Chapter 247: Chapter 247: Parental abandonment

Arik stopped because some reflex in him still answered to that presence before thought had time to interfere, and because however much Goliath remained under his skin, Damian and Gabriel had long since become something he no longer had the energy or desire to deny.

Parents.

That word still sat strangely in him sometimes. Too soft in nature for the histories involved, too domestic for the architecture of war, death, rebirth, empire, and everything else that had dragged them all here. But true nonetheless.

Mezos, more practical than sentimental and fully aware of when a corridor ceased to belong to soldiers and reverted to family, stepped half a pace back and inclined his head.

"Your Majesty."

Damian’s gaze moved once over him, then settled on Arik with the kind of attention that always felt like being seen too clearly and never, ever in a flattering way.

"You’re late for something," Damian said.

Arik gestured to Mezos and the other staff to step back. "Seems like today everyone has a very odd interest in my sex life. First Cecil, then Mezos earlier, and now you."

Mezos, already retreating with the offended dignity of a man who knew very well he had earned that inclusion, said, "In my defense, yours was visibly ruining the corridor."

Arik did not look at him. "Go away."

"That sounded emotional."

"That sounded like an order."

Mezos’s mouth moved once, but he obeyed, taking the other staff with him and widening the distance down the ether-lit hall until Damian and Arik were left in the warmer pool of corridor light near the cross-wing junction.

Damian watched the retreating officer for one second, then looked back at Arik. "Please keep me away from that part of your life. Cecil is giving me too much information already."

Arik stared at him.

Then, despite the entire evening, despite Ilyan, despite Mezos, despite the fact that half his family had apparently developed a shared hobby of dragging his private arrangements into conversation, the corner of his mouth moved.

"Cecil," he said, "has no respect for boundaries."

"That is an extremely diplomatic way to describe him."

"It’s the kindest available."

Damian’s expression remained composed, but there was a thread of something dangerously close to weary amusement under it now. "I made the mistake of standing still for too long earlier. He interpreted that as emotional permission and began explaining marking biology to me in greater detail than any father should ever have to endure."

Arik’s brows lifted. "You let him finish."

"That was my failure."

"That was absolutely your failure."

Damian exhaled once through his nose, the sound almost a laugh. "Gabriel found it hilarious."

"Of course he did."

For a brief second the corridor became something close to normal. Not emperor and heir. Not Damian and the reborn warlord who still, inconveniently, had become his son in all the ways that mattered. Just two men in a private palace artery discovering that Cecil’s shamelessness had become an environmental hazard.

Damian let out a long breath, stepped closer, and placed a hand on Arik’s shoulder.

Damian was never careless with contact, and because every member of this family knew the difference between Damian reaching for someone out of violence and Damian reaching for them out of something more difficult to survive from.

His father’s gold eyes held his.

"You can deal with Ilyan’s family any way you want," Damian said.

Arik looked at him for a long second.

Damian’s hand remained on his shoulder, steady and warm and entirely at odds with the sentence itself. "If this came from the house, break the house. If it came from him alone, decide whether fear is enough. If it came from outside, I would actually prefer you make an example of them before they mistake silence for mercy."

Arik let his head fall and chuckled. "This family is doomed," he said, with enough fondness in it to make the word sound less like prophecy and more like architecture. Then he raised his head again, gold eyes bright now with the first real mischief Damian had managed to pull back into him all evening. "I’ll keep it in mind. Until then, please make Cecil shut up."

Damian’s expression did not change.

Which, in this family, usually meant amusement had in fact occurred and had simply chosen a more dignified place to live.

"No," he said.

Arik stared at him. "No."

"No."

"That is an astonishing lack of paternal responsibility."

"That is an informed refusal." Damian removed his hand from Arik’s shoulder and let it fall back to his side. "Cecil has never once in his life become quieter because someone told him to."

Arik exhaled through his nose, the smile still threatening one corner of his mouth. "You’re his father."

"And yet," Damian said, "you’re asking me to perform miracles outside my domain."

"That’s a very convenient distinction."

"It’s an accurate one."

Behind them, farther down the corridor, Mezos was still tactically absent and spiritually invested enough that Arik could practically feel the man trying not to eavesdrop with his entire body. It was one of the more offensive skills his officer possessed.

Arik tipped his head slightly. "Gabriel, then."

Damian gave him a flat look. "Absolutely not."

Then, to make the betrayal complete, he flashed the kind of brief, sharp smile that meant he had recognized the trap and was already stepping neatly around it. He patted Arik once on the back and started retreating from whatever scheme his son was attempting to drag him into.

"If you want Gabriel involved, you ask him yourself," Damian said. "I’m merely trying to enjoy my quiet family life. I still have Michel and Ophelia to raise."

Arik stared at him.

"Quiet," he repeated.

"Yes."

"You live in an imperial palace."

"And?"

"You are married to Gabriel."

Damian’s expression remained perfectly composed. "And therefore I guard my remaining peace with strategy."

Mezos, now back at a respectable distance and unfortunately still alive enough to contribute, let out a soft breath that was almost certainly amusement. "I support His Majesty on this one."

Arik didn’t even look at him. "No one asked you."

"No," Mezos said. "But the phrase ’quiet family life’ was brave enough that I felt morally obliged to witness it."

Damian smiled. "You’re getting insolent."

"I serve near power. It’s environmental."

"That is an ugly excuse."

Arik looked between the two of them with the tired disbelief of a man who had, against all reason, become related to one problem and emotionally attached to another.

"You’re abandoning me," he said to Damian.

"No," Damian replied. "I’m refusing to be used as a delivery system between you and Gabriel."

Arik folded one arm over his middle. "You really won’t say anything to him."

Damian’s gold eyes settled on him with that infuriating clarity again. "About Cecil talking too much? No. About Ilyan, if it escalates enough to become interesting? Perhaps. About whatever you’re trying to arrange now? Absolutely not."

"And if Gabriel asks?"

"Then I’ll answer honestly."

"That sounds dangerous."

"That sounds married."

Mezos made a visible effort not to enjoy that line too much and failed.

Arik saw it and decided at once that everyone around him had become intolerable.

"For a man claiming quiet family life," he said to Damian, "you are remarkably comfortable throwing me toward the sharper parent."

Damian was already moving. "I survived the sharper parent. You will too." He said this while fading to the opposite end of the hallway.