Chapter 429: Only After the Wedding

Chapter 429: Chapter 429: Only After the Wedding

The day before their departure for Wrohan, Arik was in his office with Mezos, Severin, and a projected image of Rex floating above the conference table.

Liam had already disappeared with Rubis to finish the last adjustments to their travel schedule, which Arik considered unnecessary because most of their luggage had been prepared three days earlier, but arguing with Rubis before an international trip had become one of the few battles Arik had learned not to start unless he was truly committed.

That left him free to deal with Gerard.

The thought improved his mood considerably.

Snow had begun melting across Deira, leaving the palace gardens wet and dark beneath a pale afternoon sky. Arik stood beside the windows in a charcoal shirt with the sleeves folded to his forearms, one hand resting against the glass while Mezos reviewed the confirmed guest movements for Rex’s wedding.

Severin had taken the chair nearest the table and looked entirely too comfortable for a conversation involving the planned death of a foreign monarch.

Rex appeared less comfortable.

His projection showed him somewhere inside the Alexandrian royal palace, dressed in a white shirt with the collar open and a formal jacket abandoned over the back of a nearby sofa. Wedding preparations had apparently stripped most of the patience from him.

"Gerard confirmed this morning," Rex said. "He arrives tomorrow afternoon with twelve people."

Mezos glanced at the schedule.

"Smaller delegation than expected."

"He probably thinks that makes him less noticeable."

Arik turned from the window.

"Nothing makes Gerard less noticeable."

Rex smiled faintly.

"That is unfortunately true."

Two years had done very little to improve Arik’s opinion of the King of Lirya.

Gerard had survived far longer than Arik originally intended, mostly because killing him immediately had become strategically inconvenient once Lucien arrived in Nuria. Gerard’s reputation had been eroded gradually while Lucien learned enough to eventually inherit a functioning country rather than a collapsing one.

That patience had served its purpose.

Arik was finished with it now.

"He leaves Alexandria when?" Arik asked, clearly wanting to kill him then.

Rex’s expression flattened immediately.

"After the wedding."

"I know."

"I mean properly after the wedding. Not during the reception. Not somewhere in the palace gardens because you decide one corridor has insufficient witnesses."

Arik stared at him.

Mezos looked down at his tablet.

Severin’s mouth moved suspiciously.

"I was not planning to kill him in your garden."

Rex folded his arms.

"You killed George in front of me because he badmouthed Liam."

"Well... Not only for that..." Arik said, leaning back in his chair.

Rex stared at him through the projection.

Severin turned his face toward the windows.

Mezos remained focused on his tablet with an intensity that suggested the schedule had suddenly become fascinating.

"That is your defense?" Rex asked.

"It was a complicated situation."

Rex closed his eyes.

Arik smiled.

Their relationship had survived enough disasters that formality between them had become almost impossible whenever nobody else required it. Rex might be King of Wrohan and Arik Emperor of Nuria, but some habits had formed long before either of them had enough peace to care about titles.

Rex opened his eyes again.

"This is exactly why I am having this conversation with you before you arrive."

"I am not going to kill Gerard at your wedding."

"You said that about the garden. I am expanding the prohibition."

Arik folded his arms.

"Fine."

"No killing Gerard in the palace."

"Fine."

"No having Mezos make him disappear between dinner and dessert."

Mezos finally looked up.

"I had no such plan."

Rex pointed toward him.

"You are worse because you say things like that with a straight face."

"I am chief of security."

"That does not make it reassuring."

Severin rested one elbow against the chair.

"Perhaps we should establish a geographical boundary."

Rex looked grateful.

"Yes."

Arik looked offended.

"No."

"Outside Wrohan," Rex said.

"That was already the intention."

"Then we agree."

"We agreed five minutes ago."

Rex gave him the look Liam normally reserved for moments when Arik was technically correct and therefore especially irritating.

Mezos enlarged Gerard’s departure route above the table.

The projection replaced part of Rex’s image with a map of Alexandria and the main corridors leading toward Lirya. Gerard’s delegation had registered a return flight for the morning after the final wedding breakfast, with a refueling stop beyond Wrohan before continuing home.

Arik leaned forward.

"That route?"

"Currently," Mezos said. "Gerard changes plans when he becomes nervous, but the aircraft requires enough logistical coordination that we will know."

"His security?"

"Twelve traveling with him, possibly another team waiting at the refueling point."

Rex frowned.

"You are discussing this remarkably openly while I am still on the call."

"You wanted to know," Arik said.

"I wanted assurance that nobody dies at my wedding."

"You have it."

"I did not request operational details for the assassination immediately afterward."

Severin’s mouth curved.

Arik looked toward the projection again.

He had waited two years.

That fact alone still surprised him occasionally.

There had been several opportunities to kill Gerard without difficulty, including one particularly tempting winter journey when the king had spent three days at a private hunting estate with security incompetent enough to insult Mezos professionally.

Arik had let him live.

Lucien had needed time.

Lirya had needed time.

Gerard had spent those years losing pieces of himself without understanding who was taking them. Public confidence had weakened, ministers had become less willing to absorb his failures, and the same wealthy families who once considered Lucien decorative had begun asking surprisingly careful questions about the prince’s extended stay in Nuria.

Now Lucien could return without immediately being eaten alive by his uncle’s court.

Cassian considered him ready.

Marius considered him ready.

Arik considered him irritatingly competent.

There was no reason to continue waiting.

Rex studied him through the projection.

"You are very quiet."

"I am thinking."

"That has historically been dangerous for other people."

Arik smiled faintly.

"Gerard will leave your country alive."

"Thank you."

"I cannot promise how long that condition continues."

"I do not care once he crosses my border."