Chapter 364: Chapter 364: A night to remember (4) [Win-Win]

Sirius turned without waiting for permission and started walking. Ethan followed, because he’d already agreed and because backing down in front of that circle would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The noise of the ballroom faded as soon as they crossed the threshold. Music turned into a dull pulse behind heavy doors. The air changed from perfume to cold stone and polished wood.

Ethan kept his pace steady, hands loosely at his sides, posture neutral. He’d learned quickly that in palaces, body language was a language. You could say the wrong thing with your shoulders.

Sirius didn’t speak until they reached a side corridor. Guards were spaced out at intervals, looking decorative the way armed men always looked when they were pretending to be decor. Ethan clocked them automatically. He couldn’t stop himself. Structural instincts: assess load, find exits, confirm what holds.

When Sirius pushed open a balcony door, Ethan’s first thought was that he hoped that this wasn’t a dubious trap.

Cool night air washed over them. Below, in the courtyard, more security stood under the balcony line, it was visible enough to deter stupidity, positioned far enough away to allow privacy. On either side of the terrace, two guards remained just outside the doorframe, eyes forward, listening to nothing.

Ethan stepped out and stopped near the railing, suddenly, painfully aware that this wasn’t a ’friend of a friend’ conversation anymore.

This was a Crown Prince choosing to speak to him privately, in a controlled space, with security arranged around the perimeter.

Sirius rested one hand on the stone balustrade, looking out over the palace grounds as if the party wasn’t happening at all.

Then he spoke, voice calm, every nuance of emotion smothered to nothing. “I owe you an apology.”

Ethan blinked. “For what?”

“For my father,” Sirius said. “For what he did to you.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened. He didn’t pretend he didn’t understand what that meant. He understood too well.

Sirius turned his head slightly, enough to look at Ethan without fully facing him. “Caelan used you. He took what happened to you and turned it into a story that benefited him.”

Ethan let the words sit for a beat. His hands stayed still on the railing because he didn’t trust them not to curl into fists if he let go.

Then he lifted a brow, polite enough to pass, sharp enough to be honest.

“And this is to make sure Chris and Dax won’t retaliate?” Ethan asked.

Sirius didn’t flinch. “No.”

Ethan’s brow stayed raised. “No?”

“If I were managing retaliation,” Sirius said evenly, “I’d send a minister. Or a letter. Or a donation with a plaque and a public statement about unity.”

Ethan huffed once, involuntary. “That’s depressingly accurate.”

Sirius’s gaze held steady. “I’m apologizing because it was wrong. And because he’ll do it again to someone else unless it becomes costly.”

Ethan stared at him for a long second, trying to find the angle. Palatine didn’t do clean motives.

“And why do you care?” Ethan asked, careful.

Sirius’s mouth twitched, almost humorless. “Because the labs existed under our rule. Because ’we didn’t know’ is an excuse I’m tired of hearing. And because I’m not interested in ruling over a system that eats its own people and calls it necessary.”

Ethan’s throat tightened in a way he hated. He swallowed it down.

“So what do you want?” Ethan asked.

Sirius finally turned more fully toward him, posture still controlled, eyes sharp with that quiet, cold focus that made people call him difficult.

“I want you to stop being a prop in my father’s narrative,” Sirius said. “And I want you to tell me what you know: what you saw, what you were told, what was buried. Anything that can lead back to the network behind those labs.”

Ethan’s jaw flexed. “You mean you want evidence.”

“I want leverage,” Sirius corrected. “Evidence is the polite version.”

Ethan stared at him, then looked out over the courtyard again, at the guards below, at the neat geometry of the palace grounds.

He let out a slow breath.

“No,” Ethan said.

Sirius didn’t move, but Ethan could feel the question behind his stillness.

“I don’t know anything,” Ethan continued, voice steady. “Not beyond what I already told the people who took my statement. I’m not sitting on secret files or hidden names. I was there. I pulled Leon out. I got drenched in chemicals. That’s it.”

Sirius’s gaze stayed on him. “And you think your statement was handled honestly.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened. “I think it was handled conveniently.”

A beat.

Ethan turned slightly, keeping his tone polite because polite was armor in a palace, but the bite stayed in it anyway.

“And I’m not going to be a chess piece,” he said. “Not in a war between you and your father’s authority. Not in some internal power play where you two take turns proving who owns the Empire.”

