Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Change of plans

On the other end of the line, Sirius went quiet in a way that had never meant no.

It meant not yet.

Lucas closed his eyes for a brief second. Of course. Of course the only omega in that palace with a functioning moral compass and enough audacity to use it had been conveniently left out of the loop.

“Sirius,” Lucas said, very calmly, which was always a bad sign. “Answer the question.”

Another beat.

“No,” Sirius admitted.

Lucas let out a soft, humorless laugh. “Incredible.”

“It wasn’t—”

“Don’t,” Lucas cut in. “Don’t tell me it wasn’t intentional. You and Caelan ’forgot’ to inform Ethan because Ethan would have opinions, and those opinions would be loud, reasonable, and inconvenient.”

Sirius exhaled slowly. “Ethan is… busy.”

Lucas’s smile turned sharp enough to cut. “Busy being the only reason you ever stopped collecting concubines like trophies?”

Silence.

Lucas leaned back in his chair, one hand pressed to his forehead. “You do understand what happens when Ethan finds out.”

Sirius’s voice was careful now. “Lucas—”

“He’s going to tear you apart,” Lucas continued, perfectly composed. “Not because the clause is illogical. Because you didn’t tell him. Because you decided what was ’safer’ without letting your consort speak.”

Sirius didn’t deny it. That was the problem. Sirius rarely denied truths that were strategically inconvenient.

Lucas went on, voice almost mild. “Ethan is the only person in that palace who made you consider settling down like an actual human being. He’s the only one who made you consider children at all. So how come you didn’t tell him about this?”

Sirius’s voice dropped. “Caelan send it before I had a word in it. He… still thinks he’s in charge.”

Lucas’s eyes narrowed. “He pushed it through without you.”

“Yes,” Sirius said, and there was anger under the restraint now, the kind that made his voice go too calm. “An hour ago. He framed it as ’security protocol’ and sent it like an order, not a proposal.”

Lucas exhaled slowly. “And he told you not to intervene.”

A pause.

“He told me,” Sirius admitted, “that neither I nor Trevor should ’interfere again’ for Dean. That the child can suck it up and do his duty.”

Lucas went very still.

The velvet case on his desk might as well have been a throat under his palm.

“The child,” Lucas repeated softly, and the softness was dangerous. “Interesting choice of words, coming from a man who used to rely on children to keep his throne warm.”

Sirius let out a quiet sound that was equal parts agreement and exhaustion. “He’s… convinced himself he’s being practical.”

“No,” Lucas said, and his voice didn’t rise. “He’s being cruel. Again.” A beat. “He doesn’t care about Arion or Dean. He cares about control.”

Sirius didn’t interrupt.

Lucas’s jaw tightened. “He fooled me,” he added, irritation transforming into the resentment he had for the old man. “He acted like a caring grandfather. I gave him a chance.”

For a moment, Lucas sounded less like the Fitzgeralt power broker everyone feared and more like a man who hated being manipulated in his own home.

Then his tone cooled.

“I’m telling Serathine,” Lucas said. “And Dean. And Arion.”

Sirius inhaled sharply. “Lucas—”

“Five days is enough,” Lucas cut in, calm and lethal. “Enough to commission something else. Something chosen by the couple getting engaged, not an old bastard with grandeur illusions and a fetish for ’duty.’”

There was a pause on the line, heavy with consequences.

Sirius’s voice came back low. “Caelan will call it an insult.”

“Good,” Lucas said. “He should feel insulted. Maybe it’ll remind him he’s not in charge.”

“And the heirloom,” Sirius added quietly.

Lucas’s mouth twisted. “Yerofey’s collar can stay in the archives where it belongs. Dean is not a museum exhibit.” His voice went colder, edged with something that wasn’t theatrical anger but memory sharpened into a blade. “That collar is what Yerofey called chains. It was gifted to him by Palatine right before they would’ve sold him to another country.”

On the other end, Sirius went very still. Lucas could almost hear him recalculating, how much of that history had been buried, how much had been politely rewritten.

Lucas exhaled through his nose, sharp. “I’m going to kill the old man.”

“Lucas,” Sirius warned, low.

“I said what I said,” Lucas replied, voice flat. “He can dress it up as tradition all he wants. I know what it is. And I’m not putting that on Dean’s throat.”

A beat.

Sirius’s voice dropped, careful, not dismissive. “You can’t start a war in five days.”

Lucas’s laugh was humorless. “Watch me.”

“Fine,” Sirius said immediately, because he knew exactly how far Lucas could go and exactly how to aim him. “You can. But listen to me first.”

Lucas went quiet, jaw tight.

“Inform Dean and Arion,” Sirius continued, brisk now. “Today would be best.”

Lucas’s mouth twitched. “They will.”

“And let Serathine be mad,” Sirius added, voice sharpening. “Really mad.”

Lucas blinked. “Serathine will be mad anyways.”

“She kept being Caelan’s lover because he could be quiet and pleasant when it suited him,” Sirius said, and the disdain in his tone made it clear he’d watched that performance for years. “He hid behind that. Let her see the truth now. Let her realize he hasn’t changed.”

Lucas’s expression darkened with immediate understanding. “You want Caelan occupied.”

“I want him drowning,” Sirius corrected, calm as an execution order. “A scorned Serathine in his radius will keep him busy. Busy enough that he can’t meddle in the engagement without getting shredded in public.”

Lucas exhaled once, almost a laugh. “That’s vicious.”

“It’s efficient,” Sirius said dryly, like he’d learned the word from Arion and hated that it fit. “And while he’s busy surviving Serathine, we commission something new, preferably something chosen by Dean and Arion.”

Lucas’s voice turned colder. “Caelan should be death until now.”

Sirius paused. Just long enough to make Lucas listen.

“I already have a plan for Caelan,” Sirius said, and the certainty in his voice made the hair on Lucas’s arms rise.

Lucas leaned back slightly, eyes narrowing. “You’re going to handle him.”

“Yes,” Sirius replied. “Because he forgot something important.”

“What?” Lucas asked, voice low.

Sirius’s tone sharpened into something almost gentle. “That he’s no longer Emperor.”

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