Chapter 631: Privately

Grey chuckled as the tension finally started bleeding out of the courtyard, then walked over and crouched beside Mensah, who was still lying on his back with one hand hovering protectively near his groin. Judging by the stiffness in his expression and the way his jaw kept clenching, he wasn’t particularly interested in joking around anymore.

"She’s hot, isn’t she?" Grey asked anyway.

Amunet rolled her eyes and started walking back toward the others as though she hadn’t heard him, which only encouraged Grey further. "I understand the jealousy," he said with a sage nod. "Her ass does feel amazing. Too bad that’s not for you to know."

"Do you want your balls crushed next?" Amunet hissed without turning around, and Grey grinned while wisely deciding not to answer her directly. Instead, he kept his attention on Mensah, the humor remaining in his expression even as something colder settled underneath it.

"Here’s the thing, you’re actually pretty lucky she isn’t my girl. If she was, you wouldn’t be lying here worrying about whether your balls still work, I’d have turned your head into meat paste before you got close enough to find out. She’s a lot nicer than I am."

Mensah felt something cold settle in his chest as Grey spoke, and for the first time since arriving in Melix, the playful confidence on his face disappeared completely. Grey still looked almost the same as usual, the lazy amusement lingering around the corners of his mouth, but his eyes were impossibly flat, carrying none of the humor that normally made even his threats sound half like jokes.

Mensah didn’t need to guess whether he meant it.

The rest of the courtyard seemed to understand at almost the same time, and conversations faded until an uncomfortable silence settled around them. Most of them had seen Grey angry before, or at least what he called angry, but even then he usually spent half the encounter taunting someone, laughing, or finding increasingly creative ways to make his opponent lose their mind.

Even when something genuinely got beneath his skin, the worst of it tended to stay inside, Grey brooding over it, talking himself through it, then eventually turning that emotion into something useful. This was different, there was no visible rage or loss of control, only the simple feeling that Grey could become very dangerous very quickly if someone crossed the wrong line.

For a brief moment, more than one person wondered whether they had ever actually seen him pushed to his limit.

Mensah nodded slowly. "I’ve got it."

Grey’s smile widened immediately, and the oppressive feeling disappeared so completely that it almost felt imagined. He gave Mensah a light pat on the shoulder and said, "Awesome. There aren’t that many talented people from Earth, and the alien fucks really want to screw us sideways, so if we’re going to accomplish much of anything, we’ve got to stick together."

"The best way to do that is not going around antagonizing everybody." Grey paused just long enough for a grin to spread across his face. "Only I’m allowed to sexually harass them."

Amunet spun around and kicked him in the shoulder, nearly tipping him sideways before he caught himself with one hand against the ground. Grey laughed as he stood, then offered Mensah his other arm and hauled him upright as though the previous conversation had never happened.

"Your boxing skill isn’t too bad," Grey said while looking him over again. "We should spar sometime."

Mensah raised an eyebrow. "You box?"

"MMA."

The interest immediately drained from Mensah’s face. "Never mind, I’m not interested."

Grey laughed. "All you boxing guys are the same."

"So are all you MMA guys."

"You’re both meatheads," Amunet muttered from nearby.

"Don’t compare me to this guy," Grey and Mensah said at the same time.

Amunet stopped and looked from one to the other, letting the silence linger long enough for both men to slowly realize what had just happened. Her expression turned increasingly strange as she examined them one by one, but she didn’t need to say anything, since the truth had already made itself obvious.

"Alright." Grey clapped his hands once, clearly hoping to move past the moment. "Moving on."

"I need to speak with you privately," Amunet said.

Grey’s eyebrows rose, and the beginning of something stupid immediately started forming on his face, only for Amunet to give him a warning glare before he could get the words out. Grey straightened at once, brought a hand to his forehead in a crisp salute, and stood at attention.

"Yes, ma’am."

Amunet rolled her eyes and walked away, while Grey followed after her with the captured Elementals still being dragged behind him by the chains. Their bodies scraped noisily across the courtyard, and Mensah watched two Infernal Princes being hauled past like oversized luggage before shuddering again, suddenly feeling much better about listening when Grey told him to stop pushing his luck.

**

Grey became increasingly confused when Amunet led him toward the residential wing instead of somewhere private within the Palace grounds. He was even more surprised when she opened the door to her own room and walked inside, but after hesitating for a moment, he simply shrugged and followed. ℯℯ𝑙.

Maybe she had something hidden in here, or maybe she wanted somewhere nobody else could overhear them, and either explanation sounded reasonable enough. Grey closed the door behind himself, then watched as Amunet crossed the room and drew the curtains shut.

His expression became noticeably stranger.

"Okay..."

Amunet turned back toward him without explaining anything, walking forward with the same composed expression she had worn throughout the day. Her hands moved toward her waist almost casually, and then her skirt slipped free in one smooth motion and pooled around her ankles.

Grey’s eyes widened before he could stop them, his gaze travelling upward along her long, slender legs entirely on instinct. By the time she took another step toward him, his pupils were practically locked onto the sway of her hips and the firm outline of her panties, the way they pressed against her groin and followed the shadowy valley of her second pair of lips, while every question he had been about to ask seemed to vanish from his mind at once.

He blinked slowly, staring at her like the universe had finally decided to apologize for all the bullshit it had put him through.

"Remind me again... which god did I pray to for all this...? I need to make another offering real quick..."