Chapter 154: Chapter 154: Cause and Consequence

Gregoris didn’t answer right away.

He stood in the center of the room like a blade left upright in stone, perfectly still and perfectly placed, while Damian sat behind that desk as if the stone had always been his and the blade had only been waiting for him to decide it belonged there as well.

The question hung between them softly and lethally, as Damian’s curiosity had always been.

’Tell me why.’

Gregoris’ eyes flicked once to the ink still drying on the authorization Damian had just signed, then back to the Emperor’s face. “Because the dampeners are for my mate,” he said, voice even. “And because I am not interested in turning my home into a battlefield when she decides to cry at two in the morning.”

Damian’s mouth quirked. “So domestic.”

Gregoris’ stare sharpened. “Don’t.”

Damian didn’t look chastened. He looked entertained, which was worse. He leaned back, fingers steepled for half a second, as if he was considering troop routes and not the private life of his Shadow commander. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

Gregoris exhaled again, controlled, the way he did before he chose violence.

“You want the reason?” he asked.

“I do.”

Gregoris’ gaze didn’t move. “Then accept it without commentary.”

Damian’s eyes glinted. “No promises.”

“Then you’ll get what you get,” Gregoris said, with a faint edge, something that would have been insolence in any other man, but in Gregoris it was simply fact with a strengthened spine.

Damian made a small motion with his hand. A permission. A go on.

Gregoris held it for a beat longer, because some habits never died, not even under an emperor who had dragged entire nations into new shapes. Then he spoke.

“I didn’t want this,” Gregoris said.

Damian’s brow rose by a fraction.

“A mate,” Gregoris clarified, like he was listing components of an explosive. “A marriage. A child. A wing with soft furniture. A physician who knows my schedule. A drawer with infant clothes in it.”

Damian’s eyes warmed, just slightly, as if that list pleased him on a level he didn’t bother to conceal.

Gregoris watched it happen and felt something unpleasant crawl under his ribs.

“I didn’t want it because I didn’t believe it belonged to me,” he said, tone flat. “I didn’t believe I could have it without destroying it. And I didn’t believe I would survive the distraction.”

Damian’s pen spun once between his fingers, an idle habit that was never truly idle. “And yet?”

“And yet,” Gregoris echoed, and his jaw flexed once, “you built a world where it could happen.”

Damian’s smile didn’t show teeth, but it did show satisfaction. “I built an empire.”

“You built a court,” Gregoris corrected, revealing his clear and direct blame. “You decided you didn’t think marriage or children were for you, and instead of letting the rest of us remain sensible and unburdened, you made an entire future out of it.”

Damian blinked slowly, extremely entertained. “Sensible.”

Gregoris’ eyes darkened. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what you did.”

Damian’s gaze held his, unflinching, and he didn’t deny it. He never denied what he was. He simply waited, like he always did, for the truth to finish arriving.

Gregoris’ voice dropped a degree. “You told us you didn’t want it,” he said. “That you didn’t see yourself with a spouse or children after your first wife betrayed you.” He paused, and a cruel smile tugged at his mouth. “I’m so tempted to pay you back for this.”

Damian let himself sink deeper into the chair, his fingers still playing with the expensive pen like it was a toy and not a weapon disguised as stationery. “How?”

“By telling Gabriel,” Gregoris said calmly, “that you monitored him from the moment you realized he was Dominie after the rebellion and…” He paused, slow and deliberate, savoring the edge of it. “That you tugged at the contract on his soul to make him come back to the capital.”

Damian laughed. It was genuine enough to be insulting.

Gregoris stared at him, unimpressed, because that reaction meant Damian had either already prepared for this threat or had decided he would survive it with style.

Damian’s golden eyes gleamed. “Would you?”

Gregoris didn’t blink. “If you keep smirking at me like that, yes.”

Damian rolled the pen between his fingers, then tapped it once on the vellum as if sealing another signature, another fate. “You’d enjoy the aftermath too much.”

Gregoris’ mouth was curved and thin. “He would enjoy the impact too much.”

Damian’s amusement sharpened. “No. He would enjoy the truth.”

That was the part that always made people miscalculate Gabriel – like he was only softness in public and knives in private. As if losing his memories had turned him into something harmless. As if the man who had been Dominie had died in Ashmont, replaced by an ether engineer who only wanted clean equations and quiet stations.

Damian knew better.

Gregoris knew better.

They both had the scars to prove it.

Gregoris let the silence stretch just long enough to make the threat feel real. “You want a loyal court for Arik,” he murmured. “Children of your men. Houses tied to the imperial line by blood and gratitude. You want it so badly you made it contagious.”

