The Reborn Sovereign of Ruin, Bound by His Star

"No," Arik said, his tone firm enough that even Severin straightened.

"Please?" Liam tried, knowing well enough that Arik would refuse.

They hadn’t found much from Goliath’s memories, and that frustrated Liam more than he himself accepted.

Fragments had surfaced.

The cold of the sanctuary floor. Cassian’s hand closing around Goliath’s shoulder before the final threshold. The intention to measure the passage. A sensation of pressure when the Core first opened beneath him.

Then nothing.

Every attempt to push farther encountered the same smooth absence.

No explanation for how Goliath had entered as a powerful but otherwise mortal twenty-one-year-old and emerged three days later with golden eyes, altered channels, and ether behaving as though obedience had become instinctive.

Liam hated incomplete data.

He hated it considerably more when Felix’s palace sat within the same city, apparently containing answers he was forbidden to approach.

The four of them occupied Arik’s private office that evening. Rain ran in thin lines across the tall windows behind the desk, turning Deira’s suspended districts into blurred shapes of stone and gold. Arik had abandoned his formal coat over the back of a chair and rolled the sleeves of his black shirt to his forearms. The sovereign mark around his wrist caught the light whenever he moved through the report Severin had brought.

Liam sat opposite him in a soft gray sweater and dark trousers, one ankle resting over the opposite knee.

He had been behaving for almost eleven minutes.

"I could remain outside the building."

"No."

"The courtyard."

"No."

"The perimeter station."

"No."

Liam looked toward Severin. "He has become unreasonable."

Severin’s face remained perfectly neutral. "I was present when the console shocked you."

"So was I."

"You attempted to touch it again."

"I was numb. I could hardly touch anything."

Mezos lowered his tablet very slowly.

Arik stopped reading.

Liam met his golden stare and felt a small, private satisfaction.

He hadn’t genuinely expected permission. Arik had refused when the investigation consisted of machines. There was no universe in which Mezos and Severin physically entering Felix’s palace would make him suddenly decide Liam should accompany them.

But provoking Arik was easier than admitting what actually bothered him.

Mezos had been inside.

Severin had been inside.

They had walked the same corridors Liam had spent weeks reconstructing through reports and recordings, and the palace had done absolutely nothing to them.

Felix’s systems wanted Liam.

That made Liam simultaneously the most relevant person in the investigation and the one person prohibited from participating directly.

It was maddening.

Arik set the report down.

"You know I am not changing the order."

"I might be persuasive."

"You are attempting to annoy me until I make a decision out of spite."

Liam considered denying it.

There seemed little point.

"It has worked before."

"Not when the decision involves keeping you alive."

The irritation lost some of its satisfaction.

Liam looked away, toward the rain-darkened windows.

Severin and Mezos exchanged a glance.

Arik noticed.

"Leave the recordings."

Severin placed the sealed data unit on the desk.

"The original storage never connected to the palace network. We duplicated it in isolation after leaving the perimeter."

"And the corridor?"

"Still physically inconsistent with the construction records," Mezos said. "No recognized spatial formation. Nothing reacted to us."

Arik nodded once.

"You can go."

The door closed behind them several seconds later.

Liam remained in his chair.

Arik remained behind the desk.

Silence stretched between them until Liam finally exhaled.

"I know it is dangerous."

"I know."

"I am not actually planning to sneak into the palace."

Arik’s brows rose.

"At present," Liam amended.

"Very reassuring."

Liam rubbed one thumb along the edge of his tablet. "I just want to do something."

That was the real thing.

Arik’s expression changed immediately.

Liam disliked how easily he had found it.

"I spend hours studying Felix’s books. I study modern Nurian so I can understand the terminology properly. We went through your memories. Cassian’s records. Goliath’s useless page." He looked down at the dark tablet in his hands. "And everything still ends with someone else going inside while I sit here waiting for a report about something that reacts specifically to me."

"You are researching the reason it reacts to you."

"I know."

"You identified the transmission problem."

"By getting electrocuted."

"You identified it nonetheless."

Liam gave him a tired look. "That is a generous interpretation."

Arik rose.

He crossed around the desk and stopped in front of Liam, close enough that Liam had to tilt his head back. One broad hand settled against the side of his neck, thumb resting below the containment formations.

"You think usefulness requires you to be the person standing closest to the danger."

"I’m an engineer. Usually it helps."

"You are also my mate."

"That is not a profession."

"No. It is the reason I am allowed to be unreasonable."

Liam’s mouth twitched despite himself.

Arik bent and kissed his forehead.

"The ban remains."

"I assumed."

"You will not approach the perimeter."

"Fine."

"You will not convince Mezos to smuggle you into a vehicle."

Liam frowned. "I had not considered that."

Arik went completely still.

"That was a joke."

"It was not."

"It is now."

Arik stared at him for another moment, then took the sealed data unit from the desk and placed it in Liam’s lap.

Liam looked down at it, expecting the obvious instruction.

Arik did not give it.

"You don’t have to worry about being useful."

Liam’s fingers stopped over the storage seal.

Arik rested one hand on the back of his chair, expression losing some of its earlier irritation. "I would rather you enjoy what time you have left where the investigation is your only real obligation."

That wording made Liam look up immediately.

"What does that mean?"

Arik’s gaze shifted toward the dark windows for a moment, thoughtful rather than evasive. Then recognition crossed his face.

"Cassian and Kamal prepared something for you."

Liam narrowed his eyes. "That sounds ominous."

"It is administrative."

"Worse."

Arik’s mouth moved faintly. "You are not only my mate, Liam. Once the household is formally restored and the court structure settles, you will be the empress consort."

The title landed differently when Arik said it without ceremony.

Liam glanced down at the data unit again. "I thought my duties were mostly appearing beside you, learning enough etiquette not to accidentally start a diplomatic incident, and looking expensive."

"Kamal would be deeply offended by that summary."

"Which part?"

"Probably all of it."

Arik moved around the chair and sat on the edge of the desk opposite him, his black shirt pulling across his shoulders as he folded his arms. "The consort’s office historically managed parts of the imperial household, patronage, educational and medical foundations, technical and cultural institutions, ceremonial obligations, and several channels between the palace and provincial communities that do not pass directly through the sovereign’s office."

Liam stared at him.

"You are giving me another job."

"Cassian and Kamal are giving you another job."

"And you approved it."

"I approved them preparing it."

That distinction did nothing for Liam.

Arik’s gaze softened slightly. "You keep measuring your usefulness by whether you can stand inside Felix’s palace. I would prefer you remember that Nuria already has an entire position waiting for you that no one else can fill."

Liam’s irritation thinned.

He turned the sealed storage unit once between his hands. "I am still analyzing this."

"Of course you are."

"All of it."

"I expected nothing less."

Liam eyed him suspiciously. "When were you planning to tell me about the consort duties?"

Arik paused.

That pause was answer enough.

Liam pointed the storage unit at him. "Interrogation. Again."

Arik exhaled through his nose.

"Kamal was supposed to speak to you tomorrow."

"And Cassian?"

"Prepared the constitutional part."

Liam sank farther into the chair, looking personally betrayed by the existence of constitutional paperwork.

Arik finally smiled.

"You wanted to be useful."

Liam glared at him.

"I wanted to investigate a traitor’s impossible palace. That is not the same thing as asking for a ministry."