Aisha stepped out of the imperial palace grounds, the cool night air brushing against her skin as she walked down the wide stone path leading away from the towering gates. The chaos from earlier—Nykos’s sudden appearance and the emperor’s unsettling proposal—still churned in the back of her mind, but she kept her expression carefully blank as she walked.
A few steps in, she felt it. That subtle shift in the air told her a presence was trailing just behind her, careful and quiet, but not subtle enough for someone who had survived years hunting and being hunted by things far more dangerous than a man.
Perhaps, they weren’t even trying to hide their presence from her at all.
"You can stop hiding now," she said without turning around. "I already know it’s you."
There was a pause, then the soft sound of footsteps closing the distance. Zeke emerged from the shadows cast by the palace’s outer wall, falling into step beside her as though he’d been walking there all along.
Neither of them spoke for a while. The street lanterns flickered along the road, casting long, wavering shadows across the cracked stone where cleanup crews had been working since the explosion. Aisha kept her pace steady, aware of the man walking a comfortable stride away from her.
"Were you waiting for me?"
"... I was."
"Why? Is it because you were worried?" she finally asked, glancing sideways at him. "Or because you wanted to know what the emperor wanted from me?"
Zeke didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was even, without hesitation. "Both."
She almost smiled at that. She’d expected him to dance around the question, to give some diplomatic non-answer the way people who wanted something usually did. Instead, he’d simply admitted it.
"Well, I’m not going to tell you," she said.
He nodded once, accepting her answer without argument, without the faintest attempt to pry further. It was, she thought, one of the few honestly refreshing things about him.
They passed a group of imperial guards clearing debris from the earlier explosion, stone and shattered glass piled neatly to the side of the road. The guards straightened at the sight of them, offering quick, wary bows before returning to their work. Aisha watched them for a moment before speaking again.
"What happened after I left?" she asked.
The damage was far more than she had expected.
Zeke’s gaze flickered toward her, then forward again, toward the dim outline ahead. He recalled what happened earlier.
After Aisha’s figure disappeared through the door leading to the emperor’s residence, the corridor fell into an uneasy hush. Nykos remained where he stood, watching the space she’d vacated with an unreadable expression, before that familiar, lazy smirk crept back onto his face.
"You actually gave her a gift?" Zeke asked, arms crossed, his voice flat with disapproval.
"And what’s wrong with that?"
"Don’t tell me you don’t understand what it means. Giving a gift like that—to a woman right after her engagement’s been dissolved. Everyone in this empire knows what that signals. Especially between a guide and a sentinel."
Nykos tilted his head, feigning innocence, though the glint in his crimson eyes betrayed exactly how much he understood. "Enlighten me."
"It means you intend to court her." Zeke’s voice had a note of certainty in it. "You plan to pair with her."
A slow grin spread across Nykos’s face, sharp and unbothered. "Guess you’re not as slow as you look."
Zeke ignored the provocative words thrown at him. "She might not agree to it."
"She doesn’t need to agree. Well, it would be better if she did, but if she didn’t..." Nykos shrugged, as though it didn’t matter to him. "I’ll just take her away with me. Then, she won’t have a choice but to be my paired Guide."
Something in Zeke’s expression hardened. "You won’t get your way."
"And what business is that of yours?"Nykos asked in slight irritation, then something shifted behind his gaze—a flicker of realization, sly and amused.
"Wait." He leaned in slightly, studying Zeke’s face with exaggerated curiosity. "Are you interested in her too?"
Zeke met his gaze, not offering a response to his question.
"Oh, come on." Nykos’s grin widened. "You know something, don’t you? Come on, be a good brother and tell me what you found out."
Still, Zeke didn’t answer. Instead, his hand moved, and a burst of invisible force erupted from his palm, aimed directly at Nykos’s chest.
Nykos scoffed, sidestepping with contemptuous ease, the force shooting against the corridor wall behind him. It bore through the wall, creating a new hole.
"Rude."
The fight that followed was brief but devastating.
Shadows lashed out from Nykos’s fingertips, crackling with dark lightning, while Zeke countered with waves of his own time dilation to slow down Nykos’s attack before sending it back. The two forces collided in the narrow hallway hard enough to crack the marble floor beneath them.
Within moments, the sound of the clash brought a flood of imperial guards pouring in from both ends of the corridor, weapons drawn, and forming a tight circle around the two Sentinels.
Nykos surveyed the surrounding guards without a hint of concern, almost bored by the display.
"Finally arrived? I almost got bored waiting for you all to come," he murmured, before his gaze sharpened with cruel amusement. He took a deliberate step forward and watched them tense up. "Which one of you wants to go first?"
One guard in an armor, foolish or brave enough to test his own strength against Nykos, lunged forward with his blade raised. Nykos caught his wrist without effort and twisted, a sickening crack following as the man crumpled, clutching his ruined arm and screaming. He didn’t even bother using his psychic energy to take care of him.
"Stand down," Zeke ordered sharply, turning to the guards. "Leave this to me."
But the general leading the unit shook his head, eyes gleaming with ambition rather than caution. He’d heard about the bounty of the notorious wanted criminal called Nykos. It was an astounding 10 billion star credits!
With that amount, who could resist it?
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