Chapter 624: Ashes of the Queen
In the deep underbelly of her crumbling palace, Gloria stared at the map of the city — her fingers trembling, her eyes hollow.
Everything she had built was burning.
Her advisors argued behind her, blaming each other, panicking.
She tuned them out.
In her mind, there was only one face.
Jayden.
The boy she once thought could be molded.
Controlled.
Loved, even, in some strange twisted way.
> "Prepare the Ravens," Gloria said coldly.
The room fell silent.
The Ravens — her most brutal, hidden force.
Merciless.
Invisible.
Final.
> "If the world wants to see a monster…" she whispered. "Let them."
---
Meanwhile, Jayden moved through the city like a phantom.
With Viktor, Matilda, and a handful of trusted operatives, they sabotaged Gloria's last standing fortresses.
Every night brought another victory.
Every dawn another riot.
Hope was contagious.
Until that night.
Until the betrayal.
Jayden met Tielen in a forgotten train station, the air thick with dust and secrets.
Tielen, his old friend.
His right hand.
The man who had stood beside him in blood and rain.
Tielen smiled warmly.
Too warmly.
Jayden's instincts screamed, but he was tired — so tired — and for one second, he let his guard down.
That's all it took.
The knife slipped between his ribs like a lover's kiss.
Sharp.
Cold.
Final.
Jayden staggered back, gasping.
Tielen caught him before he could fall, whispering:
> "Forgive me, brother. She offered me something I couldn't refuse."
Jayden's vision blurred.
He saw the ceiling.
The flickering light.
The monster he had once called family.
---
Somehow, Jayden survived.
Viktor found him bleeding out and carried him through the sewers like a dying prince.
Matilda screamed when she saw him — not in fear, but in rage.
They patched him up, barely.
Jayden floated between life and death for three days, caught in a fever dream where Bella's voice called to him again and again.
> "Don't give up, Jayden. Not yet. Not like this."
When he finally opened his eyes, he wasn't the same.
The world seemed colder.
His heart heavier.
He didn't cry.
Didn't scream.
He just whispered:
> "I'm going to bury them all."
---
Matilda gathered the remaining forces.
Word of the betrayal had spread — and it ignited a fire inside their small rebellion.
The streets filled with masked fighters.
The walls were painted with symbols of freedom.
Even the old, the poor, the forgotten took up sticks and stones, chanting Jayden's name.
> "Jayden! Jayden! Jayden!"
From a rooftop overlooking the uprising, Jayden stood, wounded but unbroken, a black coat fluttering behind him like a battle flag.
Viktor handed him the microphone that would broadcast to every corner of the burning empire.
Jayden spoke, his voice low but sharp enough to slice through bone:
> "You tried to silence us. You tried to betray us. But we are the blood beneath the stone. We are the storm you can't outrun. We are the end you deserve."
His words struck the city like thunder.
From the shadows, Gloria watched through trembling fingers.
> "He was supposed to be mine," she whispered.
No.
Not anymore.
Jayden belonged to no one but the revolution now.
---