Chapter 18
Silver had half a dozen guards with him, but he was the only one with a weapon out. He kept the blaster up, aimed at his bleeding cousin, his furious gaze latched onto the cursing man even as he reached Nuri’s side and made a grab for him.
“Majesty, I—” A pained sound escaped him when Silver’s grip tightened around his wrist.
“Take out N.I.M.,” Silver’s voice was gruff, and it appeared as though he was barely keeping himself together and could explode at any second.
Having been programmed to follow orders, Nuri’s free hand slipped into his pocket and did as he was told with little hesitation.
“Roll the dice,” Silver growled.
“Sir—”
The blaster went off a second time, another bullet lodging itself into Brix’s right shoulder.
Nuri’s mouth gaped open, unable to pull his gaze off the splatter of fresh blood across the sidewalk.
“Roll.”
He dropped to his knees to place N.I.M. on the ground, the position awkward when Siler refused to release him and kept hold of his arm. “N.I.M.,” his voice shook, “roll the dice.”
Since he still had it on mute, there were no sound effects this time, but the holographic squares appeared, shook, and shot out, landing on their sides.
“Two,” Silver noted, “unlucky for you.” He shook Nuri’s wrist. “Continue.”
“What the hell are you doing?!” Brix swore. “Don’t hurt him! Let him go!”
“How cute. Is your past lover coming to your defense, Narek?” Silver asked, but there was no missing the thread of rage that lingered in his tone and radiated from his pores.
“What?” Nuri shook his head. “No! No, we’ve never—”
Another shot.
Left shoulder this time.
“N.I.M.!” he practically screamed it as Brix cried out. “Roll the dice for the Emperor!”
The hologram repeated, but Nuri couldn’t tear his gaze off of Brix to check the numbers.
“Twelve.” Silver pulled him up by his arm, baring his teeth when Nuri dared to make a sound of pain. “You lose, Narek.”
“Wait!” He grabbed onto the Emperor’s arm when he moved to aim the barrel at Brix’s head. “Don’t! Please! Silver, please! He’ll sell the shares he collected! You can make him! You don’t have to kill him!”
As soon as he said it, realization hit him like a freight train, and Nuri frantically searched their surroundings.
Because Club Spade held such a prestigious and secretive clientele, it was tucked on the outskirts of the city within a copse of dense trees that prevented cars from the highway to see the property.
It was also early enough in the day still that the parking lot was fairly empty, with no one standing around to bear witness.
But…
Nuri glanced at the doors, catching sight of the security camera.
“Go inside and order them to stop recording!” he commanded the guard standing closest to the entrance.
When the man didn’t move, he firmed his voice and tried again.
“They’ve got footage of the Emperor shooting his only living relative outside of a sex club in broad daylight. Retrieve that footage immediately!”
That seemed to knock some sense into the burly man, and he turned and set a questioning look on Silver.
The Emperor remained still for another moment and then nodded once.
Nuri sighed when two of the guards entered the building, relieved that at least one situation was being dealt with.
The relief was short lived however. He felt a prickle on the back of his neck, and when he lifted his head again, it was to find Silver had finally stopped glaring daggers at Brix.
Only now the full force of his attention was on Nuri.
“Arrest him,” Silver ordered the remaining guards, keeping Nuri locked with the intensity of his gaze while they rushed forward and began dragging Brix away.
It wasn’t until the sound of car doors slamming shut came that the Emperor moved, bringing the end up the gun beneath Nuri’s chin.
The metal was still warm, and he tipped Nuri’s face up with it.
“What am I going to do with you, Narek?”
“Sir, I called you as soon as I found out about the stocks. I didn’t know,” Nuri insisted.
“You think I’m mad because of a few stocks?” He grunted humorlessly. The arm holding the blaster dropped to his side, but his other hand replaced where the barrel had been, capturing Nuri’s chin in a pinching hold. “Which one?”
Nuri shook his head, trying to convey he wasn’t following.
“Which hand did that piece of shit have on your dick, Narek?”
“Silver.” There was no way he was this angry because of that…right?
He growled and leaned in, close enough Nuri could feel his hot breath fan across his cheeks. “I’m going to cut out his tongue and feed it to those fish in the east pond. If you refuse to answer my question, both of his hands will end up there as well.”
