His Bride, Her Revenge

Chapter 131: The Heart of the Enemy

The silence in the ruined cathedral was suffocating, broken only by the slow drip of blood from Cambria’s side. Smoke curled from the shattered archways like mourning veils, and moonlight spilled through the gaping roof to illuminate the devastation below. Beneath her feet, sacred tiles lay cracked, defiled by war and betrayal.

But none of it compared to the storm brewing inside her.

"You were never supposed to see this place," Lucien murmured beside her, his voice low, ragged. "This was meant to be our sanctuary."

Cambria turned slowly, eyes like flint. "A sanctuary built on lies."

He didn’t deny it.

The confrontation with Evelyn had torn open wounds that refused to close. Seraphine’s ghost still echoed in Cambria’s bones, her legacy imprinted on Cambria’s blood. Project Pandora had not ended it had only evolved. The final protocol was no longer just a threat. It was a countdown.

And time was slipping through her fingers.

Knox had retreated, but not defeated. His forces had scattered into the eastern territories, regrouping like shadows waiting for nightfall. Sophia Drake had vanished again, her perfected soldiers carving a bloody path through the last bastions of resistance. The Blackwood Council was fractured. The monarchy was crumbling.

And Cambria... was losing control.

"I should kill you," she whispered, staring at Lucien. "For everything. For what you did to Mother. For Project Pandora. For turning me into a weapon without a choice."

Lucien’s expression flickered. "You were never a weapon."

"Then what am I, Father?" Her voice cracked. "A monster? A queen? A puppet with a crown?"

"You’re the only one who can end this," he said. "And I knew it, even before you were born."

Cambria took a step forward, chest heaving. "You knew... and still you let them put her in that tomb. You let Evelyn suffer. You let me suffer."

He reached for her, foolish and reckless, and she drew her blade in one smooth motion, pressing the edge to his throat. The metal gleamed in the pale light, and Lucien did not flinch.

"Do it," he said. "If it will help you heal. But you’ll still have to face what’s coming." noveldrama

Cambria stared at him for a long, brittle moment before she dropped the blade with a hollow clatter. Rage no longer sated her. Not when there were still enemies to unmask. Secrets to unbury. And one final war to win.

She turned away.

"We move on the Citadel at dawn."

The war room was in chaos.

Reports flew across the chamber like daggers. The eastern rebellion had grown teeth Knox’s lieutenants were turning the tide with ruthless precision. The perfected weapons had infiltrated the southern arc, and rumors of a second Seraphine alive, reborn, or reconstructed spread like wildfire through the ranks.

Cambria stood at the head of the obsidian table, eyes scanning the maps, the blood-red markers, the thin lines of defense. Maddox stood to her right, his face unreadable, his hand never far from the hilt of his sword.

Evelyn was seated, arms crossed, face pale but stubborn.

"We can’t hold the southern border," Evelyn said. "Not without reinforcements. And the other sovereign houses won’t commit while Seraphine’s legacy remains contested."

Cambria’s voice was calm. Too calm.

"Then we give them a reason to choose."

Maddox frowned. "You’re not suggesting "

"I am," Cambria interrupted. "We take the war to the core."

Silence fell like a guillotine.

"You mean the Heart of the Citadel," Evelyn said slowly.

Cambria nodded.

The Heart, once the source of Arcane governance, is now Knox’s fortress. Beneath its iron walls was the Nexus Vault, where Pandora’s final evolution was rumored to be stored. A hybrid program. Not just weapons... not even soldiers. Gods.

"We won’t survive an open assault," Maddox warned. "Not without allies."

Cambria turned her gaze to the map. "Then we find new ones."

Her finger slid across the parchment until it stopped at a forgotten region Obsidian Reach.

The Outcasts.

Evelyn blinked. "They haven’t fought for any side in a hundred years."

"They owe my mother their lives," Cambria said. "And if there’s anyone who understands surviving annihilation... It’s them."

That night, as the others rested, Cambria descended into the ancient vault beneath the cathedral ruins. She needed answers truths buried deeper than the lies she’d been fed.

She lit the final torch and stepped into the archive room, cold and unwelcoming. Scrolls and relics littered the stone tables. She ran her fingers across a rusted crown her mother’s. A ghost of a memory bloomed. A lullaby sung in a forgotten tongue. Her mother’s voice, trembling but proud.

She found the sealed tablet beneath the altar.

The words burned into her mind as she read the inscription aloud:

"When the Queen falls, the Flame shall rise.

When the Flame burns, the Truth shall awaken.

And when the Truth awakens none shall be innocent."

The vault trembled. And then something shifted behind her.

A presence.

She spun around, sword drawn but the figure was already stepping from the shadows.

Not Knox.

Not Sophia.

But someone far worse.

Seraphine Vale.

Alive.

Or something wearing her face.

Cambria froze. Her heart stopped.

"Mother?" she whispered.

The woman smiled but it wasn’t warmth. It was hunger.

"No, my darling. I’m what your mother feared becoming."

The air grew cold. The relics began to crack.

"You activated Pandora," the creature said. "You awoke what we buried. And now, the world will burn."

Cambria’s voice was a whisper. "Who are you?"

"I am what comes after gods die," she said. "And I’m here to finish what Lucien started."

Before Cambria could strike, the chamber exploded in light.

And Seraphine’s shadow vanished into the walls.

But not before whispering one final warning

"Maddox isn’t who you think he is. Ask him about the Obsidian Pact. Ask him what he gave up to protect you."

Cambria staggered back, vision spinning, the truth unraveling like poisoned thread.

And far above, in the war room, Maddox was already preparing the troops.

And lying.

Cambria is now forced to question Maddox’s loyalty just as they prepare to enter the final war zone. Seraphine (or her echo) has returned, hinting at a dark secret Maddox holds a betrayal tied to the Obsidian Pact and Cambria’s past.

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