Chapter 47

Ghosts and ashes.

Dr. Aveline didn’t scream. Even under sedation, even strapped in a steel chair with a broken wrist and a fractured jaw she didn’t make a sound.

Her eyes followed me like a predator still playing the long game.

“You should’ve been grateful,” she murmured, voice thick with pain.

I stood across from her, arms folded, expression cold.

For what? The trauma? The nightmares? The blood? Ahh?

“For power,” she said, almost gently. “You weren’t born with it. I gave it to you.”

You gave me chains.

“No.” Her smile switched. “I gave you destiny.”

I leaned closer, with my voice sharp like a blade.

I tore destiny apart when I fell in love with a man you would’ve tried to dissect.

Aveline’s smile faded.

“You’re weaker than I thought.”

“No,” Damian said from the shadows, stepping forward.

“She’s human. That’s what makes her stronger than all your machines.”

We relocated Aveline to an underground bunker beneath Edenfall. One of the original syndicate vaults, repurposed for classified detainment.

The walls were soundproof. The lights dimmed every ten minutes to disorient.

Still, Aveline held her composure like a queen on a throne of iron.

I circled her slowly.

You said there were others. She said nothing. I slammed my hand on the table.

How many?

She met my gaze calmly. “Six.”

Damian stiffened behind me.

“Six others like you,” Aveline continued. “Some are dormant. Some active. Some enhanced beyond what even I could perfect.”

Where? I asked.

She tilted her head. “You’ll never find them. Not unless I want you to.”

I turned to Damian. Leave us.

He hesitated. “Claire,” I said go…

He looked at me for a moment longer, jaw set, then nodded and walked out.

When the door shut, I sat in front of Aveline, silent for a long time.

Then I reached out for my coat and pulled out a photograph.

Worn. Old.

A picture of me as a child. Barely six. Playing with a boy in a sterile white room. He had silver eyes.

B04.

I slid the photo across the table.

You erased him from the logs. Why?

Aveline stared at the image. A flicker of something. Not quite regret, not quite pride crossed her face.

“He was a mistake.”

No, I said. He was the one thing I remembered that made me human. He held my hand when the injection burned. He distracted me when they wired my spine.

“He got too close,” she said flatly. “You both did.”

You separated us, I said. You told him I died.

Aveline’s silence was answer enough. I sat back.

And whispered, you made me think I was alone.

Outside the chamber, I leaned against the wall, fist clenched. I hated not being in that room. Hated the way Aveline’s words still echoed in my mind.

“You’re weaker than I thought.”

But Claire wasn’t weak. I’d seen her walk through fire, kill gods, break out of every cage Aveline forged for her. I watched her refuse to be a weapon. Even when it would’ve been easier to burn everything down.

Still, I was so worried.

Not about the war ahead.

About the girl who carried the ashes of her childhood like a curse in her chest.

When I finally stepped out, I didn’t say a word. Just brushed past him, quietly, and fast.

He followed me down the corridor, past the guards, past the war room, up to the rooftop.

The city spread below in silence. Snow fell, soft and constant.

I stood at the edge, breathing hard.

He waited.

I almost killed her, I finally said. “I know.”

I wanted to. I wanted to break every bone in her body and leave her bleeding in the snow.

He stepped beside me, “But you didn’t.”

I turned my head, and my eyes were glossy. I don’t know who that makes me.

Damian didn’t touch me yet…but his voice was soft.

“It makes you the woman who didn’t become what they made you.”

I swallowed, What if I really am?

“You’re not,” his voice firmed. “I’ve seen what they made you. You’re not one of them. You love. You feel. You fight for others.”

I don’t know how to be normal.

“Good.” He finally touched my arm. “Because normal’s overrated.”

I laughed. Quiet, bitter, and beautiful. Then looked at him. Really looked.

You stayed. I whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”

And then finally I stepped into his arms.

There were no declarations. No tears.

Just two broken creatures clinging to warmth in the middle of winter.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. I sat on the edge of Damian’s bed, one leg pulled to my chest, staring out the window.

He stirred behind me. “You okay?”

No.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes.

I looked over my shoulder. She told me something else before I left.

“What?” I hesitated.

She told me one of the six… is already close. Watching. Embedded.

Damian’s blood went cold. “She’s a spy?”

I nodded. One of the subjects. Disgusied. Trained. With memories like me.

Damian sat up straight. “You believe her?”

She doesn’t lie. She twists the truth, but she doesn’t lie.

He swore under his breath. “Who?”

I don’t know, but I will find out. Damian met my eyes.

“Whatever happens, we face it together.”

I touched his hands. Even if one of them looks like me?

He didn’t flinch. “I’ll know the difference.”

How?

He leaned closer, brushing his lips against mine.

“Because you make me feel alive. The rest of them? They’ll never know what love tastes like.”

Elsewhere where far from Edenfall, a woman stood in front of a mirror.

She looked like Claire. Same eyes. Same scars. Same fire.

But when she smiled, it was cold. Calculated.

She touched the side of her neck where a chip blinked faintly beneath the skin.

A message lit up across the mirror, written in red.

Phase two is activated. Await further instructions.

She smiled wider. “The queen thinks she’s safe.”

And then…she vanished into the dark.