To ruin an Omega novel Chapter 406

Chapter 406: King Lear and Cordelia 1

ALDRIC

I turned the corner and stopped.

The hallway stretched empty in both directions. Quiet. Exactly what I needed.

I unlocked Elara’s phone and pulled up the contacts.

My memory had always been sharp. Precise. Even now, wearing Gabriel’s weaker body, that part of me remained intact.

From memory alone, I keyed in the delicate’s handler’s number.

I had only dealt with him once. Briefly. Through intermediaries, mostly.

But I remembered his number.

I pressed call, and it rang twice before someone picked up.

"Hello?"

The voice was rough and just as cautious.

"Is this Mateo Ruiz?" I asked.

There was a pause at first, then the rough voice said, "Who is asking?"

"Someone who needs information," I said. "You handle a delicate. I hear she is strong."

There was another pause, and it was longer this time.

"Yes," he said finally. "But she is not in service now. She happens to be blinded and that, in some way, apparently made her abilities epileptic. We have other strong contender delicates if you need—"

"I will drop the act," I cut in.

My tone shifted. I barely had the time to play my usual games of feeling and fishing. I had to be harder and more direct.

"I scratch your back, and you scratch mine. Your delicate lies to you. She can see."

The silence that followed was taut as a stretched rubber hand waiting to pop when you least expected it to. Not me, though.

Then his voice came back sharper.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Your salvation," I said simply. I let that sit for a second before continuing forward. "Confirm it, and then you owe me one."

He let out a harsh breath.

"I do not believe you one bit."

"Then do not," I replied. "But assuming I am telling the truth, ask me what would I want in return?"

He hesitated. "What would you want?"

"I just want the delicate to answer the questions that I have. That is all."

The line went quiet again.

Then he spoke. His voice was tight now. He was trying his best to act above it and be controlled. He was none of those things. A weakling through and through.

"If this bitch..." He stopped mid-sentence. "Give me a minute."

I heard shuffling, followed by movement, and then voices in the background.

It sounded like arguing.

His voice rose. Sharp and angry. I could not make out the exact words, but the tone was clear.

Then I heard a woman scream.

"I am sorry!"

Her voice was high and quite panicked. Which told me that my gamble had paid off well.

"Oh, your goal was to keep pretending to be useless so you would be abandoned right? Right?"

Mateo’s voice came through clearer now. Loud enough that I could hear every word.

"Well, that is over. Take the phone and answer the man’s questions."

There was more shuffling, and it only ended when a different voice came on the line.

It was softer and shaking. "Hello."

I smiled.

"Hello, delicate."

She did not respond.

"What you did was not very kind," I continued. "And I must assure you that you picked the wrong side to side with because it is only hell from here for you."

I paused.

"But I can help you. I can alleviate your suffering. But you need to give me what I need."

Her breathing came through the speaker. Uneven and frightened.

"Who are you?" she asked. "And what do you need?"

"When your services were asked of in Skollrend, what did you see?"

She hesitated.

"I..."

"And please do not lie to me, or we are done here, and you can go back to living your personal hell."

She let out a shaky breath.

"I saw a woman, and it blinded me as I said."

I frowned.

"We paid you extra in regards to checking what happened at the scene of the accident. Concerning a certain blue light."

The pause that followed was wickedly empty. I had her right where I wanted.

"I did not see much. I was blinded when I tried to look into the woman who did it. All I saw was a..."

She stopped.

My jaw tightened. "What?"

"I am not sure. What I saw was a dungeon and a man."

A man?

"What does that have to do with the assassin?" I asked.

"I do not know. Memories are hard to take in."

I forced myself to stay calm.

"What was she? You should know that much."

"I do not know."

My grip on the phone tightened.

"You are giving me nothing."

"I know she was not a witch," she said quickly. "But I do not know. I swear."

I took a slow breath.

"Why did you hide the fact that she healed you? Fia. That is."

She went quiet.

Then softly she said, "Because she asked me to."

I did not quite believe her.

"Did you get anything from the Omega herself? Healing you meant she touched you. What did you see?"

I leaned against the wall.

"And before you lie to protect a stranger, think about yourself first. Because I know a little something, and your truth had better match that little something."

She exhaled shakily.

"It was vague. A memory in a memory. It was a dungeon, and someone... someone with her likeness was being experimented on by the man. The man I saw in the assassin’s own memories."

I straightened.

"What?"

The light outside was fading. The sky had gone from gold to deep orange. Soon it would be completely dark. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

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