“I…” Holy shit. “I don’t remember!”
Silver’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m telling the truth!” Nuri said. “Honestly! I really don’t remember! I was wasted that night and I never think about it.”
The Emperor still didn’t seem to believe him, but he pulled back slightly. “What do you remember?”
“He and I kissed,” he admitted. “That’s it. The next morning it was awkward and he was sent off planet shortly after.”
“But you’ve kept in contact?”
“No.” He shook his head and tried to calm his racing heart. “Up until last week when I happened to run into him, I’d only spoken to him when you and I were together at official events.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you two met?”
“Because you don’t like him and it didn’t seem like a big deal.”
“You didn’t think making plans with a man you’ve made out with, to visit a sex club no less, was a big deal?”
Well, when he put it like that it certainly sounded bad.
“Calm down and let me explain,” Nuri said, but it was apparently the wrong approach.
Silver released him and chuckled viciously. “If my chaos is scaring you, pet, you only have yourself to blame. And full disclosure? I haven’t even begun.”
He pulled something from his pocket and shot forward before Nuri could register what he intended, driving a sharp needle into the side of his neck.
The pain was minimal, a mere prick that was over and done in a split second, but Nuri still froze in fear and shock.
“Sedative,” Silver took pity on him when he saw his expression. “Just a sedative. You’ll survive.”
Nuri’s final thought before the world went dark was how the Emperor promised survival.
But little else.
* * *
“It’s an impressive record,” Imperial Sij Rein, the Emperor of Ignite, praised in an even tone as he flipped through the digital file on his tablet. “I see you’ve even skipped a grade. And you have siblings.”
“Yes, majesty.” Nuri kept his hands folded in front of himself, head bowed slightly.
At fifteen years old—almost sixteen—a meeting with the Emperor was practically unheard of.
One of his mother’s old connections, a friend of the family he’d never met before, had been able to get him this opportunity, and Nuri was determined not to blow it.
They were meeting at the palace, in the Emperor’s personal office. Aside from the guards outside, the two of them were alone in the large room, but that did nothing to quell Nuri’s nerves. Too much was riding on this, both his future, and the future of his loved ones.
“You understand why you’re here, don’t you?
” Sij set the tablet down and steepled his fingers on the desk.
His gaze was intense, as though he could see through Nuri and hear his thoughts.
“I’m not seeking out a babysitter, I’m looking for a companion.
My son is nothing like your brother or sister.
He won’t be as easy to sway, and he certainly won’t stand for being manipulated.
He’ll know why I’ve really sent you immediately. Are you sure you can handle this?”
It’d already been explained to Nuri before he’d gotten to this stage of the interviewing process. He also didn’t live under a rock. He’d read the news articles about the Imperial Heir, a high schooler in the same grade as Nuri, who was constantly causing trouble of the highly illegal variety.
“Since I’m the one ordering you there, and you are under my employ, he won’t kill you. Probably. But there are no guarantees where he is concerned. In the unlikely events that something does happen to you, your family will be fairly compensated.”
“I understand, majesty.” Truthfully, Nuri understood it all. Including the fact that, while it might appear that way on the outside, he didn’t really have a choice in this matter.
No one in their right mind would even dream of rejecting the Emperor.
This wasn’t a request, it was a command, and since the Narek family would directly benefit if Nuri did a good job following Sij’s orders, he’d opted to focus on that part instead of dwelling over how he was basically trapped in a shitty situation.
“Your report says you keep to yourself,” Sij continued.
“That’s good. Silver is plenty charismatic on his own, when he wants to be.
This isn’t about getting him more popularity, it’s about controlling his temper and teaching him some responsibility along the way.
It’s a long shot to assume using you as a role model will work, but I’m at the end of my rope. ”
As the Emperor’s only heir, his other options for dealing with Silver weren’t ideal. He could ship him off world, or send him to a strict training facility, but neither of those things would help Silver regain the trust of the people.
The monarchy wouldn’t fall due to Silver’s actions, but history had shown that ruling while the majority was in opposition of the crown was difficult at best, and near impossible at worst.