Chapter 224

An hour later, Alexander sat across from Maximilian and King in the private room deeper in the palace.

None of them spoke. Three Divines in a private room, bound by something none of them understood, with too much to say and no safe place to begin.

The meeting in the council chamber had gone on for some time after King’s promise to return the city. Annie had briefed the room on the attack that, of the people present, only she and Titanic had witnessed. Twelve portals that looked identical to System gateways, if smaller. Dozens of operatives in red and black armor carrying suppression technology nobody recognized. Equipment that dissolved after the fight, consuming the bodies of the dead along with it.

Whoever had sent them had built self-destruction into every piece of gear their people carried.

And into their people.

Their stated objective had been the Nakamura twins. Both brothers grabbed and dragged through the portals before anyone could intervene. But the team leader had also named Talia and Raelene as secondary targets, saying that capturing them would draw the Machine God and the Dragon Lord into pursuit.

Someone knew exactly who mattered to them, and had planned to use it against them.

Alexander was silent throughout. He wanted to find and kill whoever had targeted his friends. Instead, he merely listened while everyone else shared their thoughts.

Because nobody in the room had recognized the descriptions of the armor or the technology. The System-style gateways should have been impossible for anyone outside the System itself to replicate.

Alexander had summoned Gabriel to the meeting. The precog’s eyes had gone black for a while before he frowned and shook his head. He hadn’t known they were coming, and he couldn’t find a single moment in the future where they’d encounter the attackers again.

A complete blind spot. That bothered Alexander more than the attack itself. He didn’t like feeling powerless. Didn’t like not knowing who his enemies were, or when or how they might strike.

Something Grimnir would need to fix. Somehow. The world was changing fast. Powers were becoming more common every day.

Hyper-advanced technology and potential access to System gateways were, for once, genuinely just bonus reasons.

He couldn’t allow anyone to take aim at his people and walk away unscathed. Not with the world now watching Grimnir’s every move.

With nothing else immediate to resolve, the others had departed to join the rescue efforts across the city. Elimination of the infected was going well, but thousands of people still needed help getting to the habitable domes.

The three Divines had remained behind.

Alexander had told Titanic to wait outside. Up close, the man was even larger than he’d realized, and he’d had to crane his neck to deliver the instruction. Titanic had grunted and ducked through the doorway, pulling the door shut behind him.

A knock at the door broke the silence.

Alexander had been tracking their approach for the past few minutes, two bioelectric signatures following Khalida’s aide through the palace corridors. The aide had turned and departed a moment before Titanic’s heavy-handedness rattled the frame.

Alexander flicked a finger and the door swung open.

Valerie stepped through first. The Queen of Hearts looked tired, though she hid it well. Her gaze swept the room before settling on King with a brief nod.

Jasmine followed, briefcase in hand. She gave Alexander a look that conveyed there would be questions later. As with every other time he’d thrown her into the deep end, Jasmine had earned her right to ask.

Titanic pulled the door shut behind them.

Valerie took a seat by King. Her focus turned to Maximilian. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance in person, Mr. de Castillo.”

She leaned forward, hand extended. Maximilian shook it, briefly, then they both leaned back.

“Maximilian is fine, Lady Sinclair.”

Valerie smiled. “Then you must call me Valerie, darling.” She turned to Alexander after Maximilian nodded. “King’s message said you were not very forthcoming about the purpose of this meeting. I hope you plan to share now that you’ve dragged me away from my station, dear.”

Alexander met her gaze, expression controlled. He held out a hand to where Jasmine stood by the side of his armchair.

She clicked open her briefcase, withdrew a binder, and handed it over.

Alexander flicked through it quickly, double-checking that everything looked right. Then he tossed it onto the empty table between them.

“Sign it.”

Valerie glanced at King, then raised an eyebrow before reaching out and picking it up. Recognition flashed across her face. “Alex, we haven’t had time to discuss this in any detail. The Joint Preparatory Leadership Body is a promising idea. Terrible name though, dear. But we are not yet certain we wish to commit resources to it.”

Alexander studied the King and Queen of the Royals. They had been one of the most infamous and most wanted supervillain guilds of the last half a decade, even though they’d positioned themselves to be basically untouchable.

While they were without a doubt individually powerful and dangerous, their true strength lay in careful machinations and… capital. Debts they could call on. Favors owed. His own cousin, Spencer, had made that perfectly clear to him.

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And the Lost Prophet had proven that Tier 3s were not necessarily as out of reach as he’d thought.

“I know you well enough by now to know you’ve read it.” He glanced at King. “And while I don’t know you yet, I suspect you have, as well.”

King nodded. “I have.”

He didn’t say anything else. Just watched Alexander with calm patience that seemed a very natural aspect of the unusually plain man with the power to carry an entire city away to another world.

“Of course we have, darling.” Valerie smiled. “We still need time to discuss it amongst ourselves and prepare for the negotiations—”

“No.” Alexander shook his head. “We aren’t negotiating. The agreement is as fair as it can be to all of us, given how very different our philosophies and goals are.”

“All five guilds other than the Royals have already signed,” Maximilian added. “They did so knowing Grimnir had signed on, and that there was a possibility of the Royals joining, so there are no issues on that end.”

Valerie’s eyes narrowed. Her chin dipped lower. “You are being quite demanding, Alexander. This isn’t how allies treat with each other.”

Alexander offered a sad smile. “I know.” Then his expression hardened. King had already seen the threads. That meant ignorance was no longer protection. “But we are really pressed for time, and if you do not sign the Compact, King will not leave here alive.”

