Bound by the Mark of Lies (BL)-Chapter 235 - 230: The Cost of Control

Damian’s head snapped toward him, a sudden stillness rolling through him like a storm front.

"What did you say?"

Gabriel didn’t answer right away. His eyes had narrowed, something burning behind the exhaustion now—clarity, sharp and unwelcome. He sat upright, ignoring the twist in his stomach and the room’s tilt.

"Callahan and George," he repeated. "I didn’t question it before. I thought Callahan leaving was part of George’s way of protecting him from Elliot—or from Hadeon. But George stopped calling, writing. I stopped asking before reaching the capital. No contact since you severed Elliot’s control over him."

Damian stilled.

The air around him did not move or shift, but something in it tightened, as if the room took a breath and held it.

"That’s when he changed," Gabriel continued, his voice slow but steady. "After you broke the spell. George acted freely. But he’s been silent ever since."

Damian’s jaw was rigid, golden eyes narrowing as he absorbed every word.

"Max is keeping him under surveillance," he said darkly. "There’s been no suspicious movement, no contact. But George is trying to save Callahan. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have a hand in this."

Gabriel didn’t flinch. "I found it odd they pushed so hard to tie me to Max. The sudden urgency. The family acted like it was my duty to accept. They played it as politics, but it was a maneuver."

He gave a breathless, bitter laugh.

"Hah. If this was Hadeon..."

Edward, who stood at the foot of the bed, arms folded and face like carved marble, didn’t say anything, but his brow twitched.

"Hadeon," Damian repeated, voice like ash and steel, "would have seen the political value in using you to tether Max to the throne. If George was compromised, and Callahan used as bait..."

"Then the whole thing—" Gabriel exhaled, looking suddenly more hollow than pale, "—wasn’t about marriage. It was about control. Someone wanted me under their control."

Tarel didn’t stop his careful movements with the wand, but his eyes flicked briefly toward Damian. "He’s right. This poison wasn’t random. It was designed to dull power, not erase it. To soften him into someone pliable. And the timeline aligns."

Edward unfolded his arms. "If Hadeon wanted to reclaim influence, he couldn’t do it through Damian. But through Max—and Gabriel’s bond to him—he could reestablish a legal connection."

Damian’s mouth twisted. "He would have had a consort with von Jaunez blood and imperial proximity. A puppet heir if the bond succeeded. A diplomatic hostage if it failed."

Gabriel closed his eyes. "And Max would’ve been the buffer. He wouldn’t even have known."

Silence.

Then Damian spoke again, low and cold: "I want a list of every asset George has moved in the last year. Every estate. Every servant he dismissed or hired. Every letter was sent before the ether poisoning began. And I want Callahan’s name scrubbed from every registry. If he’s still alive, I’ll drag him back."

Edward gave a single nod. "Understood."

Gabriel swallowed, forcing his voice to stay steady. "And if we find out George knew?"

Damian didn’t hesitate. "Then he chose the wrong side. And I make examples."

Tarel finally lifted the wand from Gabriel’s skin. The glow faded. "Extraction complete. What’s left in him now is ether residue—it will flush out over the next twenty-four hours."

Gabriel barely nodded, head tipping back into the pillows.

"What about Max?"

Damian’s gaze softened, but only slightly—like fire dimming, not fading. He sat back on the edge of the bed, his hand never leaving Gabriel’s.

"Max would be raging if this is true," he said. "He may joke, but he doesn’t forgive betrayal. And if George used him—used you—for some twisted scheme, he won’t just walk away."

Gabriel’s eyes remained half-lidded, the edges heavy with exhaustion, but his lips parted again.

Gabriel let out a quiet exhale, something between a laugh and a sigh. "That doesn’t mean he’ll want to believe it."

"No," Damian agreed. "But Max has never been afraid of the truth. Not even when it cuts him."

He adjusted the pillow behind Gabriel’s back, more gently than his tone. "He’s loyal to me, yes—but more than that, he knows how Hadeon moves. And how George dances just close enough to the fire without ever looking burned."

Gabriel’s brow furrowed. "Then why didn’t he stop it?"

"Because George was the only family who didn’t treat him like a bastard with a use-by date," Damian said, his voice colder now. "Max clung to that because he needed it. But he’s not blind. When the evidence comes in, he’ll read it. And then he’ll bury whatever’s left of the illusion."

Gabriel closed his eyes. "I don’t want Max to carry that guilt. If George did this... he played all of us."

"He did," Damian said. "And Max will rage because he let it happen. Just like I will rage because I didn’t catch it in time."

He leaned closer, their foreheads nearly touching.

"But you," he said, softer, steadier, "don’t get to blame yourself for surviving a game you never agreed to play."

Gabriel opened his eyes again, dark and heavy-lidded. "Then promise me Max won’t go alone. He’ll want to confront him."

Damian’s mouth curved—not in a smile, but something grimmer. "He already tried. That’s why I had Gregoris pull him off. He’s away from the capital right now and he will stay there under my orders."

"You think George is really still in control?"

"I think," Damian said carefully, "that if George was fully compromised, he wouldn’t have let Max go. And he wouldn’t have disappeared. He’s buying time for something. Maybe for Callahan. Maybe for himself."

Gabriel’s fingers twisted in the bedsheet. "Or maybe he’s just waiting for the dust to settle so he can choose the winning side."

Damian looked down at him, the fire behind his gaze flickering low, controlled.

"Then we give him no sides left to choose."

Edward stepped forward with a sealed envelope—old, worn, edges slightly singed.

"From Alexander," he said. "Found in the estate’s secure archives. Unopened. Addressed to Lord Gabriel von Jaunez."

Gabriel stared at the envelope for a beat before taking it with a trembling hand. His name was scrawled in a careful, familiar hand.

Callahan’s.

Gabriel cracked the seal with deliberate slowness, heart pounding in his ears.ƒreewebηoveℓ.com