Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Something missing (2)

Sebastian lifted his head, and the green in his eyes looked too sharp for someone who was supposed to be the reckless one in the room.

“Arion knew about this,” he said.

Sirius’s gaze cut to him immediately. “What do you mean?”

Sebastian tapped the papers in his hand, then flipped to a marked section and held it up like evidence. “There’s an entry,” he said, voice tightening, “that Caelan sent a proposal to Thomas Lancaster.”

Ethan muttered, “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” like the universe had personally disappointed him again.

Sebastian’s mouth twitched into something that wasn’t amusement at all. “Tom is Arion’s friend. They trained in the same team. There is no way he didn’t tell Arion.” He looked at Sirius, expression suddenly grim. “And this makes me wonder if Arion was so pissed when we demanded time for Dean because he thought we were all in on it.”

The room went still again, but differently this time.

Lucas didn’t move. He didn’t even blink. His mind was already pulling the last three months apart, laying them out like evidence on a table, trying to spot the thread that had been there all along.

Behind him, Trevor’s hand slid to Lucas’s lower back – possessive, and very, very close to violence.

Sirius took a slow breath, gaze distant for a moment as the pieces clicked into place. “That explains Otto,” he said quietly. “He’s not the sort of man who intervenes in another empire’s internal mess unless he believes it can spill into his borders. And if Arion got that warning through Thomas… Otto would have wanted Dean brought to Alamina fast.” His eyes narrowed. “Not just to protect Dean. To make sure we weren’t complicit.”

Ethan let out a bitter little laugh. “Love that for us.”

Sebastian lifted a hand. “Wait.”

Everyone turned toward him.

Sebastian’s expression was too focused for mischief, which was how Lucas knew this wasn’t going to be a joke. He pulled his phone from the inner pocket of his coat, unlocked it, scrolled with the speed of someone who had done this a thousand times, and hit call.

Sirius’s brows drew together. “Sebastian…”

“It’ll take ten seconds,” Sebastian said, already holding the phone to his ear.

The line rang once. Twice.

Then Dean answered, voice thick with sleep and irritation that didn’t bother to hide.

“God damn it, Seb,” Dean rasped. “It’s two in the morning. Did you miss me so much you decided to commit a crime?”

Sebastian’s mouth twitched. “Good morning, brother.”

Dean made a low sound that was pure suffering. “I hate you.”

“You love me,” Sebastian corrected cheerfully. Then his voice sharpened. “I have a few questions.”

Dean groaned again. “Now?”

“Yes. Now.” Sebastian glanced at Lucas and Trevor, then back to the phone. “Did Arion tell you about Caelan?”

A pause. A small shift, like Dean’s sleepiness stumbling over the name, woke him up just enough to be annoyed.

“That he sent him to hell?” Dean said and yawned hard, like he was about to fall off the planet. “Sure. You could say so.”

Ethan’s eyes widened. “Oh my gods.”

Lucius’s jaw clenched, fury flashing anew.

Trevor didn’t move, but the air around him tightened until the room felt smaller.

Sebastian’s voice went quieter, sharper. “Did he tell you why?”

Dean blinked on the other end so hard Sebastian could practically hear it. “Why?” he repeated, confused and still half asleep. “Did Uncle Sirius already find the mess?”

Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “So he told you about Thomas.”

“Yeah,” Dean said, like that part at least wasn’t shocking. “Thomas emailed him. Formal and very much offended. The whole ’please confirm I’m not being dragged into something disgusting’ tone.”

Sebastian closed his eyes briefly. “Did Arion tell you what he thought of us at that point?”

There was a pause long enough to be an answer before Dean spoke.

“He didn’t say it outright,” Dean said slowly. “But he didn’t trust the timing. He thought keeping me in Palatine was… strategic. That someone wanted me where they could reach me.”

Lucas’s jaw tightened, the movement small but noticeable.

“And now?” Sebastian pressed.

Dean exhaled. “Now he thinks Caelan was moving alone. He thinks the rest of you were… late. Not complicit.”

Sirius let out a quiet breath, not relief so much as confirmation. “That aligns.”

