Chapter 54

A Devil’s price.

Damian hasn’t spoken since we returned from the gate.

He walked three steps behind me, silent as a shadow.

I could feel his eyes on me, heavy and unrelenting. But I didn’t stop. Not when the east wing passed by. Not when the security doors closed behind us.

I only turned when we reached the war room.

I know what you’re thinking, I said.

His jaw clenched. “Do you?”

You think I should’ve killed her.

“I think you were made to kill her.” He snapped. “And you didn’t.”

My voice dropped, bitter. Because I saw myself.

“Exactly.”

I didn’t flinch. She could’ve been me. She was me. If I hadn’t been manipulated, if I hadn’t been softened…

“By me?” His voice rose, anger edging his words. “Is that what I am now? A weakness?”

I looked up, my eyes blazing. You’re the only reason I’ve survived this long.

Silence.

He stepped forward slowly, towering over me. His hands were trembling but it wasn’t fear. It was restraint.

“You think I don’t know how dangerous love is?” He said, voice low. You think I don’t know what it means to care?”

I swallowed hard.

He cupped my face suddenly, rough and tender all at once. “The moment I fell for you, Claire, i started making mistakes. Risking things. Questioning orders. And I’d do it all over again. Because loving you isn’t my weakness. It’s the only damn reason I haven’t become a monster.”

My eyes burned. You already were one when I met you.

A pause.

Then I whispered, so was I.

The syndicate’s response was swift.

By morning, five agents from the global board had arrived at Edenfall under specific diplomatic pretense. But I knew better.

They weren’t here to discuss. They were here to clean up.

“Where is 37?” One of them demanded.

Damian stood beside me, arms crossed. “Gone.”

“She’s activated.”

Yes. “And you let her walk away?”

I stepped forward. She made her own choice.

One of the men scoffed. “It was never her choice. She’s a prototype.”

She’s a person.

Another agent frowned. “This was why we warned against emotional entanglement with the subject.”

Damian’s voice turned lethal. “Speak about her like a file again, and I’ll break your jaw.”

Tension crackled. But no one moved.

Because even the syndicate knew better than to provoke the devil of Edenfall in his own domain.

After the syndicate left, I locked myself inside my old room. The one I haven’t entered since agreeing to the contract marriage.

Everything was just how I’d left it.

The black turtleneck I wore the night we met still lay folded on the chair.

The old journal I never opened sat untouched on the desk.

I flipped through its pages now. Blank.

Empty for one line, scribbled in my handwriting, but I never remembered writing it myself.

You’re not the product. You’re the proof.

My heart stopped.

Suddenly I wasn’t sure if it was mine at all.

Meanwhile, Rourke approached Damian in the control room.

“There’s something else.”

Damian didn’t turn. “I’m tired of secrets.”

“Then you’ll hate this.”

Rourke placed a small black chip on the desk. “We found this embedded in the nameless one’s spine.”

“Tracker?”

“No. Memory core.” Damian finally looked at him.

“Encrypted?”

“Triple sealed. And guess whose signature we found inside?”

Rourke tapped the glass. “Yours.”

Back in my room, I stared into the mirror.

What does the nameless one mean?

Choose me. Or kill me?

But what if it isn’t about me? What if it was about something deeper?

Suddenly the door opened. Damian stood there, with a memory chip in his hand.

“I have something to show you.”

I followed him in silence, down to the war chamber’s private lab.

When the core was inserted into the holographic system, the room filled with light.

A dozen versions of me appeared. Flickering blue ghosts of the past.

All of them were different. One wore a school uniform.

One held a rifle. One knelt with blood on her hands. And one…was smiling.

I recognized that one.

The orphanage, I whispered. That’s where it all started.

Each memory played. Each version of me lived out a different part.

Kill. Loved. Obey. Destroy.

But only one led to this timeline. Mine.

Damian spoke, his voice light. “You weren’t the first…but you were the one who chose.”

I looked at him, What do you mean?

He turned towards me.

“This whole thing, the devil’s offer, it wasn’t just a contract. It was the final test. To see if the perfect weapon would choose love or vengeance.”

My throat tightened. You knew?

“I didn’t want to. But yes.”

I stepped back. So all of this, us. Was an experiment?

His flashed. “No. It started that way. But then I met you.”

You used me, I whispered.

“I loved you,” he snapped. “And that was never part of the plan.”

The lab fell silent.

I walked out without a word. I didn’t stop until I reached the highest balcony in Edenfall. The one I used to sneak away to during the early days of our twisted marriage.

I looked down over the compound.

A kingdom built on secrets. On shadows. On sins.

And now, I finally know the price of loving the devil.

It wasn’t death. It was truth.