Damian’s gaze didn’t flinch. “I made it possible.”

“You made it inevitable,” Gregoris corrected.

Damian’s mouth twitched. “Yes.”

The acceptance was infuriating. So was the calm.

Gregoris’ eyes narrowed. “You’re not even going to deny the contract part.”

Damian tilted his head, almost thoughtful. “No.”

Gregoris’ smile turned sharper. “Of course not.”

Damian’s eyes glinted with fondness and hunger, both bound by discipline. “Gregoris,” he said, mild as poison, “I didn’t tug hard.”

Gregoris stared.

Damian watched him like he was watching a fuse burn and enjoying the certainty of the explosion.

“That’s your defense?” Gregoris asked, voice flat.

Damian’s shoulders lifted in the smallest shrug. “It’s not a defense. It’s a clarification.”

Gregoris’ laugh came out once, humorless. “You are…”

“Careful?” Damian supplied.

“Deranged,” Gregoris corrected, without missing a beat.

Damian’s smile widened a fraction. “And yet here you are.”

Gregoris leaned forward slightly, the posture of a man who could make an entire room remember fear. “I’m here because you’re the Emperor,” he said. “And because your enemies don’t deserve the satisfaction of watching you fall.”

Damian’s eyes brightened. “Loyalty.”

Gregoris’ gaze turned cold. “Utility.”

Damian’s smile didn’t fade. It never did with Gregoris. There was a particular tolerance between them, forged in violence and years of shared ugliness, the kind that allowed them to speak plainly without either pretending it was anything other than what it was.

Gregoris continued, voice low. “But don’t misunderstand me. I’m not threatening to ruin your romance because I’m jealous.”

Damian’s brow lifted. “You aren’t?”

Gregoris’ expression didn’t change. “I’m threatening you because you’ve infected my life with domesticity, and I need to put the disease somewhere else.”

Damian’s laugh returned, softer, almost pleased. “Tell him, then.”

Gregoris’ eyes narrowed. “You want me to?”

Damian’s gaze intensified in that way it always did when it drifted too close to Gabriel’s name.

“I want him to know,” Damian said quietly, “that I didn’t stop looking for him.”

Gregoris’ expression didn’t soften. If anything, it hardened, like the words had tried to step into a space he kept locked for a reason.

“For…” he began, then cut himself off with visible disgust, as if the sentence itself had offended him. He inhaled once through his nose, slow and controlled, and when he spoke again, his voice was flatter and colder.

“I shouldn’t have to open my mouth,” Gregoris said. “Don’t drag me into your idea of romance. I swore loyalty to you in fighting armies, not emotions.”

Damian’s lips twitched, almost a smile or sympathy, but too sharp to be either.

“You swore loyalty to an emperor,” Damian said. “That includes consequences.”

Gregoris’ eyes narrowed. “Consequences I can stab.”

“You can try,” Damian replied mildly.

Gregoris held his gaze. “You enjoy provoking me.”

Damian lifted both hands in mock surrender, palms up, like he was being accused of petty crimes instead of psychological warfare. “Can’t a man find out news about his family’s and friends’ lives without threats?”

Gregoris huffed, the sound halfway between amusement and disgust. “I’d rather die than be your friend.”

Damian’s brows rose, wounded in a way that was entirely theatrical. “Harsh.”

“You do weird things,” Gregoris continued, as if he’d been waiting years for permission to say it. “Like testing.”

Damian’s mouth twitched. “Testing is practical.”

“It’s deranged,” Gregoris corrected. His gaze cut toward the desk, toward the piles of paper and the ether-screen hovering politely like it was afraid of the room too. “Plus you don’t even need to ask. You already have information from the Shadows.”

Damian lowered his hands, expression turning almost thoughtful. “Yes.”

Gregoris’ eyes narrowed again. “Then why are you asking?”

Damian’s gaze slid over him with that slow, predatory assessment that could make generals feel like boys. “Because information is not the same thing.”

“It is literally the same thing,” Gregoris said flatly.

“It isn’t,” Damian replied, calm. “I can read a report and learn the infant ate, slept, screamed, and survived.”

Gregoris’ mouth tightened. “Accurate.”

“I can know Rafael is healing,” Damian continued, unbothered by the fact that this was clearly an act of self-sabotage. “That he’s resting. That you’re not murdering anyone in your own hallway. That your household isn’t on fire.”

Gregoris stared at him. “It’s not on fire.”

Damian’s eyes gleamed. “Yet.”

Gregoris’ nostrils flared. “Say what you mean.”

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