Chapter 12
Nate’s plate was half empty when Nuri arrived. Before he could be concerned it was because his brother wasn’t eating due to worry, he noticed half the side dishes set out had been picked clean.
“It’s about time.” Nate slapped his fork down onto the table and stood, reaching for Nuri as he approached to take his usual seat. Someone had sat Nate down in the spot directly next to it on the left. “Are you all right? Really?”
“Yes.” Nuri eased his brother back down. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you, obviously. When the Emperor called to tell us you’d been in an accident Neve was already halfway to the airport before I could convince her to let me go alone.”
Nuri frowned. “Silver called you?”
“He explained that’s why you didn’t make it that day.” Nate inspected the bandage on Nuri’s ankle and grimaced. “It’s really not that bad, right? He said it wasn’t anything serious but that you’d been knocked out pretty good. And then last night—”
“You could have gotten yourself killed.” Now that he’d brought it up, Nuri’s anger over the whole ordeal returned full force.
His coffee had already been poured and so far the two of them had been left alone, the door to the kitchen open but none of the servants in sight.
No doubt word of what happened had already started to trickle throughout the mansion, but the last thing either of them needed was to add more fuel to that particular fire.
Especially after the Emperor had made him announce to Falc and the guards that the two of them had slept together.
“I thought—” Nate began, only to be cut off.
“It doesn’t matter what you believed was going on,” Nuri stated. “What matters is he’s the Emperor and you put us both at risk by acting impulsively. If he’d decided to throw you into prison there would be nothing I could do for you.”
Nate cocked his head. “…Even though the two of you are together?”
“We are not together.” He speared a small sausage on his plate and shoved it into his mouth, chewing more violently than necessary. “That bastard.”
He’d mumbled it past the mouthful, but Nate with his insanely good hearing picked up on it anyway.
“Weren’t you just scolding me for disrespecting the Emperor?” he tsked. “Being a hypocrite doesn’t make you a very convincing role model, brother.”
“You’re twenty-three years old.” Nuri rolled his eyes.
“But I still have to do as you say?”
“Yes.”
Nate snorted. “Hypocrite.”
It’d been forever since the two of them had gotten to sit together for a meal like this, and for a moment Nuri allowed himself to just enjoy his brother’s company.
They’d been separated for years, largely due to him and his inability to leave Silver in the midst of a “work emergency”, yet at the first sign of real trouble, his brother had gotten on a ship and returned to planet for him.
“Neve?” he asked, still feeling guilty over having missed her graduation. More so now that he was aware Silver had lied on his behalf. While he was curious about why that might be, he was also aware it was most likely going to cost him.
“Spoke with her this morning,” Nate said. “She’s pissed that you didn’t contact her the second you woke up.”
“My multi-slate didn’t fare as well as I did in the crash.”
“Figured. That’s what I told her, in any case, so be sure to back me up and make it clear. Her internship started today but she’ll be done by around five their time.”
“Did you tell her…?” Nuri couldn’t bring himself to say it, clearing his throat awkwardly and feigned needing a drink. He downed half the contents of his cup in one gulp.
“That you’re doing the Emperor?” Nate made a face. “Of course not. She’d throw a fit.”
“Neither of you are very fond of him, but the Riens are the reason you were both able to move off-planet. I wouldn’t have been able to afford the flight tickets, let alone room and board on Vitality if not for this job.”
“At least we would have still been together,” Nate mumbled.
“Hey.” Nuri rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around and you’ve been forced to raise Neve on your own.”
“It’s whatever.” Nate brushed him off but smiled. “I know the sacrifices you’ve made for our family. You don’t have to get all emotional on me.”
“And…you aren’t mad?” Nuri wished he didn’t have to ask, but things between them had to be settled before he told Nate he needed to leave. It was great he’d had the foresight not to fill Neve in, but that didn’t mean Nate himself was okay with it.
“That you’re being dicked down by the Emperor? The guy who’d hogged you practically my entire life? I mean,” he shrugged, “sure a little. But not for myself. You realize what this means for you, right?”
Nuri frowned and Nate sighed.
“I get that you’ve always had a secret thing for him, but he’s an emperor, brother. Even if things on this planet are run differently than most, his station still matters. He isn’t just a typical CEO.”
