CHAPTER 122: CHAPTER 122: TELL ME I’M WRONG

On the other end came a short, incredulous laugh that curdled into a curse. "Touching? Eli, that man doesn’t touch; he steamrolls. I bet he plastered that mark on you the second he thought you wouldn’t bite his hand off for it. No patience, no finesse, just... mine, done. Typical Victor."

Elias pinched the bridge of his nose, mouth twitching despite himself. "...You’re not wrong."

"Of course I’m not wrong." She sounded half triumphant, half furious. "He doesn’t know the meaning of restraint. And you..." her voice cracked sharper, protective to the bone, "you let him, didn’t you? Don’t even try to lie. You accepted it. You’re carrying around that mark like it’s just an alpha’s bite on an omega, a trial run. Test the waters first, right?"

The words hit harder than he liked because they were true. His silence stretched too long, and that was all the answer she needed.

"Oh, Eli." Ruo groaned, the kind of exasperated sound that used to follow him forgetting to eat for two days straight. "You’re impossible. You’ll flirt with danger, trip over the edge, and then pretend you didn’t mean to fall. Gods, you make me older just listening to you."

He huffed, dry amusement softening the tightness in his chest. "Older? You’re only two years ahead."

"Emotionally? Try a decade," she snapped back, but her voice warmed, the chaos threaded with genuine affection. "Listen to me: I don’t care if he says soulmate, and I don’t care if he looks at you like you hung the stars. You stay sharp. You don’t give him everything. Not yet."

Elias leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes, and let the silence hum between them. For all her dramatics, for all her venom toward Victor, he knew she liked him, more than she’d ever admit. It was written in the way her voice shook when she called him a bulldozer, the way she wanted Elias safe but couldn’t quite spit Victor’s name without fondness threading through the hate.

He let the quiet stretch another beat before breaking it. "Where are you, Ruo? And don’t say ’somewhere safe’; y

ou’ve never been safe a day in your life."

There was a rustle on the other end, like fabric brushing stone, and then her sigh. "Things happened. Complicated things. Let’s just say I didn’t exactly pick my landing spot." A pause, then her voice dipped, quieter but still edged. "Theobald’s here. And he’s... changing."

Elias’s eyes snapped open. "Theobald, as in Anna’s husband?"

"Do you know any other Theobalds?" Ruo shot back, exasperated. "Yes, that one. And he’s not just Anna’s husband anymore, Eli. He’s the most likely to break through. If anyone’s going to claw their way into godhood next, it’s him. Which makes your family even more dangerous than usual. You’re standing next to the last ascended god in three centuries? That paints a target bright enough to blind half the continent."

Elias pressed two fingers to his temple, the irony not lost on him. "So, let me get this straight. Matteo was after me for Victor’s ether. Victor says I’m his soulmate. And Theobald, who once tried to fix a toaster by sticking a fork in it, is on track to ascend?"

"That’s about the shape of it," Ruo said dryly. "Family lottery’s in full swing. The prize is survival, and the rules are rigged."

Elias dragged a hand down his face, the chair creaking as he slouched deeper into it. "What the hell is going on, Ruo?" The question came out half to her, half to himself, raw with disbelief. "Why now? Why are dissidents popping out of every shadow? What’s the game?"

Ruo didn’t hesitate. "The game is Theobald." Her voice was sharp, cutting through the static like a knife. "He’s behind it. The riots, the whispers, the bodies that won’t stay buried, it’s all him trying to build a following. If he can draw people away from Victor, he gets worshippers. Worshippers make gods. And Victor loses strength."

Elias let out a bark of laughter, brittle as glass. "Victor. Weak? That’s rich."

"Duh." Ruo’s tone went from biting to grim, almost pitying. "Theobald thinks he’s clever, but Victor isn’t just some half-starved deity limping along on scraps. He absorbed seven gods, Eli. Seven. That makes him untouchable. Invincible. The kind of monster you don’t fight head-on if you value your bones staying inside your skin."

Elias stared at the mark burning faintly on his neck, jaw tightening. "Yeah, the one that marked me and insists I’m his soulmate. He’d be glued to my hip every damn day if not for that little distraction called NumenCorp."

Ruo let out a sharp laugh, low and humorless. "NumenCorp? Eli, that’s the mask. He does the job, sure, sits in the chair, and signs the papers, but the whole damn entity is still his from marrow to skin. Numen isn’t a company; it’s a cult with quarterly reports. Putting his name on the letterhead is enough. Numen is enough."

Elias pinched the bridge of his nose, the irony making his mouth twist. "So the immortal bulldozer of a man runs both my personal life and an empire that masquerades as a corporation. Perfect."

"Don’t sound so surprised." Her voice softened, though only slightly. "He doesn’t need to be at your hip every second. His reach is already everywhere. You’re marked, Eli."

She went quiet after that, the kind of pause that made Elias straighten in his chair. He could hear her hesitation in the static, the way she weighed words before dropping them.

"Say it." He pushed himself up from the desk, pacing to the balcony. The glass reflected his faint outline back at him as he braced against the frame, watching the security below in their slow, mechanical rounds. "If you’re going to spit it out, then spit it out."

"Well..." Ruo’s voice thinned, like she was trying to decide if she’d regret speaking. "I thought about something."

"Yes?" His tone was flat and clipped, though his grip tightened unconsciously on the railing.

"What if Victor considers you his soulmate," she said at last, each word careful, heavy, "because you aren’t just compatible with him... but with all the gods that make him?"

Elias’s stomach turned, though his face gave nothing away. The mark on his neck pulsed faintly, almost in echo, and for a heartbeat the thought lodged like a shard of glass. Compatible not with a man, but with the seven that burned inside him.

He exhaled once through his teeth, sharp and deliberate. "So what you’re saying is, I’ve somehow been promoted from bad taste in men to universal adapter for deities."

"Exactly," Ruo snapped, not giving him room to turn it into a joke. "Do you even hear yourself? Compatible with all of them. Do you know what that means, Eli? Victor isn’t just calling you his soulmate because of some star-crossed bullshit. You’re the one person who can stand in the middle of everything he is without burning alive. That’s why he won’t let go. That’s why he marked you before you even had a chance to breathe."

Elias let his head tip forward until his forehead rested briefly against the cool glass, eyes fixed on the blur of security lights below. "You make it sound like I should be flattered."

"You should be terrified," Ruo shot back, chaotic exasperation spilling over. "Seven gods, Eli. Seven. And you’re telling me he’s decided you’re the perfect socket for that kind of power? Gods, you’re insane for even standing next to him without running."

"Running doesn’t seem like much of an option," Elias said dryly. His thumb ghosted over the mark at his neck, heat thrumming under the skin like a second pulse. "Besides, he’d only catch me."

"Yeah, and break the legs he caught you with, just to keep you still," Ruo muttered, half venom, half protective fear. "Tell me I’m wrong."