Page 219 of Damsel in Disguise

Confusion touches his expression for the first time in my life.

I’ve spent most of my life manifesting to witness that expression. It’s somehow even more satisfying than I expected.

“Surprise, Father,” I say with dripping amusement.

The tables had turned.

Both his eyes and Ariella’s snap back to me.

Ariella, because she has just discovered that the Founder of the Dominion is the man whose blood runs through my veins.

The Crown, because the calculation has already begun behind his eyes.

A slow laugh escapes him.

“You never cease to fascinate me,” he says, gesturing toward the flashing lights and blaring alarms surrounding us. “All of this for a single act of betrayal?”

The sirens continue screaming through the Dominion while beyond the reinforced walls, distant explosions of approaching conflict roll through the corridors.

For years, he taught me that every system has a weakness.

The unfortunate consequence of teaching someone to dismantle the world is that eventually they learn how to dismantle yours.

I can’t stop the grin that finds its way across my face for him.

“You spent a lifetime turning me into your greatest achievement,” I tell him. “It’d be rude not to become your greatest mistake.”

60. IMPOSTER

alistair

Sirens are fascinating.

Most people think they exist to warn. The truth is, they exist to create panic.

Ever since the moment the first alarm tore through the underground compound, scientists abandoned years of research to save themselves. Soldiers forgot their formations. Nurses stopped pretending they were healers and became survivors.

One sound. One carefully timed fracture. An entire civilization collapsed.

However, the Crown continues looking at me.

I know that look.

I’ve spent almost my entire life beneath it.

It’s the same expression he wore when I dissected my first cadaver without hesitation. The same expression he wore when he realized that pain could be taught until it became ordinary.

He’s trying to decide whether this was planned years ago or merely months.

The truth is that I no longer remember either.

Every contingency I ever created eventually led here.

I simply failed to notice.

The sirens continue their relentless cry. Somewhere beyond the laboratory walls, gunfire erupts. It’s showing in the security monitors mounted above.

One burst. Then another.