Chapter 35

The general’s debts.

By sunrise, Edenfall went into chaos. I stood at the balcony of the East wing, watching the storm I unleashed unfolding like a wildfire beneath me.

Courtiers shouted in the marble halls. Papers were burned. Guards were mobilized.

The watcher haven’t showed his face yet.

Damian stood behind me. Arms crossed, dark and unreadable.

“They’re calling it fabrication,” he said.

Of course they are.

“They’re demanding your arrest.”

I turned to him slowly, lifting my chin. Then let them try.

He gave a dry smirk. “That’s the Claire I married.”

I almost smiled. Almost.

An hour later, summons arrived. A note.

No name, just coordinates.

Northern gate. Black stall. Sundown. Come alone.

No one signed it, but the seal pressed into the wax was unmistakable.

A broken sword. General Varek’s sigil.

The man who delayed my mother’s death. The man who vanished the night my mother died.

Damian insisted to come with me. But I refused.

This is a debt owed to my mother. I’ll collect it myself.

At sundown, the black stall was waiting at the city’s edge, just as the messenger said.

I approached, cloaked in gray. The vendor was a woman with cracked hands and a crooked eye. She nodded once and pulled back the curtain.

A narrow tunnel gaped beyond. I stepped through and emerged into the catacombs.

Stone halls, ancient and cracked. I followed the flickering lanterns, deeper and deeper until the air grew heavy with dust and memory.

Then, footsteps.

He emerged from the dark. General Varek.

He was older than I expected. Hard eyes. Silver-streaked beard. The broad-shouldered frame of a man forged in war. And hollowed by loss.

“I never thought I’d see Maria’s daughter again,” he said.

You almost didn’t.

He inclined his head.

“I’ve been watching. Waiting. Hoping the truth would come to surface.”

You were part of it, I said, in. Bitter tone. You signed the death order.

“I signed an empty scroll,” he replied. “One I never delivered. The watcher forged the real one.”

Then why didn’t you stop him?

His jaw tightened. “Because by the time I tried, she was already dead. And your name was on the next list.”

I stared at him for a moment. You hid me?

“I buried you in lies. Paid smugglers to falsify your death. Gave the watche a new target to hunt. And sent you with the only man I trusted.”

My heart stopped. Kain?

He nodded. “He delivered you to Lara and then disappeared.”

I thought he was dead.

“We all did. Until you came back wearing Maria’s fire.”

We sat across from each other on stone benches.

I placed the sealed file on the table between us.

Why come forward now?

“Because you forced the truth into daylight. And because I owed your mother a war.”

I stared at him, the shadows under his eyes. The rage he kept chained beneath every word.

I need soldiers, I said. Ones who fight for something real, not titles.

He nodded. “I still command loyalty in the outlands.

Mercenary camps. Abandoned Red Court units. Give me three days, and I’ll bring them to your gate.”

I reached out and touched the phoenix ring on my finger.

This time, I whispered. We don’t run.

Back in Edenfall, the court retaliated. The watcher returned to his throne, wearing mourning black. As if he was wronged.

He called a session of judgement.

I stood at the center of the chamber, unbound, unbent.

The nobles shouted. Accusing me of falsifying records. Of sedition. Of breaking my contract marriage.

I raised my voice once. And the whole room went silent.

The Court killed Maria Duarte. The evidence is real. The vaults were sealed under your own laws.

The watcher stood, voice cold like steel.

“You have no proof the signatures are genuine.”

I smiled. Then stepped aside.

Damian entered the chamber holding a glowing projection scroll. Verified by court own historian.

Every noble names, every falsified order.

And then, general Varek’s voice echoed through the gallery.

“I was there. I watched her die. And I’ll fight to see justices restored.”

Gasps rippled through the hall. The watcher’s mask cracked.

And in that moment, power shifted. Not fully, but enough.

That night, I met Alec on the upper balcony. His face was unreadable as always. But his voice was quieter. Less sure.

“You’ve won the people,” he said. “But the watcher still holds the war key.”

Not for long.

He raised a brow. “You plan to storm the citadel?”

I plan to bleed him out from the inside.

I moved closer. Unless you’re planning to stop me.

“I’m planning to see who survives,” he said. “And who walks away with the crown.”

Our eyes locked. No promises. No safety.

Just recognition. Two wolves circling the same fire.

Hours later, I stood alone in my quaters, looking at the map Lara gave to me.

Marked in red ink was a name only I and other people knew.

The Hollow gate.

The place where the watcher stored his final weapon.

The only thing that could end the bloodline forever.

I touched the symbol and whispered.

It ends where it began.