Liam did not ask for the details.
He did not need them. That was enough: Felix, the seal breaking, the poison moving through open ether channels, and the emperor realizing a moment too late that the trap had not been in one object but in the whole arrangement.
"He watched?" Liam asked quietly.
"Long enough to know it worked."
Liam whispered something vicious into Arik's shirt.
Arik did not ask him to repeat it.
"Then he left," Arik said. "And after that, Goliath's body became a prison. Every use of ether hurt. Breathing hurt. Existing hurt."
Liam's hand opened over Arik's chest and pressed there, right above his heart.
"That is why you hate being trapped," he said.
"Yes," Arik said, his voice barely audible. "And still, I did it to you."
Liam's fingers curled once against him. "Do not make me comfort you for being correct."
"I would not dare."
"You absolutely would."
"Not tonight."
A silence passed between them, bruised but warmer than before.
