Chapter 12 - THE BETRAYAL IN THE SHADOWS
While diplomacy triumphed in Newport, a dark undercurrent was churning fifty miles to the west, in an abandoned industrial warehouse on the outskirts of Providence, Rhode Island.
Lord Marcus Vale paced furiously across the concrete floor, his dark ceremonial cloak swirling around his boots. Before him stood three disgraced former Blackwood guards and a tech-mercenary named Vance, whose company specialized in illegal military-grade surveillance hardware.
"The girl thinks she has won," Marcus snarled, his face twisted with bitter resentment. "She signs treaties with Washington while our ancestral birthright is handed over to bureaucrats and dragons."
"We intercepted the communication feeds from the Newport summit," Vance said, tapping a gloved finger against a glowing laptop screen. "The federal government has agreed to hands-off autonomy. If we don't act now, the old council is finished permanently."
"We don't need the council," Marcus hissed, pulling a heavy iron key from his pocket and tossing it onto the metal table. "We need leverage. The central vault beneath the main Newport estate still holds the Prime Egg—the original relic from which all modern lineages were born. If we secure the Prime Egg, the dragons will obey whoever holds it, regardless of what the girl thinks she commands."
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"That vault is sealed with ancient blood-wards and guarded by adult dragons," one of the disgraced guards warned, hesitating.
Marcus smiled, a cruel, desperate expression. "Blood-wards require blood to open. And we have a cousin of the royal line who is currently looking to reclaim his family name. Prepare the transport. We strike tomorrow night."