Ethan scoffed under his breath. “Fantastic. Our reputation is ’not evil, just slow.’”

Trevor’s presence changed, not easing but focusing. “Did Arion ever say leaving Palatine wasn’t enough?” he inquired, his voice low. “Did he say something about keeping you hidden? Isolated?”

“No,” Dean said immediately. “He wanted me out of reach, not locked away. I think he wanted to be sure that nothing will happen from now on.”

Sebastian grimaced. “That sounds like him.”

“And,” Dean added, hesitating just a fraction, “he was angry because he thought I’d been treated like… bait. Like I didn’t know what was happening.”

Lucas finally spoke, his voice calm and dangerous in its restraint. “And now you do.”

“Yes,” Dean said quietly. “Enough.”

Sirius drew a slow breath, as if forcing his thoughts into lines that could be followed. “We’ll keep you updated,” he said, tone steady. “Because we still don’t understand how Caelan intended to make it work. Every route I map ends the same way – he gets blocked, exposed, or exiled… or someone kills him before it ever reaches you.” His jaw tightened. “Which means either he’d lost his grip on reality, or something is still escaping us.”

“Good,” Dean said, sounding drained and stubborn at the same time. “Now if no one has any more questions for me, I would like to go back to sleep and schedule my existential crisis for tomorrow morning.”

Ethan let out a quiet laugh, more fond than amused. “That’s my boy.”

“I am not your boy,” Dean muttered automatically.

“You are my nephew; I have raised you enough to consider you my boy,” Ethan responded.

Sebastian leaned toward the phone, grinning. “Sleep, princess.”

“Sebastian,” Dean said in warning.

Sebastian’s grin widened. “Love you.”

Dean sighed into the line, long-suffering. “If you call me again in the next six hours, I’m telling Sylvia you cried during the last sad movie.”

The room reacted instantly.

Sebastian froze like he’d been shot.

Ethan’s eyes lit up with wicked interest. Lucius actually made a sound that could’ve been a laugh if he hadn’t been furious. Even Sirius’s mouth twitched faintly.

Trevor didn’t change expression, but the pressure in the air eased by a fraction, like the threat had shifted back to where it belonged.

Sebastian recovered first, offended on principle. “You wouldn’t.”

Dean’s voice turned sweet. “Try me.”

Lucas’s tone cut through them, calm and final. “Go to sleep.”

There was a soft pause on the line, and then Dean’s voice came quieter, the sarcasm thinning just enough to show what sat underneath it.

“Okay,” Dean said. “Night.”

“Night,” Lucas replied.

The call ended.

Sebastian lowered the phone slowly, still looking like a man who’d just been informed he had enemies.

Ethan exhaled and leaned back, rubbing a hand over his face. “So,” he said, voice dry, “we’re all agreed Caelan was either delusional or had a hidden mechanism.”

Sirius’s gaze went back to the window, to the courtyard preparing to mourn on schedule. “He rarely gambled without a contingency,” he said quietly.

Lucas’s eyes stayed on the closed file on the desk like it was a living thing. “Then we find the contingency,” he said, the words soft but edged.

Trevor’s hand remained at Lucas’s lower back, steady and possessive. “And we remove it,” he murmured.

Lucius’s voice went cold. “I’m contacting Thomas.”

Sebastian straightened. “And I’m calling Arion,” he said immediately.

Sirius’s gaze snapped to him. “No.”

Sebastian blinked. “Why not?”

“Because Dean asked you not to turn him into a bridge,” Sirius said, measured. “And because Arion will answer better to a controlled approach, not a midnight interrogation from his fiancé’s brother.”

Sebastian opened his mouth, then shut it, clearly furious about being reasonable.

Ethan leaned forward, elbows on knees. “Then what’s the plan?”

Sirius turned back from the window slowly, the calm on his face returning like armor. “We map every contact Caelan made in the last six months,” he said.

Lucas nodded once. “Start with whoever drafted this,” he said. “Then whoever witnessed it. Then whoever received the proposals.”

Trevor’s eyes narrowed. “And whoever benefited.”

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