Chapter 421: Enough

Chapter 421: Chapter 421: Enough

Gerard’s restored voice filled the council room immediately.

"You arrogant fucking bastard!"

The shout struck the stone walls hard enough that even the guards beyond the closed doors probably heard it.

Severin stepped away from him with the composure of a man who had returned an inconvenient package to its intended recipient and no longer considered himself responsible for what happened next.

Gerard did not share that serenity.

His scarf hung crooked around his neck, one side of his coat had been crushed beneath him when Severin forced him into the car, and his dark blond hair had lost whatever careful arrangement his attendants had given it that morning. Red-faced and breathing heavily, he pointed at Arik as though the emperor had personally committed every indignity of the last several days.

Arik remained beside the table.

He did not sit.

That was the first thing Marius noticed.

The second was that Arik looked calm.

Marius wished desperately that he did not.

"I came here in good faith," Gerard continued, "and you have done nothing but delay me, insult me, detain me, search my people, and send this fucking relic to drag me through your capital like a criminal."

Severin’s eyebrows rose slightly at relic.

Cassian looked into his coffee.

Mezos did not move at all.

Arik folded his arms.

"You attempted to flee before a scheduled meeting."

"I was leaving a hostile country."

"You arrived voluntarily."

"And discovered that Nuria treats monarchs like toys."

Marius slowly closed his eyes.

Gerard stepped farther into the room.

"You think because you sat behind your precious Gate for seventy years and crawled out with untouched vaults and ancient machines that everyone else should tolerate whatever you decide to do."

Arik’s expression did not change.

Gerard mistook that for permission.

"You people have been under the protection of some dead god, a Core, whatever ridiculous thing you worship, and now you believe that makes you untouchable. You and Damian both. Ether points at you and suddenly the rest of us are supposed to behave as though you are something more than men."

Marius opened his eyes.

Across the table, Arik was watching Gerard with the flat attention one might give an animal approaching a cliff.

Marius caught his gaze.

He did not bother hiding the despair in his own.

Please.

Arik noticed.

Gerard did not.

"I built what I have," Gerard said. "Nobody handed me a country because the ground decided it liked my blood."

Cassian finally looked up.

"That is a remarkably creative description of inheritance."

Gerard swung toward him.

"You stay out of this."

Cassian’s expression turned almost pleasant.

Marius knew that expression.

Gerard would not survive a conversation with Cassian either.

Arik spoke before it could begin.

"You funded interference in my election."

Gerard looked back at him.

"According to whom?"

"You."

"I did no such thing."

Arik’s brows lifted.

Gerard straightened his coat as though recovering dignity through tailoring.

"Perhaps people in Lirya supported a candidate. Perhaps private interests believed Cyran Solvere would be good for regional stability. That is not my responsibility."

Marius stared at him.

The betrayal was arriving earlier than expected.

Gerard noticed.

"What?"

Marius almost laughed.

"You are doing it now."

"Doing what?"

"Nothing."

There was no point.

Not with Gerard.

Arik’s gaze moved briefly between them before returning to the king.

"And the marriage story?"

Gerard’s mouth twisted.

"What marriage story?"

For the first time, Mezos visibly reacted, though only through the slightest narrowing of his blue eyes.

Arik stepped away from the table.

Gerard’s confidence faltered for half a heartbeat.

"The story claiming you came to Nuria to marry Ayla."

"Foreign media publishes nonsense constantly."

"It originated through your private network."

"Prove that."

"We already did."

That stopped him for a second, but Gerard recovered with remarkable shamelessness.

"Then perhaps someone on my staff became overenthusiastic. I cannot personally monitor every press contact made by every person in my government."

Marius looked at Arik again.

This time he did not need to communicate anything.

Arik understood perfectly.

Gerard was building the version in which everyone around him had acted independently.

Given enough time, Marius himself would become responsible.

Arik regarded Gerard for several long seconds.

Something inside him settled.

The king had involved Ayla deliberately, had fabricated a marriage with a girl young enough to be his daughter, allowed foreign publications to discuss the children she might supposedly bear him, then stood inside Nuria and pretended ignorance because he believed denial could still protect him.

Arik no longer cared what explanation followed.

Gerard was going to die.

The only remaining question was where.

Gerard apparently interpreted Arik’s silence as weakness.

"I am finished with this circus. I am leaving Nuria today, and if one more soldier interferes with my delegation, I will consider it an act of aggression against Lirya."

Marius stared at him.

Arik glanced toward Severin.

"Let him go."

The room became still.

Gerard blinked.

Marius turned sharply.

"Arik."

"It is what he wants."

Gerard’s surprise transformed into satisfaction almost instantly.

"Finally."

Arik ignored him.

"His aircraft may depart. His delegation receives an escort to the airfield, and nobody delays them."

Mezos watched him carefully.

He knew Arik too well.

So did Severin.

Neither asked a question.

Gerard pulled his coat straight.

"At least one person here has recovered some sense."

Arik looked at him.

The gold in his eyes seemed brighter beneath the cold winter light.

"Safe journey, Gerard."

There was something in the words that made Marius’s stomach turn.

Gerard heard nothing unusual.

He turned toward the door.

"Marius."

Marius did not move.

Gerard looked back.

"We are leaving."

"I have unfinished business here."

The king’s face darkened.

"You work for me."

"For the moment."

That silenced even Gerard.

Marius had not planned to say it.

He discovered he did not regret it.

Gerard stared at him with open hatred before turning away.

"You will regret that."

The doors opened.

He left without another glance.

His footsteps faded along the corridor.

Silence remained behind him.

Marius waited until they disappeared completely.

Then he looked at Arik.

"You are not letting him reach Lirya."

It was not a question.

Arik walked toward the windows, watching the snowy palace grounds below.

"No."

Cassian leaned back slowly.

Mezos closed the file in front of him.

Severin merely waited.

Marius looked from one man to another.

"How?"

Arik’s gaze remained on the road leading away from the palace.

"I have not decided."

Gerard would leave believing he had escaped humiliation, convinced that distance would protect him and that Lirya would give him time to create another lie.

Arik had no intention of granting him that time.

"He wanted to go home," Arik said quietly.

Then he looked toward Mezos.

"Make sure he never gets there."