittered. "Then we kill him before he becomes a god."

The winds over the northern reaches howled like the ghosts of fallen kings.

The war caravan moved like a shadow across the frost-drenched valley. Warhorses, armored tanks, and the elite remnants of the Valean army trudged through the snow toward the Eyrie. Above them, storm clouds thickened, angry and roiling like the wrath of heaven.

Inside her command carriage, Cambria stood before the cracked mirror. She tied the last strap of her armor with steady hands. Her reflection stared back at her unflinching, unrecognizable from the girl who once loved the enemy now seated on the Eyrie’s throne.

Knox.

The name burned like poison in her throat.

The man who had once touched her like she was made of glass... now sought to crush the world in his grip.

A knock broke her thoughts.

Evelyn entered, armored as well. "The scouts say he’s expecting us."

"Good," Cambria replied. "Let him wait."

Evelyn walked closer, placing a hand on her shoulder. "This ends tonight. For all of us."

Cambria turned to face her. "And if it doesn’t?"

"Then we drag him down to hell with us."

The Eyrie rose like a crown of thorns against the bleeding sky.

By dusk, they stood before its towering gates, black iron woven with arcane runes. Cambria’s army formed tight, shields raised, weapons drawn. The air trembled, and something ancient stirred beneath the stones.

Cambria rode to the front. Evelyn flanked her. Lucien was beside them.

From the battlements, a figure stepped into view cloaked in black and crimson.

Knox Blackwood.

Even from a distance, she saw the change.

He wasn’t just a man anymore. noveldrama

His eyes burned with inhuman light, veins threaded with molten silver. Behind him, lines of perfected soldiers more than they had ever seen marched into position, flawless, unblinking, waiting for a command.

Knox raised a hand.

The gates creaked open.

A challenge.

Cambria’s breath frosted in the air. "Hold the line," she ordered. "Only Evelyn and I go inside."

Lucien grabbed her arm. "This is suicide."

Cambria looked at him with fire in her eyes. "Then let me burn."

Inside the Eyrie, the darkness pulsed like a living thing.

Cambria and Evelyn walked through the halls of their ancestors, ghosts pressing against the walls. Every portrait seemed to watch them. Every step echoed with memory.

They reached the throne room rebuilt in Knox’s image.

Thrones of bone. A floor of obsidian. A dais where the God Engine hissed behind him, glowing with a thousand trapped souls.

Knox stood at the center.

"You came," he said softly.

Cambria stepped forward. "You knew I would."

"I hoped you wouldn’t."

Evelyn activated the device strapped to her wrist. A pulse of blue light shimmered. The override codes were ready.

But Knox was faster.

With a flick of his fingers, the perfected units descended from the shadows surrounding them.

Evelyn swore. "He’s controlling them directly."

"You never understood," Knox said, stepping closer. "This was never about kingdoms. Or power. This was about evolution. You and I, Cambria, were the prototypes. Project Pandora, Project Echelon, the God Engine... it was all leading to this."

He reached out.

And to Cambria’s horror, the God Engine responded with its tendrils curling toward her, drawn by something inside her blood.

"She’s the final key," Knox whispered. "Not Evelyn. Not even me. You, Cambria. You were the failsafe. The Queen Protocol."

Evelyn’s hand trembled. "What?"

"You were designed to override even me," Knox said. "That’s why Lucien hid you. Why Seraphine chose you. Why does the Engine call you?"

Cambria stumbled back. "You’re lying."

But she felt it.

The hum in her veins. The pull in her bones.

Knox stepped closer, voice low and devastating. "We could still do it, Cambria. Together. Rewrite the world. Burn the broken, and build something new."

Cambria met his eyes.

The man she had once loved.

The monster he had become.

She drew her blade. "Then you’ll die knowing I was never yours to command."

The God Engine screamed.

And the final battle began.