Chapter 47 – The Shape of a Target
Elias had always known the moment would come.
Not the exact time or the exact method but the inevitability of it. Power never tolerated proximity without consequence. And standing beside Damien Blackwood, openly, deliberately, had shifted him from influence to threat.
Targets were easier to destroy than kings.
The first sign wasn't dramatic.
It was silence.
His phone stopped buzzing. Messages went unread. Meetings he'd scheduled weeks in advance vanished from calendars without explanation. People didn't confront him they withdrew. Quietly. Carefully.
As if proximity alone could contaminate them.
"They're freezing you out," Damien said that evening, watching Elias scan through a list of unanswered emails.
Elias didn't look up. "They're mapping me."
Damien's jaw tightened. "They're trying to isolate you."
"They already have."
Damien crossed the room in three long strides. "Not from me."
Elias finally looked at him.
"That's exactly the problem," he said softly.
The summons arrived the next morning.
Not from Marcus.
From the Ethics Oversight Committee.
Independent in name only.
Elias read the letter once. Then again. Then folded it carefully, placing it on the desk like a loaded weapon.
"They want testimony," Damien said, reading over his shoulder. "Under oath."
"They want leverage," Elias replied.
"They want blood," Damien corrected.
Elias leaned back in the chair, fingers steepled. "If I don't go, it confirms guilt. If I do"
"They twist everything you say."
"Yes."
Damien paced. "I can shut this down."
"No," Elias said immediately.
Damien stopped. "This isn't a debate."
"It is if you want me to survive it."
Damien turned sharply. "Survive?"
Elias stood. "If you intervene now, they escalate. They'll make me look like a puppet you're desperately protecting."
"And if I don't?"
"They'll try to break me," Elias said calmly. "Instead of us."
Damien stared at him. "You're asking me to let them hurt you."
"I'm asking you to trust me," Elias replied. "The way I trust you."
That landed.
Hard.
Damien exhaled slowly. "You won't face them alone."
"I already am," Elias said. "But I won't face them unprepared."
The hearing room was colder than necessary.
Not physically but emotionally. Every surface polished. Every face blank. Neutrality weaponized into hostility.
Elias took his seat without hesitation.
Questions came fast. Clinical. Dissecting his role, his proximity, his influence.
"Do you deny advising Mr. Blackwood on high-level strategic decisions?"
"No."
"Do you acknowledge that such advice carried significant impact?"
"Yes."
"Were you compensated?"
"Yes."
Murmurs rippled.
"And do you believe your relationship with Mr. Blackwood compromised your objectivity?"
Elias paused.
This was the moment they'd built toward.
"I believe," he said evenly, "that my objectivity is the reason he trusted me."
"That's not an answer."
"It is," Elias replied. "Just not one you like."
The chairwoman leaned forward. "Do you have a personal relationship with Mr. Blackwood?"
Silence fell.
Elias felt it the pull to deflect, to redirect, to lie strategically.
He didn't.
"Yes," he said.
The room reacted instantly.
"And did that relationship influence corporate decisions?"
Elias met her gaze. "Every relationship influences decision-making. The question is whether it compromises judgment."
"And did it?"
"No."
"Why should we believe you?"
Elias leaned forward. "Because if I wanted power, I would have taken it quietly. Instead, I stood where you could see me."
Damien watched the feed in silence.
Every muscle in his body coiled tight.
Elias didn't fidget. Didn't hesitate. Didn't fracture.
But Damien saw what the cameras didn't.
The strain. The controlled breathing. The subtle tension in his shoulders.
They weren't trying to expose Elias.
They were trying to exhaust him.
"This is punishment," Damien muttered.
"They're seeing if he bleeds," his legal counsel replied.
Damien's voice dropped. "And if he does?"
"Then they'll call it proof."
Damien's hand tightened around the glass he was holding.
It cracked.
The attack came after.
Not in the hearing.
In the narrative.
A leaked report. Carefully edited. Stripped of context. Headlines screamed insinuation without accusation.
"Advisor Turned Architect?"
"Who Really Runs Blackwood Holdings?"
Elias read them in silence.
"They're rewriting me," he said.
Damien threw the tablet across the room.
"I warned them," he said quietly.
Elias looked at him. "This is what I meant."
Damien turned. "I don't care."
"That's the problem," Elias said. "You care too much."
Damien stalked toward him. "And you don't care enough about your own safety."
Elias didn't move. "I care about ours."
That stopped Damien cold.
"You think I don't?" Damien asked.
"I think," Elias said gently, "you'd burn everything if it meant I stayed untouched."
Damien's voice broke. Just barely. "Wouldn't you?"
Elias swallowed.
"Yes," he admitted. "And that's why one of us has to stay rational."
That night, the closeness between them was unbearable.
Not sexual.
Intimate in a way that left no space to hide.
They stood inches apart in the dim bedroom, neither reaching for the other.
"If this continues," Damien said, "I'll lose control."
Elias nodded. "That's what they want."
"I don't care what they want."
"You will," Elias replied, "when it costs more than you expected."
Damien's voice dropped. "Are you asking me to choose them over you?"
"I'm asking you to choose the version of us that survives," Elias said.
Damien's jaw clenched. "I don't know how to love halfway."
Elias stepped closer. Close enough to feel Damien's breath.
"Neither do I," he said. "That's why this hurts."
Damien reached out, gripping Elias's wrist
not possessive, but grounding.
"They don't get you," Damien said. "They don't get to define you."
Elias looked at him. "Then stand when they push me."
"I already am."
"Not behind me," Elias corrected. "Beside me."
Damien released a slow breath.
"Then we walk into this together," he said.
"No shields," Elias added.
"No retreat," Damien agreed.
The city didn't sleep that night.
Neither did they.
By morning, the lines were drawn.
Elias wasn't just a target anymore.
He was a symbol.
And Damien Blackwood had just made it clear
He would rather dismantle the system than let it take Elias from him.