Chapter 201: Puzzle Pieces [Win-Win]

Liam straightened and looked out the window to Alexandria, clearly more interested in the blueprints and how to get them from the seized mansion.

Arik watched him.

He had seen Liam angry, poisoned, exhausted, half-asleep, sharp enough to cut through royal composure, and disappointed in the technical usefulness of reincarnation.

This expression was different.

This was Liam’s engineering face.

Which meant Arik was in immediate danger of becoming background furniture.

"Liam," he said.

"The Gate blueprints were in Felix’s mansion."

"Yes."

"And Mezos planned to retrieve them during our engagement party."

Arik’s eyes narrowed. "Yes."

"Which means they were important enough that your Shadows did not want to wait for legal seizure."

"You already know that."

"And now the mansion is seized."

"Under restriction."

"That was not what I asked."

"It was what you were about to use."

Liam looked at him with wounded dignity, which would have been more convincing if he were not still sitting on Arik’s lap in Arik’s bed wearing Arik’s shirt and looking ready to commit archival theft on an empty stomach and medical recovery.

"I was going to suggest a lawful transfer of essential technical material."

"You were going to ask for the blueprints."

"Yes. Lawfully."

"From a seized mansion connected to Felix, George, Cain, Ray, poison, and an attempted kidnapping."

"A seized mansion connected to an ancient gate system that may involve the soul fragments you just admitted exist," Liam said. "Do you want to discuss my phrasing or the part where Felix may have kept old imperial engineering plans because they interact with whatever pieces of Goliath he failed to destroy?"

Arik stopped.

Liam’s eyes sharpened.

"There," Liam said. "You heard it too."

Behind Arik’s ribs, Goliath had gone silent in the way he did when something old and dangerous passed close enough to smell.

Arik hated that.

Liam saw that too and, because he was Liam, immediately looked more awake despite having no medical right to do so.

"Call Mezos."

"No."

"Call Rex."

"No."

"Call Stanford."

"Absolutely not. Stanford has already suffered enough."

"Then call Noah.

"Liam."

"What?"

"You have been awake for perhaps twenty minutes."

"And already I have identified a relevant link between Felix’s protected archives, Goliath’s fragmented soul, the Gate, and the event where our engagement party was apparently going to double as an intelligence operation."

Arik sighed again, caught Liam around the waist, and dragged him back down against his chest before Liam could use indignation as a substitute for medical clearance.

Liam landed with a soft, offended sound.

Arik caged him there with both arms firmly enough to inform him that the prince had selected a position and intended to defend it with his entire body.

Liam lifted his head. "This is censorship."

"This is recovery."

"This is physically enforced lack of access to technical material."

"This is me preventing you from collapsing sideways into the nightstand while trying to start an archival war before breakfast."

"It is afternoon."

"You slept through breakfast."

"That is not my fault."

"It absolutely is not, which is why you are not being punished. You are being contained."

Liam narrowed his eyes. "Dangerous word."

Arik’s arms loosened immediately.

Liam noticed.

He also, infuriatingly, did not move away.

Arik’s jaw tightened as Liam settled more comfortably against his chest with the smug dignity of someone who had won without standing.

"You don’t know that," Arik said, returning to the safer topic before the warmth of Liam’s weight could ruin what remained of his common sense.

Liam blinked. "Know what?"

"That the Gate is connected to my soul."

"The Gate answered to you and your ether only," Liam said, as if reciting an equation to a slow student. "Felix had been ignoring it for years, but it was still under his control, which means it was either dormant, waiting, ward-locked, or bound to a condition he could not fulfill. Then there is the portrait. Then Goliath’s piano in George’s salon. Then the fact that old objects around Felix and George keep reacting like haunted engineering with political resentment."

Arik stared at him.

Liam continued, warming to the argument in a way that made the monitoring ward beneath his collarbone pulse with disapproval. "So, assuming the portrait contained a fragment or an anchor, and assuming the piano was either another anchor or a storage vessel for old ether memory, then the Gate could have a part of your soul in it too. Or at least Goliath’s ether signature. Or a key sequence made from the same root pattern."

Arik’s entire expression had gone still.

"Piano?" Arik asked.

"George had a piano in one of his waiting rooms," Liam said, voice slightly muffled by Arik’s chest. "Before he proposed the engagement between us. He called it a token from a fallen god."

Arik did not move.

The stillness was immediate enough that Liam’s irritation cooled by half a degree and sharpened into attention.

"He said Felix brought pieces from the old collection," Liam continued slowly. "Archives. Instruments. Relics. Private effects. He said the world forgets quickly when given permission and that Felix was very good at that."

Arik’s eyes had gone bright with that old gold he learned to hide from Liam.

Liam’s fingers tightened against his chest. "Arik?"

Behind Arik’s ribs, Goliath was no longer merely awake.

He had gone silent with the force of recognition as something inside him had answered.

Arik’s arm tightened around Liam before he could stop himself.

Liam noticed.

"That is not reassuring," Liam said.

"No."

"Was it his?"

"I do not know."

"That means yes but in a complicated, soul-fragmented way."

Arik looked at him.

Liam looked back, pale, exhausted, and ruthless. "I am learning your categories."

Arik said nothing.

That was answer enough.

Liam’s mind, unfortunately for everyone hoping he would rest, began building connections faster than his body could object. "Felix kept the portrait. George had the piano. Felix had the Gate blueprints. The Gate answered to your ether. The portrait woke part of Goliath. The piano might be an anchor too."

Arik’s jaw clenched, his eyes fixated on the ceiling. "Or bait."

"Yes. Obviously bait. Everything Felix touched is bait, poison, or both. That does not make it irrelevant."

"It makes it dangerous."

"So are you, and yet here we are."

Arik stared at him.

"That was not romantic," Liam added.

"If you kiss me now, it can be."

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