Sirius’s expression didn’t change, but his voice went a fraction quieter. “This isn’t about ownership. My men from the Emperor circle reported that there is more about this.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. The wind off the courtyard made his ears cold, but it did nothing to cool the irritation that climbed up his spine.

“Then your men are wrong,” Ethan said, steady. “Or they’re feeding you what you want to hear so you feel like you’re getting somewhere.”

Sirius held his gaze without blinking. “You’re saying there’s nothing else.”

“I’m saying there’s no secret Chapter,” Ethan replied. “No hidden dossier. No mysterious confession I’m sitting on. I gave my statement. I answered every question. And then your father polished it until it looked like a heroic brochure.”

Sirius’s jaw tightened, subtle.

Ethan’s hands stayed on the railing because if he let go, he was going to start gesturing, and he refused to look like an emotional civilian in front of a Crown Prince.

“You want the truth?” Ethan continued, voice level. “The only reason I even knew something was wrong was because Leon didn’t show up at work.”

Sirius’s eyes sharpened slightly. “Go on.”

Ethan exhaled. “Leon doesn’t vanish, he always let us know if something happened, so I went to check.”

He hated saying it. He said it anyway.

“I found his husband, Maverick, at home. In a blood bath.”

Sirius didn’t react outwardly.

“Maverick was alive,” Ethan said. “Barely. I called emergency services. Stayed until they got him stable enough to move. And while everyone was focused on keeping him breathing, I did what anyone would do. I started piecing together what I could.”

He glanced at Sirius, then back to the courtyard. “I was in a panic frenzy.”

“And the lab?” Sirius asked.

“I didn’t discover it,” Ethan said, flat. “Leon called me. His GPS was on. I followed it.”

Sirius’s brows lifted a fraction.

“I didn’t have a source,” Ethan went on. “I didn’t have a leak. I didn’t have a heroic plan. I had a phone call from a friend who sounded wrong and a blinking dot on a map. I drove like an idiot and I got lucky.”

Ethan’s mouth tightened. “That’s it. That’s the whole story.”

Sirius watched him for a long moment, then said quietly, “And you believe there’s no more because you didn’t see more.”

“I believe there’s no more that I can give you,” Ethan corrected. “If there’s more behind it, and there probably is, that’s in paperwork and funding and people who sign permits and look the other way.”

He leaned back against the railing and crossed his arms. It was instinct more than attitude, he didn’t want Sirius to see his hands tremble.

“Ask Grand Duke Fitzgeralt,” Ethan added, voice clipped. “He dealt with the aftermath.”

Sirius’s gaze didn’t leave him.

“Trevor has pieces,” Sirius said. “And he’ll give them to me when he decides it benefits him.”

Ethan’s mouth tightened. “That’s fair.”

Sirius stepped closer by a small margin, closing the distance enough that Ethan could feel he was being taken seriously.

“I’m not asking you for what you don’t have,” Sirius said.

Ethan’s brows lifted. “You already did.”

“I asked because my father’s people told me a story,” Sirius corrected. “You just corrected it.”

Ethan didn’t respond. The cold air kept his face composed even as his chest tightened.

Sirius’s voice dropped a notch, quieter in a way that made the balcony feel even more private despite the guards below.

“Ethan,” he said, “you’re exposed.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

Sirius didn’t flinch. “You’re a visible example of a scandal my father wants to control. A foreign king and queen have taken interest in your care. You’re connected to Mia. You’re connected to Chris. You’re connected to the lab story whether you like it or not.”

Ethan swallowed, anger and exhaustion mixing. “So what? I’m supposed to disappear?”

“No,” Sirius said. “You’re supposed to stop walking around unguarded like you’re still a civilian who can solve problems by showing up with a wrench.”

Ethan’s mouth twisted. “I showed up with a crowbar once.”

Sirius’s gaze stayed steady. “Exactly.”

Ethan stared at him for a beat, then said, dry and guarded, “So this is the part where you offer me palace protection so you can keep an eye on me.”

Sirius didn’t deny it.

He also didn’t confirm it in the way Ethan expected.

“I’m asking you to let me keep you safe,” Sirius said simply. “For now.”

Ethan’s brows drew together. “For now.”

“Yes,” Sirius replied. “Until this settles. Until the people who did this are dealt with. Until my father stops seeing you as a convenient symbol.”

Ethan let out a slow breath through his nose. “And what do you get out of it?”

Sirius’s mouth twitched faintly, almost amused, like he’d expected the question because Ethan always asked the only question that mattered.

“Control,” Sirius said, honest enough to be dangerous.

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