An absolute, stifling silence fell over the room. Jasmine stepped back.

King’s expression didn’t change.

Maximilian stiffened. He hadn’t known what was coming, but he didn’t take his eyes off the Royals. Didn’t object. A barrier snapped into existence around the room, sealing them in.

Valerie’s eyes widened, and her posture shifted, coiling.

“How dare you,” she hissed.

Then her Will burst free, almost drowning the room in powerful emotional intent. It felt like undiluted anger. Wrathful. And definitely Tier 3.

But Alexander’s own Will was ready. As was Maximilian’s. And it wasn’t even remotely a contest. The anger faltered, crushed beneath two Wills that carried the same goal.

He didn’t press the advantage, just filling their half of the room and shielding Jasmine, who had fallen to a knee, face pale. Maximilian followed his lead.

A flicker of doubt flashed across Valerie’s face, gone so fast that even with Hyperawareness Alexander almost missed it.

She glanced at King. Then back at Alexander. “You can’t possibly believe you can kill all three of us.”

Alexander shook his head. “I have no intention of doing that. Just him.”

“Why?!”

King raised his hand and patted Valerie on the shoulder. Her head snapped around. For once, the Queen of Hearts wore no mask.

“It’s fine, Val.”

“It really fucking isn’t, Damien, and I wish you would actually get a little mad right now instead of acting like everything is always going to be okay.”

King smiled, eyes crinkling, wrinkles across the forehead deepening. “Hard to be mad when the lad is just being honest about the situation. He’s just like Spence. Blood always tells. Their family deals in hard truths.”

Valerie’s Will popped. She slumped back on the sofa, eyes closed, and sighed. “Explain. Please.” Her eyes opened, and she turned to Alexander. “Because I thought there was a real alliance between Grimnir and the Royals. Your cousin, damn him, said that everything would work out.”

Damien chuckled. “You’ve always trusted Spence’s promises a little too much. He’s quite often wrong about things, though I don’t believe he is this time.” He took a slow breath. “I assume this has something to do with the two of you returning from the desert carrying far more of these strange threads than when I last saw you.”

Alexander nodded. “Yes.”

“But you are not willing to even discuss it until we have agreed to align ourselves with your Compact?”

“Correct,” Maximilian said.

“And it’s of such a serious nature that you would break your own word and take any opportunity to kill me before I figure it out on my own and…” Damien blinked. Thoughtful. “Kill you first, perhaps?”

Alexander shared a look with Maximilian. “Yes.”

Damien huffed. “Very well, then. Let’s sign the agreement.”

Valerie looked surprised. “What?”

“You were always going to. If you weren’t always so difficult about winning something every time you sat across from someone, it would already be signed.” Damien looked at her with lidded eyes. “Or am I mistaken?”

Valerie blushed. It was subtle, but the woman looked genuinely embarrassed.

“No,” she muttered.

Damien took the binder and flicked through the pages in silence, reading quickly but signing as he went.

Valerie glared at Alexander the entire time. “This was unnecessary theatrics, Mr. Rooke.”

Alexander offered the same small smile. “I’m sorry, Valerie, but it wasn’t. I meant every word. It’s that serious.” He exhaled. “I respect the Royals and our alliance. I really do. But the idea of dancing around the issue while trying to convince you to sign was distasteful. And I know you would have sensed something was off, which would have led us here anyway because we would have refused to share the truth with you.”

Damien closed the binder with a snap. “So you cut to the heart of it and made the stakes clear.” He held the signed agreement out to Jasmine, who took it and began reviewing it. “I respect the play. Val will too after she calms down. She appreciates a good bluff, though only after some distance.”

Valerie crossed her arms. “It seems a flimsy protection. If what you’re going to share is so bad, what reason is there for our agreement to hold afterwards?”

“Because our guilds have something in common,” Alexander said. “We want to maintain society even when the cataclysm begins. Law and order and all that good stuff.” He shrugged. “With some caveats.”

“Everything is in order, sir,” Jasmine said. She still looked a little pale, but she wore her court face well.

Alexander turned to her. “Thank you, Jasmine. And sorry for dragging you into this. You can head back now.”

Jasmine took a breath and nodded to the Royals and Maximilian. “Good day.” Then she turned and headed for the exit.

Maximilian’s barrier dropped. She opened the door and stepped through.

Titanic must have sensed something, because he ducked low and looked into the room.

Damien waved him off. “Everything’s fine. Close the door, please.”

Titanic closed it without a grunt.

“So,” Valerie said. “What’s this great secret that almost had us trying to kill each other? Something I still haven’t forgiven you for, I would like to add. As a formal complaint.”

Alexander almost smiled, but held it in. The Queen of Hearts didn’t look like she was joking, even though he was fairly certain she was. He just wasn’t willing to tempt fate.

Alexander glanced at Maximilian, who nodded. Sharing it with Valerie didn’t really matter, not when the two of them already knew they would share it with their own people eventually.

The circle of trust needed to remain small, but they couldn’t keep the King of Diamonds from sharing it when they were done.

Alexander settled comfortably into his armchair. “Killing a Divine seems to transfer some threads to the killer. We don’t know what they really represent yet, but we’re certain they have something to do with achieving Divinity.”

He sighed. “But the real problem is that you also get something called a Fragment of Divinity. A piece of their core superpower.”

Alexander would normally have enjoyed the looks of shock on Valerie’s and Damien’s faces.

He didn’t today.