His Bride, Her Revenge

Chapter 118: The Fall of Protocol



Chapter 118: The Fall of Protocol

The spire cracked with a thunderous groan, the sound resonating through the very bones of the cavern like the tolling of some ancient bell not of warning, but of reckoning.

Cambria stood at the center of it all, her hand still pressed to the burning seal, her body pulsing with blinding energy. The sigils that had erupted across her skin glowed brighter, alive with power that seemed both foreign and deeply hers.

Evelyn’s smirk began to wilt at the edges.

"What did you do?" she hissed, her voice trembling beneath the steel.

Cambria lifted her eyes white-hot with the essence of Seraphine, of every sealed truth, every unspoken sacrifice embedded in Project Pandora. Her voice came low but clear, slicing through the thick, smoke-laced air.

"I reclaimed what was mine."

With a surge of blinding light, the control seal beneath her flared and split. The spire trembled violently and so did the weapons Evelyn had summoned.

They froze.

All twenty of them.

Their bodies jerked slightly, twitching as if caught between two frequencies, their eyes flickering from the eerie gold of Evelyn’s control... to white.

Evelyn staggered back. "No... No, you shouldn’t be able to override "

Cambria took a step forward, each movement a clash of past and present the orphan girl turned weapon, turned queen. "You thought the final protocol was obedience," she said, voice rising. "But Seraphine built in something more powerful than control."

Evelyn’s gaze narrowed. "What?"

"Conscience."

With a snap of Cambria’s fingers, the weapons’ golden glow collapsed. Silence fell like a hammer.

Then...

One by one, they turned their heads to Cambria. noveldrama

And knelt.

Not to Evelyn.

To her.

A gasp echoed across the cavern. Maddox pushed forward, blood still staining his shirt, eyes wide. "She’s rerouted the protocol..." he murmured. "She’s taken command of every unit."

Knox muttered, "Hell just froze over."

Evelyn’s composure cracked entirely. Her voice trembled with something close to rage or fear. "You’re just a shadow. A failed design built from desperation. You don’t deserve "

"You don’t get to talk about what I deserve," Cambria snapped. "You orchestrated this entire nightmare and weaponized Seraphine’s grief, Lucien’s obsession, and my pain. For what? Power?"

"I was building a legacy."

"You were building a tomb."

Evelyn raised the remote again, fingers trembling. "I can still shut them down "

Cambria moved before the thought could finish forming. With a fluid gesture of her hand, the remote heated in Evelyn’s grip, glowing red. Evelyn screamed as it seared her palm, dropping it to the stone where it shattered.

Cambria’s voice turned cold. "No more remotes. No more masters."

The cavern rumbled again, and above them, more of the ceiling cracked away revealing a bright sky beyond. The world above was waking.

Behind Cambria, the perfected weapons rose. But this time, they were not drones of obedience. Their eyes shimmered like sentient stars.

"I gave them back their minds," Cambria said. "And now they choose."

One of the soldiers stepped forward a woman with platinum hair and a scar across her jawline. "Queen," she said softly, and then bowed.

The others followed.

Evelyn took a trembling step back. "You can’t... You can’t destroy me. I made you."

"No," Cambria said, her voice like frost. "You unmade me. But I rebuilt myself."

Evelyn reached for her comms device. "You think this is the end? The board will never follow you. I still have leverage. Media control, allies, assets "

"You have nothing," Maddox said, finally stepping beside Cambria. His voice was raw. Firm. "Every asset you own was built on stolen blood. The board knows. We sent the files to every major publication ten minutes ago."

Cambria didn’t flinch. "Everything you did to control me, Evelyn, it’s over."

Evelyn’s face twisted in disbelief. "You think this is redemption?"

Cambria gave her a long, hard look. "No. This is justice."

The perfected weapon closest to Evelyn raised its hand. For a tense moment, no one breathed. But instead of attacking, it simply removed the last of Evelyn’s access chip, a glowing fragment embedded in her wrist.

With it gone, Evelyn collapsed to her knees. Not out of pain. Out of defeat.

Silence fell again. But it was no longer oppressive.

It was peaceful.

They emerged from the cavern hours later. The sky above Manhattan was overcast, the clouds swollen with the promise of rain. But to Cambria, it felt like sunlight.

The helicopter hovered nearby, ready to extract them. Maddox helped her in, ignoring the bruises darkening his ribs. Knox followed, silent and thoughtful, casting one last look toward the ruins behind them before the doors sealed shut.

Inside, Cambria sat quietly, staring at her hands. The glowing sigils had begun to fade, but the echoes remained a strange hollowness where the power had lived, like losing a piece of herself she hadn’t known she’d accepted.

"Cam," Maddox said gently. "You okay?"

She nodded once, slowly. "I don’t know who I am anymore."

He reached across and took her hand not to claim, not to control, but simply to hold. "You’re Cambria Vale. The woman who just rewrote a future that was rigged against her."

Her eyes glistened. "I was supposed to destroy you."

"You almost did." He smiled faintly. "But you saved me instead."

She looked down. "Not for you. For me."

He nodded. "Good. You deserve that."

They didn’t speak again for the rest of the flight.

Two days later, Manhattan pulsed with rumors.

Raye Media released an official statement: Evelyn Stone had been removed. Project Pandora was terminated. The board voted unanimously to install new leadership.

Maddox stepped down voluntarily.

Knox left the city. No one knew where.

But the biggest whisper?

That Cambria Vale, the mysterious woman who appeared out of nowhere, had saved them all.

Cambria stood at the edge of the Raye Tower rooftop, wind tugging at her coat, staring down at the city she once thought she’d never return to.

Julian appeared beside her, as if summoned by memory.

"Fancy view," he said. "Very queenly."

She didn’t look at him. "I’m not a queen."

He snorted. "You commanded an army of perfected weapons, outsmarted Evelyn Stone, and survived Seraphine’s curse. Are you sure you’re not royalty?"

She cracked a smile. "You always were better at speeches than feelings."

"Yeah, well," he said, slipping his hands in his pockets. "Maybe I’m still working on the latter."

A beat passed.

"Are you staying?" he asked.

"I don’t know."

"Do you still love him?"

She turned her gaze to the horizon. "I never stopped."

Julian swallowed whatever words were coming next and simply nodded. "Then go. Before you regret it."

She didn’t thank him. She didn’t have to.

She ran.

Cambria found Maddox in a small corner café in Brooklyn, sleeves rolled up, laughing softly with a child tugging on his jacket a kid who’d lost his mother in the chaos and whom Maddox had quietly taken in.

It was the first time she saw him like this. Unarmored. Humans.

He looked up as she entered. And everything was still.

He stood slowly, expression unreadable. "Cambria."

She walked up to him. "You said something to me once," she whispered. "That no matter what, you’d never stop fighting for me. Not even if I became your enemy."

He took a step closer. "I meant it."

She trembled. "I don’t want to fight anymore."

He cupped her face, his thumb brushing her cheek. "Then come home."

She let out a breath, rugged and raw, and fell into his arms.

And for the first time, it wasn’t revenge or redemption.

It was just love.


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