The Reborn Sovereign of Ruin, Bound by His Star

Cain did not answer immediately.

There were moments when agreement became confession, and Cain had inherited enough from Felix to recognize them before stepping into the noose.

The communication officer remained bowed over her terminal, fingers suspended above the keys. The two security aides near the inner doors had turned into statues dressed in black. Even the financial clerk, who had no business understanding anything beyond numbers, had gone pale with the sickened intuition of a man realizing he was present for history before it became official.

Felix looked at them one by one, ensuring that they all understood that their Grand Duke was plotting to assassinate the king and blame it on the Agaron delegation.

Felix returned to his chair and placed one hand over the back of it and looked at the projection still glowing above his desk.

Agaron imperial household confirms no objection to the Crown Prince’s private marital arrangements. Further commentary deemed unnecessary.

His purple eyes read the last line one more time.

Further commentary deemed unnecessary.

Gabriel Lyon had written that sentence like the brilliant man he was. Polite, but irritating to everyone against him.

Felix had known many omegas who mistook cleverness for power. Gabriel was not one of them. That made him inconvenient. Dangerous, even. The sort of creature who knew that restraint wasn’t mercy, but timing.

Felix hated him with a purity that almost soothed.

And Damian... Damian Lyon would be easier for Wrohan to hate.

That was the useful part.

No one wanted to believe an empire was moved by an omega with a soft voice and a surgical mind. Nations preferred simpler nightmares. A brutal emperor. A conquering army. A foreign crown prince with golden eyes and soldiers who stood like executioners pretending to be guards.

Agaron did not need to be guilty.

It merely needed to be large enough to blame.

Cain finally spoke. "If George dies now, suspicion will move too quickly."

Felix’s gaze shifted to him.

"He refused your audience," Cain continued. "That would give Arik and his family a motive to blame us. They would invoke a rift between the Grand Duchy of Canmore and the royal House of Wrohan."

Felix sat down in his chair with more elegance than his older frame would make one believe.

Even his cane was mostly only for decoration.

Mostly.

That was the insult of age, Felix thought.

Not weakness itself. Weakness could be accounted for, hidden, compensated around, or punished if necessary. The insult was that the body began negotiating without permission. A stiffness in the hand after too many hours. A brief ache at the base of the spine when standing too quickly. The faint betrayal of breath when the room had grown too cold.

Small things.

Insignificant things.

Things Goliath had looked at as if he could see every one of them.

Felix placed the cane beside his chair with delicate care.

"That’s why we are going to use the friendship between Rex and Arik."

Cain’s gaze sharpened immediately.

Felix rarely explained a political angle twice unless he intended it to be remembered perfectly.

"George is often quarreling with Rex only for sport," Felix continued. "He wanted Ray recognized as his and appointed crown prince. George believed that would give him better control over our family."

His mouth curved faintly.

"Idiotic, naturally."

The communication officer continued typing with the rigid precision of someone trying not to exist loudly enough to attract attention.

Felix let out a slow breath, his pale purple gaze sweeping over the people in the room who had already become decorative to him.

"Armstrong’s made the information public," he said. "Now the nobility cannot ignore it anymore. Especially not our allies."

The word ’allies’ sounded almost offensive in his mouth.

"Greedy houses are predictable," Felix continued. "They follow gravity. And right now the gravity around the throne has changed."

Cain folded his arms loosely behind his back.

"Rex’s legitimacy."

"Yes."

"Or rather," Cain corrected calmly, "the perception of it."

Felix smiled slightly.

"There is my son." His words were cold, but there was approval, and Cain knew how rare it was to get that from his father.

"Rex is legitimate by law," Cain continued. "But law is only useful when the public mood supports it."

"Yes."

"And Ray—"

"—is George’s embarrassment and Felix Canmore’s son," Felix finished softly. "A dangerous combination during unstable periods."

The office fell quiet again.

Felix rose from the chair slowly this time, one hand resting briefly on the desk before he straightened fully.

The movement was elegant enough that most people would not notice the fraction of extra stillness afterward.

Cain noticed.

Felix ignored it.

"The people loved Felix Canmore long before they loved George," he said calmly. "And they love myths more than paperwork. Especially in Wrohan."

His eyes drifted toward the city beyond the glass.

Blue etherlights burned beneath the haze like veins beneath thin skin.

"Who do you think the public prefers?" Felix asked softly. "The son of George and his queen? A woman so politically invisible that most citizens forget the color of her eyes?"

No one answered.

No one was foolish enough to interrupt rhetorical cruelty.

"Or Ray?" Felix continued. "The son of George and the great Felix Canmore. The child linked to the saint of Wrohan himself. The scandalous heir hidden for years beneath palace lies."

Cain’s expression remained unreadable.

But he understood now.

Felix saw the pieces settle together behind his eyes.

Rex mattered because George loved provoking him.

George had spent years using Rex as a toy for frustration: denying him authority, undermining him publicly, and dangling Ray’s recognition whenever he wanted obedience from one side or panic from the other.

Sport, as Felix said.

However, Rex’s friendship with Arik complicated the shape of it, because George now believed Agaron strengthened Rex.

And that meant George would instinctively move against him.

Felix slowly smiled.

"He will begin trying to reclaim control," he murmured.

Cain nodded once. "By opposing Rex more openly."

"Yes."

"And if Rex advises caution regarding Agaron..."

"George will do the opposite merely to remind himself he is king."

The communication officer’s typing slowed slightly.

Felix noticed.

"Is something unclear?" he asked pleasantly.

The woman nearly went rigid. "No, my lord."

"Good."