“I know that.”
“Do you? Where do you think this is going? Is he serious about you? Are—”
Nuri held up a hand. “It isn’t like that.”
“No? What’s it like then?” Nate shifted in his seat, lowering his voice even though it was still just the two of them in the room. “Did he pressure you into it? Were you forced? Men with power like that are used to getting what they want. It’s easy to break laws when you are the law.”
“Sounds like you have experience.” They spoke about Nate and Neve’s lives on Vitality often enough, but now Nuri doubted that he’d gotten all of the details.
Nate waved off his concerns right away, however. “You know Vitality is also run differently than most other places. Between the Brumal Mafia and the morally gray Imperial ruling family I’ve picked up a thing or two about people in power, and what they’re capable of.”
“And yet your first act here was to get physical with the Emperor of Ignite?” Nuri chided. “I take back my insinuation that you’re an adult now. Age clearly doesn’t make a difference in that regard.”
The questionable dynamics of Vitality was the one thing that had Nuri hesitating to send his siblings there years ago. It was one of the only known planets in all of the universe that was ruled by both a known criminal organization and the governing Imperial family.
Nuri didn’t have any personal experience with mafia members, but he’d heard stories about the original Brumal, dangerous people who ruled another planet in a different galaxy.
Apparently, the ones on Vitality had originally come from there as well, having branched off some generations ago to start anew.
How they’d gotten into bed with the Imperials was a mystery, but the how didn’t matter so much as the fact that they had.
For some unknown reason, the Intergalactic Conference didn’t do anything about it.
They’d even built an Academy there, another abnormality.
Academies were schools where trainees set on joining the Intergalactic Police Force, or the I.P.F, were sent.
There was one in most galaxies, with theirs being one of the last to have been put in operation.
Vitality was now home to future I.P.F agents as well as Brumal Mafia members and was ruled by the shady Diar Imperial family.
If not for the fact Vail University, also located there, was considered the top school in the Dual galaxy, Nuri most definitely would have refused to send his siblings there.
Nate had graduated last year and now Neve had followed, yet the two of them had both opted to remain on Vitality instead of returning to Ignite.
Nuri would be lying if he said he wasn’t bummed out about that, but since they were both adults and had been forced to take care of themselves in his absence, he’d felt it wasn’t his place to order them back.
When Neve had planted the seed for him to move instead…
He’d played with the idea, but the two of them were only fresh in the workforce, with no guarantee that either would be able to maintain a job long enough to make a real living.
Nuri had convinced himself to shelve the idea of moving planets for their benefit.
Despite his jab at Silver the other day, he got paid extremely well for his job.
Well enough to easily continue supporting the three of them financially.
He’d be a fool to give that up on a whim, no matter how badly he missed Nate and Neve.
And if Silver somehow came to play in that decision as well? Nuri had easily lied to himself and buried that truth whenever it’d bobbed its way to the surface.
“If this isn’t anything serious,” Nate’s solemn expression pulled Nuri from his thoughts and back to their conversation, “then how about putting an end to it? If all you wanted was to try out something you’ve been thinking about since high school, then haven’t you succeeded?
There’s no reason for you to continue sleeping with him, especially not in such a risky manner. ”
“What do you mean?”
Nate rolled his eyes. “Come on. I saw, remember? He was in full Swift form. If you’d slept with him while he was like that—”
Nuri held up a hand, stopping him as bile rose up the back of his throat and an unsettling feeling overtook him.
His skin prickled uncomfortably, in part because he’d been too distracted by it all to make that connection on his own, but also because an image of Silver’s blue horns hovering over him flashed in his mind.
“What’s wrong?” Nate grabbed onto his shoulder, but seeing his panic helped snap Nuri out of it enough he collected himself.
“We didn’t,” he found himself saying, trying to ignore the fact the reassurance was every bit as much for his brother as it was meant for himself. “Not like that.”
“Yeah, because I interrupted.” Nate scowled. “You should be thanking me right now. If a Swift comes inside of you—”
Nuri slapped a hand over his mouth. “That is enough of that.”
He pulled away. “I’m not a child, brother. I know what sex is. I’ve partaken in the act myself.”