His Bride, Her Revenge-Chapter 87: The Price of Power

The throne room was quiet now, save for the distant echo of boots against stone and the ragged breathing of those who’d survived the explosion. But far below, in the ancient catacombs that had swallowed kingdoms and secrets alike, Cambria faced the consequences of a truth long buried.

Subject Zero still knelt before her an amalgamation of brute force and genetic manipulation, wrapped in skin that shimmered with unnatural energy. Its obsidian claws retracted slightly as it bowed its monstrous head. Muscles pulsed beneath its darkened veins like a storm churning beneath the surface.

"My Queen," it said again, voice rough as shattered glass.

Cambria’s heart pounded as she stared down at the thing that was once a man or perhaps never human at all. She’d heard whispers about Subject Zero rumors of a failed experiment, a weapon too dangerous to control. Lucien had buried those files. The Council had burned the rest. And yet here it was, breathing, kneeling, loyal.

Not to Lucien.

To her.

She swallowed hard. "Why do you serve me?"

Subject Zero slowly lifted its gaze. In those glowing amber eyes, something stirred. Memory? Programming? Devotion?

"You are the final sequence. The sovereign code. You are Alpha."

Cambria flinched. "I didn’t activate anything. The injector was broken."

Zero’s head tilted. "You did not need the code. You are the code."

Valen’s blood pooled around them, soaking into the sacred stone. His body twitched once, then stilled. Whatever answers he had taken to the grave.

Cambria knelt slowly, ignoring the sting in her knees, and examined the broken injector. The vial had cracked. Whatever compound it once held had leaked across the chamber floor.

It had never been about the serum.

It had always been about her.

Her pulse raced. "Who created you?"

"Lucien. And others. But only you can command me."

"And if I refuse?"

Zero didn’t move. "Then I am still yours. My purpose is to protect the sovereign."

Cambria stood, fists clenched. She was tired of being a pawn in games others had crafted. Tired of inheriting destinies written by men like Lucien and Knox.

"I don’t want a monster protecting me."

"You are not meant to be protected," Zero said, rising to its full, towering height. "You are meant to lead."

The chamber trembled suddenly. Dust rained from the ancient ceiling.

Above ground, something had shifted.

"Go back into the shadows," Cambria said. "Don’t move until I call you."

Zero obeyed without hesitation, retreating into the darkness like mist curling into smoke.

She turned, heart heavy, eyes narrowed.

The price of power, she was beginning to understand, wasn’t only sacrifice.

It was solitude.

By the time she returned to the palace surface, the eastern wing was sealed and General Rhys had mobilized all remaining loyalist forces. The medical wing had been overwhelmed by casualties, but Maddox was awake barely and demanding updates.

Cambria refused to sleep. There was too much to do. Too many lies left to uncover.

She stood before the cracked mirror in her war chamber, staring at the blood still smeared across her cheek. Evelyn’s death had been faked, Lucien was alive and orchestrating chaos, and now Subject Zero had knelt at her feet like she was more than flesh and blood.

Like she was prophecy.

Her hand brushed the Blackwood crest hanging from her neck as a sigil passed down through queens who’d died with secrets on their tongues.

A knock echoed from the chamber doors.

"Enter."

Rhys stepped in, his jaw set. "We intercepted a transmission from the Tower of Silence."

Cambria’s eyes narrowed. "Knox?"

Rhys nodded. "It was coded, but we cracked the encryption. He’s making his next move. They’ve deployed a new asset."

Her stomach tightened. "What kind of asset?"

Rhys hesitated. "One of the failed subjects. Something worse than Subject Zero."

"How many more are there?"

"Not many," he said. "But this one... they called it ’Oblivion.’"

She exhaled sharply. "And where is it now?"

"It’s moving. Fast. We think it’s headed straight here."

In the Tower of Silence, Knox paced with restrained fury. Sophia Drake sat cross-legged on a velvet chaise, nursing a glass of dark wine.

"She’s stronger than we anticipated," Knox muttered. "The Zero unit accepted her. That wasn’t supposed to happen."

Sophia smirked. "You made her in your image. Did you expect her to be weak?"

He turned on her. "She was meant to be controllable."

"She was meant to survive," Sophia said. "And she has."

Knox turned back to the surveillance wall. "If Subject Zero won’t destroy her..."

He clicked another command.

"...Oblivion will."

A new feed was activated. Grainy footage showed a metallic container being opened in a subterranean lab fog pouring out as something enormous stepped forward. Unlike Subject Zero, this one didn’t kneel. It roared.

"Activate the perimeter breaches," Knox ordered. "Let them taste chaos before the queen even draws her blade."

Hours later, the breach alarms screamed through the palace walls. freёweɓnovel.com

Cambria stood in full battle regalia armor of blackened obsidian threaded with silver, her family’s crest emblazoned over her heart.

Oblivion had arrived.

The eastern gate exploded inward, flames curling through the stone like fingers of wrath. Loyalist soldiers fell screaming as something massive stepped through the smoke, a beast of war and vengeance, with twisted limbs and glowing runes carved into its flesh.

It didn’t stop.

Cambria met it at the gates.

The battle was chaotic. Steel clashed, bodies fell, and through it all, Cambria fought blade to blade, strength to strength.

But Oblivion wasn’t like Subject Zero. It didn’t hesitate. It didn’t obey.

And it didn’t recognize her.

She was fast, precise but even she couldn’t match its raw brutality.

A backhand sent her flying. She crashed into a column, ribs cracking. The air left her lungs in a gasp.

Oblivion charged.

But before it reached her something else moved.

A blur in the smoke.

Subject Zero.

It collided with Oblivion mid-charge, their battle shaking the foundation of the palace. Stone cracked. Blood splattered. Screams echoed.

Cambria could only watch as the two titans collided in a storm of violence.

Zero had answered her call even unspoken.

She rose shakily, vision blurred, and looked toward the sky burning red as fire lit the night.

The price of power was not only blood.

It was what you were willing to become.

As Subject Zero and Oblivion battle, Cambria stumbles back toward the inner sanctum, bleeding and breathless, only to find someone waiting in the shadows.

Not a soldier. Not a spy.

Evelyn.

Alive.

Unharmed.

And not alone.

At her side stood a boy no older than ten, with Lucien’s eyes.

Cambria froze.

The boy looked up at her and whispered

"Hello, Mother."