He wasn’t entirely wrong, Silver realized.
“Back to what we were discussing before.” Moving forward, he reached down and planted two fingers beneath his chin, forcing his head up so their eyes locked. “Are you still not willing to play, Narek?”
Nuri clenched his jaw, but that only had Silver chuckling.
They both knew what his answer was going to be.
Chapter 10:
Thanks to Nate, he was being backed into a corner.
No, not thanks to Nate. It wouldn’t be fair for Nuri to place the blame on his brother when in reality all of that lay straight on Silver.
“You’re blackmailing me,” he pointed out, even though he knew it wouldn’t make a difference. Just because it was him on the other side of Silver’s ill intentions didn’t mean the Emperor would suddenly grow a conscience and change his mind.
“Very astute, as always,” Silver said. “One of the many reasons I can’t afford to let you go. But,” he added before Nuri could speak, “I understand how these things work. Games aren’t any fun unless there are stakes.”
If he continued to refuse to play, the Emperor would take it out on Nate. He had good enough reason to as well, considering how Nate had laid hands on him like an idiot.While he could appreciate that his brother had been worried about him, there was still no excuse for physically accosting an Imperial, let alone the actual emperor.
“How did Nate get in here?” Nuri had heard Falc mention his brother had been on the list, but he wanted confirmation. It seemed odd that his siblings would have been given all access to the mansion, a place Neve had never been and Nate had only been the once, years ago when he’d still been a kid.
“Your siblings names have been on the list since I took the throne,” Silver told him. “If I wasn’t here to grant their clearance, I didn’t want them having to wait in the cold. I assumed, and rightly so if this is any indicator, that they’d take after you and make split-second decisions based on emotion. No doubt that’s what drove Nate to barge in here as though he owned the place.”
If Silver had moved to the Imperial Palace where the emperor was meant to reside, this wouldn’t have happened. Even though security was strict at the mansion, if someone’s name was on the list they were to be treated as a royal guest. That must have been how Nate had made it up here so quickly, before Falc could be properly alerted to his presence and stop him from entering the Emperor’s bedroom unannounced.
This might not be the palace, but that was still a major offense worthy of jail time if not worse. On top of that, there were witnesses who’d seen the way Nate had yelled and reacted to Silver…
Even if they were given a proper case, Nate didn’t stand a chance.
“What’s done is done.” Silver tapped his fingers beneath Nuri’s chin until he had his undivided attention once more. “All that’s left is damage control. Your specialty.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat and clenched his fists in his lap. “What’s the game?”
They’d done this plenty of times in the past. In high school and in college mostly. It’d been Nuri’s idea in the beginning, a means to teach Silver to control his chaotic nature by adding an element of challenge to the mix. They’d played all sorts of games for all sorts of reasons.
Cards once in an attempt to get Silver to apologize to a classmate he’d run over with his hoverbike—Nuri had won, and the apology had been delivered.
A popular boardgame to decide whether Nuri would spend summer vacation with Silver in the tropics, or if he’d be given at least a week with his siblings at home.
Sometimes, when they’d been bored, they’d even played for mundane things like deciding on what to have for dinner.
But it’d been a long time since those days. So long, in fact, that Nuri had honestly almost forgotten.
“Dice?” Silver suggested. “We’ll use your N.I.M.—I’m having it fixed as we speak—to roll for us.”
“All right.” It was a fairly simple game, so at least there was that. Though, Nuri had a sinking suspicion that was by design. The terms were where the complications would ensue. “What are we playing for?”
“You, for your release from my employment. If you win, I’ll accept your letter of resignation.”
Nuri searched his gaze, but there were no signs he was bluffing. “And if I lose?”
“You give me whatever I want.” Silver’s hand slipped across his jaw to the base of his skull, fingers tangling in the short strands of hair there. He dug them in, gripping him tightly, and with a single tug, yanked Nuri onto his knees before him.
Nuri sucked in a breath, his face now inches from Silver’s where he stood bent over him. Another fuzzy memory from the afternoon flickered through his mind, vanishing before he could get a real hold of it.
“I won’t rescind my resignation,” his voice only slightly shook, and he hoped it wasn’t noticeable.
“Not right away,” Silver agreed, only to have Nuri stand his ground.
