Bound by the Mark of Lies (BL)-Chapter 348 - 342: Dominie

Gabriel entered the interrogation room with ease, his face cold and sharp; this was not the Gabriel who had stayed beside his mate until sleep finally took him, nor the witty consort with a blade hidden behind every smile, no, this was the Dominie people had forgotten. The air shifted with his presence, not through force but memory, the kind that lingered in the bones of the guilty long before they saw him.

His memories were returning in fragments, scents caught in the back of his throat, the weight of old instincts threading through his skin, the ache of something unspoken tightening behind his ribs, but he remembered enough. Enough to know what he had done before. Enough to do it again. Ordering death was no longer a question of morality, only necessity. And this time, he had someone to protect. Someone worth the blood.

Gabriel didn’t speak right away.

He stepped into the center of the room and allowed the silence to stretch, sharp and absolute, the kind that drained breath from lungs before the first question could be asked.

Despite the blood on his hands, the boy sat shackled to the chair, his wrists trembling against the cold bite of the metal, his eyes red, and his mouth dry. One of Gregoris’ men had already reduced him to basic instinct. There was no courage left. Just the pale, quivering shell of someone who realized too late that even pawns can be sacrificed.

Gabriel watched him, his dark eyes devoid of feeling, like obsidian polished smooth.

"Hadeon?" he asked, quiet but certain, more for confirmation than curiosity. He already knew the answer. This was ritual now, an old habit of giving the condemned one last chance to choke on the truth before it turned to ash.

The man across from him flinched, not visibly or noticeably, but Gabriel had been trained to detect the tremor in a held breath, the twitch of a jaw locking just a second too late.

Gregoris stepped out from the shadows at Gabriel’s left, silent as ever, but his presence radiated heat, controlled only by sheer discipline. He placed a thin folder on the table with the kind of care that preceded violence.

"There’s more," Gregoris said, his voice like gravel dragged over steel. "We found the second one trying to signal someone near the south watchtower. They cracked fast."

Before Gabriel could ask, the door at the far end of the room opened, and Leslie entered with sharp, unhurried steps, flanking another man between him and Maximilian.

The prisoner looked worse than the first, blood at his temple, fear crawling beneath his skin. Max, by contrast, looked like he’d just walked out of a meeting. Hands in his coat pockets. Eyes dark with fury barely leashed.

"They didn’t come alone," Max said coolly, glancing toward Gabriel before nodding to Gregoris. "Turns out, most of them were part of the old staff. Handpicked before the engagement was announced. No marks. No ether traces. They were careful."

Gregoris’s lip curled. "Careful until now."

Gabriel didn’t move, didn’t speak yet. Just stared at the second traitor, gaze sinking deep.

"They said you’re not real," Leslie said. His voice was flat, almost bored, but his hands were twitching, like he was restraining himself from tearing someone apart. "That you were born an alpha, and no alpha could ever carry a child."

"And that the Emperor should be punished," Max added, his voice harder now, quieter. "For letting a lie into the palace."

Gabriel looked at the two prisoners like he would look at a mild inconvenience.

"This doesn’t sound like Hadeon at all. Poisoning, yes, the gossip... That is Rosaline’s work."

Max’s mouth curved, not into a smile, but into something sharper, darker. "She always did have a flair for theater. This reeks of her perfume and pettiness."

Gregoris didn’t even blink. "One of them muttered her name while he was choking on his own fear. Swallowed it the second he saw me watching."

Gabriel tilted his head, eyes flicking between the traitors like they were insects under glass. "Find the rest and ensure that no one survives the night. Inform our media to publish an article about the Emperor’s attempted poisoning, with Hadeon and Rosaline as the culprits."

"I want them publicly declared enemies of the Crown."

Gregoris nodded once, the kind of sharp, clean motion that meant execution, not discussion. "Already done. The draft was prepared the moment Leslie confirmed the method matched Hadeon’s old playbook."

Max glanced toward the prisoners, then back at Gabriel. "And what about these two?"

Gabriel didn’t look at them, didn’t need to. "Make them useful before they die. I want their faces shown to the rest of the dissenters. Let them see what loyalty bought them."

Leslie’s voice was cold. "And after that?"

Gabriel’s gaze slid to him, dark and unflinching. "You may do what Shadows do best."

Gregoris stepped forward, the air thickening with the quiet hum of ether held tight beneath his skin. The traitors flinched as he passed, but he didn’t spare them a glance. "I’ll have them ready before sunrise."

Gabriel turned away from them then, his ring catching the light as he moved back toward the door, leaving behind silence like a guillotine just fallen.

"Damian tried to keep me out of this," he said, his voice calm but sharpened with precision. "But Rosaline seems to have forgotten who designed the Empire’s internal ether lattice."

He didn’t raise his voice.

"Block Hadeon’s access to every system civil, military, and financial. Don’t wait for a warrant. Strip it clean, down to shadow-level clearance. If it routes through the auxiliary grid, I built it. I’ll know if it pings."

He paused, eyes narrowing. "As for Rosaline... trace her ether signature. Not the public key she registered. The one she used before she joined the court. She’ll have left markers. They all do. I’ll forward the sequence map I compiled during the audit last year."

Then, after a beat: "I want her stripped from the network before the next cycle. If the Empire breathes her name, I want it flagged."

In the hallway, Gabriel moved with the kind of ease that came from knowing every step ahead of time.

"Edward," he called, already two steps ahead. "Bring me full access to the internal ether network."

He didn’t slow down, didn’t glance back.

"Let’s see how long it takes until one of them breathes in the wrong direction."

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