Chapter 67

King of nothing.

The rain fell like judgment.

It swept across Edenfall in sharp, cold sheets, drenching the city in a baptism that came too late. Water pooled in the alleyways, smearing blood into the gutters. The scent of smoke lingered in the air remnants of the last night’s war.

I stood beneath the marble awning of the syndicate council hall, drenched to the bone, but unmoving.

The doors were sealed. A symbolic gesture. My enemies aren’t brave enough to face me outright. Not after what I’d done to Eva. Not after I’d let her live.

“She’s already leaking information,” Soraya said, appearing at my side. “Blackmail tapes. Audio files. Medical reports. All of it.”

“Let her,” I replied, eyes hard. “We’ve lived too long in silence. If the truth breaks this empire, then maybe it should.”

Soraya studied my face. “You’re different.”

“No,” I said softly. “I’m just finished pretending to be someone else.”

Inside the Castillo estate, Damina paced the length of his office like a caged beast.

“I gave them peace,” he muttered, voice low. “I handed them Eva’s head on a silver funcking platter. And now they want to vote me out?”

“You made a deal,” Luca said from the shadows. “With wolves. They’ll always come for the crown eventually.”

“They weren’t this bold before,” Damian snapped.

“No,” Luca agreed. “But before, you weren’t in love.”

Damian turned slowly. “Careful, Luca.”

“I’m not insulting you,” Luca shrugged. “Just reminding you. Power makes you invincible. Love makes you vulnerable. You chose both. Now you’ll have to fight harder.”

Damina sat, exhausted. “It shouldn’t feel this hollow.”

“It always does,” Luca murmured. “That’s what makes you human.”

I sat at my father’s old desk, rifling through files I’d once been afraid to touch. The documents Eva leaked were real. Signed lab reports, case studies, and profile logs.

And at the bottom of one page, buried under layers of encryption, was a name.

Subject Alpha-0x1. Status unknown. Presumed active. Last seen in Edenfall sector nine.

My fingers froze over the keyboard.

Eva had said something before. Something that hadn’t made sense.

“My blood runs in those children. In your brother. In you.”

And…

“He never died, you know. He just went deeper.”

A chill swept through me.

I opened the drawer and pulled out my father’s signet ring.

Inside the gold band was an inscription that I’d never noticed.

A king never dies. He waits.

That night, I met Damian on the rooftop garden. The one place untouched by the syndicate rot.

He was already there. Rain-soaked. Drink in hand.

“He’s alive,” I said without preamble.

Damian didn’t look surprised. “I had a feeling.”

I blinked. “You knew?”

“No. But I believed Alexander Castillo died the way they said. No body. No witnesses. Just rumors.”

I swallowed hard. “Then what was all this for ?”

He turned to me, his eyes dark. “It was always for power. Whether yours, or his. He built this world, Claire. We’re just inheriting the bones.”

“No,” I said. “I’m done playing on someone else’s board. I’ll burn the whole damn thing before I let him take it back.”

Damian smiled grimly. “That’s my girl.”

By morning, the syndicate fractured again.

Cilax Duarte wounded, but not dead called for an emergency vote to remove Damian as head.

Luca returned from sector nine with more disturbing news. Underground surveillance picked up a movement near the Redline district. Bio signature matched one subject from project Adam. The pattern was unstable.

“Alpha 0x1?” I asked.

Luca nodded. “If it’s him…If it’s your father…he’s changed.”

Soraya slapped down a photo. It was grainy, from a security cam. But unmistakable.

A man tall, lean, wearing a surgical mask walks past a street vendor. The vendor slumped to the side, eyes vacant, bleeding from the ears.

No weapon. No touch. Just presence.

“It’s not just science anymore,” Soroya said. “It’s something else.”

The vote was held under the pretense of democracy.

Twenty council members. Split loyalties. Secret in every pocket.

I stood beside Damian, my black suit sleek, my eyes twin knives.

“This is a mistake,” I warned the chamber.

Cilax, bandaged but smiling, stood opposite. “You’re right. But it’s a necessary one.”

The votes were cast.

Eleven against Damian. Nine for him.

Damian was removed. But before Cilax could celebrate, the door blew open.

A guard rushed in, pale as death. “Sector nine…it’s burning.”

“What?” Cilax blinked.

“Something’s killing everyone. Civilians. Soldiers. Doesn’t matter. We sent in ten men. None came back.”

A video flickered onto the council screen.

Footage from a drone, men screaming, clawing their own faces. Blood pouring from their eyes and mouths.

Buildings crumbling. And in the center of it all, a man stood in a black coat unmoving.

I stared. So did Damian.

Alexander Castillo was alive.

We convened in the ward room. I stood over the map, pointing at the contamination zone.

“It’s spreading north. If it reaches Edenfall General, we’re looking at a civilian massacre.”

“We can’t send men in,” Soraya said. “Whatever’s happening, it’s not physical. It’s…neurological. Psychic maybe.”

“Then we need someone he won’t kill,” Damian said.

Everyone looked at me.

I closed my eyes. “He’s my father. But he’s not the man I knew.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I said softly. “Because the man I knew died the day he chose monsters over his own daughter.”

We found him in the ruins of Edenfall Chapel.

I went alone, earpiece buzzing with Damian’s voice and Luca’s GPS updates.

Alexander sat in the center of the chapel, hands folded, blood dripping from the pews behind him.

“Hello, Claire,” he said.

My breath hitched.

He looked exactly the same. Not older. Not younger. Just…frozen.

“Why?” I whispered.

“Because evolution demands sacrifice.”

“You killed children.”

“I made them gods.”

“You destroyed your family.”

“I built you.”

I stepped forward. “Then you built your executioner.”

Alexander tilted his head. “You think you’re strong enough?”

“I don’t need to be strong,” I said, lifting the syringe from my coat. “I just need to be smarter.”

He lunged. I moved faster.

The serum plunged into his neck, and he roared a sound inhuman. Primal, broken.

His body convulsed. Lights exploded above us. The ground cracked.

Then silence.

Alexander collapsed, twitching, eyes rolled back.

Damian’s voice came through my earpiece.

“Is he dead?”

I stared down at the man who once ruled the world.

“No,” I said. “But he’s no longer a king.”

We brought him back to Edenfall. Locked him in a containment chamber reinforced with lead, titanium, and psychic dampeners.

I stood at the glass. He looked up at me, eyes empty.

“You’ll thank me someday,” he whispered.

“I already hate you less,” I said. “That’s all you get.”

That night, I lay beside Damian in silence.

The war had passed, and the syndicate was mine.

But peace wasn’t peace. It was preparation.

And somewhere inside me, a new war was brewing.

One where the greatest enemy might not be my father.

But myself.