CHAPTER 135: CHAPTER 130: MASTER OF GAMES (1)

Gabriel tensed up as he waited for Damian’s question; he expected to be asked about Olivier, just like everyone else in his life. About their story, his betrayal and his downfall. There was still a great deal of information that did not reach the public, or even the Emperor.

"Have you ever heard about Donomie?" His voice was barely audible, a whisper among the sounds of burning wood.

"Are you trying to convert me to some cult? Will you start your own cult now?" Gabriel laughed and stretched his arms on the back of the chaise.

"Very funny. You know what I mean; don’t play coy with me." Damian’s voice was still amused, but there was something dark about his tone. He expected the truth from Gabriel.

"For fuck’s sakes. Does anything escape from you?" Gabriel became irritated; he knew the answer but did not want to tell him.

"No." This time the man’s voice was loud and clear.

Gabriel exhaled exasperated, "sure. I know he was one of the leaders of the rebellion."

"And his real name?" Damian pressed.

"Win another game and you can ask." He could not hide the truth, but for the sake of his ego, he would stall for an extra minute.

’I am just as petty as you.’ He thought bitterly while smiling.

Damian’s lips curled. "Is that a dare?" His body tensed as he indulged Gabriel’s tardiness in giving him the answers. They had the dinner and then the rest of the evening to talk.

"It’s an invitation," Gabriel said lazily, but his eyes were sharp now, the amusement masking something warier beneath. "Think you can beat me?"

"I’ve already been beating you."

"You’ve been letting me win." He had no shame in pointing this out.

"We can fix that," Damian murmured, shuffling the cards purposefully this time, no longer pretending to be casual. The atmosphere changed—less wine-soaked indulgence, more tension beneath the velvet.

They played.

Gabriel’s hands moved with muscle memory, sharp and deliberate. But Damian had better cards. Within minutes, Gabriel stared down at a losing hand and sighed through his teeth. "You’re really doing this?"

"You set the terms," Damian reminded him with a shit-eating grin.

Gabriel’s fingers tensed against the rim of his glass. He didn’t look at Damian. Instead, he focused on the flames in the hearth, allowing the question to echo between them. The game had changed; this was no longer a card game. It was confession disguised as conversation.

Finally, he said, "You already know."

Damian didn’t move. "I want to hear it from you."

Gabriel let out a hollow laugh, low and humorless. "Fine. His name..." He turned his gaze back to Damian, meeting those golden eyes dead-on.

"Is Gabriel von Jaunez."

The words settled like ash. The fire popped, somewhere behind them, but neither flinched.

Damian’s expression didn’t change, not at first. The corners of his mouth then gradually pulled into an unintelligible expression, neither a frown nor a smile. Just stillness.ƒгeewёbnovel.com

"How long have you known?" he asked softly.

Gabriel leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His voice was quiet. "Since the second week after I woke up. There were nightmares, which I did not understand at first, but I figured it out last year. Until it backfired, then I began to have nightmares during the day. It did not matter where I was." He looked at his fingers, playing with one of his gold rings, looking for the right words to continue.

"The nightmares were my memories; I suppose it is because of the ether from the palace that I can now rest."

"Does your family know?"

"Yes, they did not tell me, but I had guessed. Lucius and Theo knew, which is why they were desperate to throw me into your or Maximilian’s arms. You are the only ones that would shield me from the rage of those that fell with Olivier. I’m still going to get revenge for keeping me in the dark, tho." By dragging Gabriel back to the capital, they hoped to protect him from the remaining supporters of the old regime and gain additional power and connections by tying him up with the Emperor.

Some unsettling messages were left on one of his old phones, and he did not like the thought of being controlled in this way. Dozens of pleas to his family to help him with the chaos, to return to the capital, not to save him but the people, were only answered by Charles and Alexandra, who were doing their best.

Eloween, Lucius and Theo never answered and never showed up. Back in Ashmont they claimed that it was the magical contract, but Gabriel doubted it. He knew they were mad at him for refusing Olivier, for refusing to be the one in charge, the one with absolute power.

"Have you ever tested how many questions you can answer?" Damian asked, rising from his seat to place the deck of cards in its box on his desk.

"Once. I do not seem to have a limit, or I did not notice any side effects." Gabriel was honest; he knew that even without the game, he would have responded to Damian’s question.

"Are you rethinking your choices?"

"No. As you said, I knew." He turned to Gabriel, his right hand still on the box. "Then answer one more for me."

Gabriel didn’t speak. He only watched, wary that whatever question was coming up would be difficult to avoid.

Damian didn’t ask right away.

He was tall, his frame caught in the faint glow of the lights flickering beyond the windowpanes—city lanterns and the distant shimmer of ether fields painting ghost-light across the floor. The fire behind him cast shifting shadows across the walls, but his silhouette remained unshaken. Still. Composed, but far from calm.

His stance was regal without effort: shoulders squared, jaw tight, and the line of his coat unaffected by movement. The sigil ring on his right hand glinted as the firelight kissed the gold. It was a symbol of his authority, claim, and power. A symbol that quieted courtrooms and crowned him Emperor.

But in this moment, the weight of it seemed heavier.

He didn’t look at Gabriel like a ruler demanding truth. He looked at him as if he were standing on the edge of something fragile.

"Why..."

He inhaled, the sound barely audible.

"...did you choose me to be the Emperor?"