“I’ll let you live, for now,” he stated. “But don’t expect an invitation to our wedding. The second your grotesque visage is turned Nuri’s way again, will be the second you find your head separated from your body.”
He left his cousin in enough agony, he most likely wished he was dead already, the chaos swirling within Silver still thriving, eager to lash out and hurt.
Nuri was waiting.
Chapter 20:
It’d been a long time since Nuri had dreamed of the late emperor, and it took him a moment upon waking for his mind to catch up with his body. That first meeting with Sij still too vivid, too real, a conversation he’d mostly forgotten the details of suddenly clear.
He’d come a long way since then, was no longer that same fifteen-year-old kid, secretly scared, yet holding it together for the sake of his family.
He’d come a long way…hadn’t he?
A chill swept over him, finally pulling Nuri into the present and he blinked against the darkness. Beneath him, silk sheets rumpled as he lifted himself into a seated position, accompanied by the sound of clinking, and then a gust of wind. Shivering, he turned his head to the right, seeking out the source.
The curtain was closed, but the window had been left open, an icy breeze blowing inward, sending the bottom half of the black material fluttering and beams of pale moonlight dancing across the floorboards.
Silver’s room. Though it was too dark to make anything else out, those miniscule details were enough for Nuri to place himself, and he was in the process of sighing when there was a flick from across the room, followed closely by the igniting of a small flame.
The lighter was lifted, momentarily illuminating the Emperor’s face as he brought it to the end of a cigarette held between his full lips. His eyes were piercing, stormy gray irises set on Nuri like searchlights cutting through inky darkness.
As soon as the cigarette was lit, he snapped the lighter closed, shadows instantly swallowing him up once more. The only thing left that Nuri could make out were the tips of his fingers as he brought the cigarette to and from his mouth.
“I thought you quit.” It was stupid. Probably the dumbest thing Nuri could say in a situation like this.
“You sound concerned,” Silver said absently, his voice low, matching the stillness of the room in an eerie way that had Nuri’s anxiety growing.
He was naked, he realized with a start as another chill entered through the open window. Naked and…He shifted his right leg and the clinking from earlier came again.
There was something around his ankle.
Tentatively, he reached for it, going pale when he made contact with a thin metal chain. He traced it, unable to see much. The chain was secured around his ankle and then trailed over the edge of the bed.
“Smoking is bad for your health,” Nuri somehow managed to say through the fear coiling around his insides. “Silver. What’s going on?”
“No ‘sir’ or ‘majesty’? Dropping the act already, Narek?”
“Act?” He frowned and then vehemently shook his head. “Wait. No. You can’t honestly believe that I had anything to do with Brix—”
“Brix,” Silver growled the nickname, and Nuri instantly knew his mistake. “How intimate. Although, I suppose that makes sense, considering he’s had his hands all over you.”
“That’s not—”
“Forget the past. Tell me what you were doing there with him today. Make the story good, pet, so that I’ll want to believe you.”
Nuri might not be able to see him very well, but he knew that wasn’t the case for Silver. Swifts could see perfectly in the dark. “You’re scaring me.”
“I know.”
This couldn’t really be considered out of character for the Emperor, but it’d been a long time since he’d lost control and thrown caution aside to this degree. Once Rein Inc. had been established, Nuri had wrongly believed Silver had outgrown his more vicious nature. He could be cruel at times, sure, and was always selfish, but this…
He’d shot his cousin three times at point blank range, and now he had Nuri chained in his room and…
Sitting here in silence wasn’t going to solve anything.
Nuri needed to fix this before it was too late and he lost more than just his dignity.
“I understand what it looked like,” he began, mind racing over all of the facts, trying to find the most important ones, “but nothing is going on between me and Romeo Brixton. We had a chance meeting last week when I visited Club Spade to deal with Ackor Hue. That’s how I found out he had a membership, so when I decided to investigate the club, and needed someonewith enough authority to ensure their cooperation, I invited him.”
