Chapter 86: Secrets in the Dark
The silence that followed the explosion was louder than the blast itself. Smoke coiled in the shattered ruins of the throne room, the scent of scorched velvet and blood hanging thick in the air. Cambria’s ears rang her vision a smear of firelight and shadows. Somewhere in the distance, a scream echoed a woman’s voice, raw with grief and rage.
She pushed herself off the marble floor, her hand trembling as it brushed against a cracked tile slick with blood. Evelyn’s blood.
But Evelyn was gone.
Not dead. Not this time. The message had been clear the suicide was a ruse, a staged illusion meant to buy time, to distract. Someone else had helped her disappear. And now, Cambria was alone again in a palace full of ghosts.
Lucien’s voice still haunted her, echoing from the moments before the explosion. "You are the weapon, Cambria. Project Pandora is you."
Her pulse thundered.
She turned to find Maddox sprawled across the debris-strewn steps of the dais, unmoving. Her heart lurched. She stumbled toward him, falling to her knees beside his body. A gash marred his temple, and soot smeared across his once-white shirt. But his chest still rose and fell shallow, but alive.
Relief broke through her like sunlight through storm clouds.
"Maddox," she whispered, touching his face. "Come on. I need you."
Behind her, soldiers shouted. The few still loyal to the Blackwood bloodline flooded in, weapons drawn, scanning the chaos for threats. Knox’s forces had retreated, but Cambria knew better than to believe the battle was over.
It was only the beginning.