Chapter 87: The Price of Power
The throne room was quiet now, save for the distant echo of boots against stone and the ragged breathing of those who’d survived the explosion. But far below, in the ancient catacombs that had swallowed kingdoms and secrets alike, Cambria faced the consequences of a truth long buried.
Subject Zero still knelt before her an amalgamation of brute force and genetic manipulation, wrapped in skin that shimmered with unnatural energy. Its obsidian claws retracted slightly as it bowed its monstrous head. Muscles pulsed beneath its darkened veins like a storm churning beneath the surface.
"My Queen," it said again, voice rough as shattered glass.
Cambria’s heart pounded as she stared down at the thing that was once a man or perhaps never human at all. She’d heard whispers about Subject Zero rumors of a failed experiment, a weapon too dangerous to control. Lucien had buried those files. The Council had burned the rest. And yet here it was, breathing, kneeling, loyal.
Not to Lucien.
To her.
She swallowed hard. "Why do you serve me?"
Subject Zero slowly lifted its gaze. In those glowing amber eyes, something stirred. Memory? Programming? Devotion?
"You are the final sequence. The sovereign code. You are Alpha."
Cambria flinched. "I didn’t activate anything. The injector was broken."
Zero’s head tilted. "You did not need the code. You are the code."