Chapter 57
Throne of consequence.
I expected silence after the war. Instead, I found whispers.
They slithered through Edenfall like smoke coiling around its halls. It’s the council chambers, and the fractured remains of the loyalist.
“She’s not Duarte by blood.”
“Damian let her kill Gabriel.”
“How long till she turns the knife on him too?”
I sat at the long marble table in the war room, the one once ruled by syndicate kings and iron-fisted crime lords
Now, it was filled with ghosts.
Damian leaned against the far wall, his arm still bandaged, watching me with quiet intensity. He hasn’t left my side in three days, but he hasn’t tried to make interfere. Not once.
This is my moment. And mine alone.
“I’ve summoned you all here,” I began, voice calm, but eyes sharp as glass. “To make one thing clear.”
The head of the remaining families sat in a half-circle. Antonio of the southern territories, Malik from the financial branch, Lise, the only female boss left from the eastern arm.
Rourke stood beside me, arms crossed, ready to kill if I gave the signal.
I rose from my seat, letting my voice cool the room like frost.
“You don’t answer to Damian anymore. You don’t answer to the Duarte name. You answer to me.”
Antonio scoffed. “You think killing Gabriel will makes you a queen?”
“No,” I said, walking around the table. “But surviving the program, enduring the house, and protecting the people you failed to defend…does.”
Malik leaned forward. “You’re young. Dangerous. And too emotional.”
“I’m also the reason you still have a roof over your head.”
Silence.
I placed I vial on the table. It shimmered faintly.
The final Phoenix protocol. Rourke stiffened.
“You had it all along,” Damian asked softly.
I didn’t look at him. “I lied.”
Malik’s face paled. “That’s the last of it. You should…”
“I could use it,” I said. “I could perfect it. Build an army like Gabriel dreamed of. Rule through fear.”
I looked each of them in the eye.
“But I’m not Gabriel.”
Without a flick, I shattered the vial on the stone floor.
It hissed once. Then nothing.
“No more monsters,” I said. “No more secrets.”
Lise stood. “Then I vote to back the queen. Full control.”
Malik hesitated, then followed.
Antonio cursed. “Fools, she’ll burn this place down.”
Rourke stepped forward. “Then you better hope you’re not standing in the way.”
The vote passed. Unanimous.
Damian finally stepped beside me. I didn’t speak.
Because I never needed to.
That night, I stood alone on the balcony where I once watched the war arrive.
Now the air was still. A false calm.
Damian joined me setting two glasses of bourbon between us.
“You’re quiet,” he said.
I didn’t look at him. “I’ve been too loud for too long.”
“Is this what you wanted?”
“No.”
“Then what is this?”
I turned to him. “This is survival. For them. For Edenfall.”
“And for you?” I looked away. “I don’t know who I am without revenge.”
Damian stepped closer. His hand brushed my jaw, coaxing me to look at him.
“You’re more than what made you.” He said. “You always were.”
I leaned against his chest. His arms wrapped around me, strong and certain.
“I don’t know how to live without hate.”
He whispered into my hair, “Then let me teach you how to live with love.”
By morning, the syndicate network was in pieces.
The black syndicate once called Gabriel’s loyalists had splintered. Some fled. Others tried to strike first.
I responded with surgical precision.
Every threat neutralized. Every mole exposed.
I didn’t flinch. I didn't hesitate.
But at night, the weight pressed deeper.
“You can’t keep killing your way to peace,” Damian said to me one evening after I returned from an execution.
“I’m not,” I said. “I’m killing my way to quiet.”
He grabbed my hand. “You don’t need to be like me.”
“I already am,” I said. “You just don’t want to admit it.”
Three days later, a black envelope arrived on my desk.
No return mark. No insignia. Only one word.
“We see you.”
Inside was a photo. Not mine. Not Damian’s. But a lab.
One I’ve never seen before. And a name written in red ink.
“Project EVE.”
My fingers trembled. The war wasn’t over.
It has only just begun.