CHAPTER 146: CHAPTER 146: FOR FUCK’S SAKE

"I feel it," Ashwin muttered, already pushing off the sofa, his usual laziness stripped in an instant. His boots hit the floor, stance widening as if bracing for impact. "Ether’s rattling."

The hum deepened, a low thrum threading through the glass of the windows, rattling the pen Elias had left on the desk until it rolled toward the edge. His pulse picked up with it, each beat syncing too neatly with the vibration in the air.

Elias shoved to his feet, the blanket falling in a heap behind him. "What is that?" His voice came sharper than he intended, forced through a chest that already felt too tight.

Ashwin’s eyes narrowed, his gaze turned outward as though he could pierce the horizon through the walls. "That," he said, voice clipped, "is someone trying to ascend."

"Shouldn’t we do something about it?" Elias asked, watching the pulsating rhythm of the windows. He was a recessive; he shouldn’t be able to feel it. "What if it’s Theobald?"

"Oh, for sure it is Theobald." Ashwin pulled out his phone to check for Victor’s orders.

Ashwin’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile, not quite a frown. "Well, there’s your answer." He angled the phone so Elias could see the text, the glow of the single line cutting sharp in the dim.

Let him.

Elias’s breath caught, his pulse skipping hard in his throat. "Let him? Victor wants to let him ascend?" The word felt wrong, foreign, like something that should never have been allowed to happen. "Why the hell would he..."

"Because it’s Victor," Ashwin interrupted, slipping the phone back into his pocket. His tone was flat, but his eyes gleamed with something sharper. "If he says let him, it’s because the fall will be better than the climb."

The ether shuddered again, rattling through the floor this time, crawling up Elias’s legs and setting his teeth on edge. He pressed a hand against the desk to steady himself, breath uneven. "Feels like it’s tearing everything apart."

"Ascension always does," Ashwin said simply, shrugging back into the sofa with the kind of forced ease that told Elias he was alert under every muscle. "The difference is whether the world bends for you or breaks you in half."

Elias swallowed hard, eyes catching the pen that had finally rolled off the desk to clatter against the floor. His chest felt too tight, too aware. "And you’re just sitting there."

Ashwin leaned back, tilting his head against the cushion. "Because Victor said let him. And trust me, if your mate wanted Theobald stopped, the sky itself wouldn’t be enough to get in the way."

"You know something I don’t," Elias said, suspicion narrowing his eyes. The air still thrummed, each pulse of ether crawling over his skin like static.

Ashwin didn’t flinch. He never did. He lounged there with his arms draped carelessly along the sofa’s back, but his gaze was sharp enough to cut. "I know a lot of things," he admitted, voice low, almost bored. Then his chin tipped toward the window, where the faint shimmer of ether trembled against the glass. "But this... this I’m guessing."

Elias’s throat tightened. "Guessing what?"

"That if Theobald actually claws his way high enough, Victor will kill the sixth god."

The words dropped heavy blunt, filling the room like smoke.

Elias blinked, his breath stuttering out before he could stop it. "Kill..." His voice cracked against the disbelief. "You’re saying he’d destroy an ascending god?"

Ashwin’s smile sharpened, humorless, dangerous in its ease. "Why not? Gods don’t tolerate rivals, and Victor doesn’t tolerate threats. Put those two truths together, and the math is simple."

Elias’s stomach turned cold, his fingers curling tight into the armrest. "That’s not math, that’s... that’s insanity."

Ashwin’s gaze flicked back to him, steady, unreadable. "You picked a god as a mate, Clarke. Did you think sanity was part of the package?"

"I shouldn’t ask." Elias exhaled a long sigh, took his place, and sent a message to the manor’s staff. He wanted snacks and something to drink. He wasn’t against gods killing each other, but... he realized that he didn’t want Victor to be hurt. "For fuck’s sake. I fell for him."

Ashwin let out a bark of laughter, sudden and sharp, like Elias had just delivered the punchline to the best joke of the year. "Congratulations," he drawled, folding his arms across his chest. "You’ve joined the club of mortals who realize too late that gods aren’t safe bedfellows."

Elias shot him a flat look, but the heat rising under his skin betrayed him. He dragged a hand over his face, muffling a groan into his palm before letting it drop uselessly against the chair’s armrest. "I wasn’t supposed to fall for him. Survive him, maybe. Argue with him until I die, sure. But not this."

The ether rattled again, faint, like distant thunder, and it only sharpened the edge of his voice. "And now he’s out there smiling like he’s already decided who lives and who doesn’t, and I..." His throat closed around the rest.

Ashwin’s grin eased into something smaller and more dangerous, like a knife sheathed but still visible. "You don’t want him hurt."

Elias didn’t answer. Couldn’t. His chest felt too tight, his fingers restless against the chair. He hated how true it was, how heavily it sat in his lungs.

Ashwin tipped his head, studying him the way a hawk studies a mouse deciding whether to run. "Falling for him isn’t the problem. Pretending you haven’t? That’s what’ll get you killed."

Elias let out a short, bitter laugh. "You’re full of optimism today."

"Always," Ashwin said easily, though his eyes lingered on Elias’s face a moment longer than his smirk justified.

"He would be insufferable about it." Elias’s voice softened, as though the words slipped out before he could catch them. He rubbed his thumb against the armrest, restless. "If he knew. If I told him."

Ashwin’s grin returned, sharper this time. "Oh, I hate to break it to you, Clarke, but he knows. Victor doesn’t walk into a room without cataloguing every heartbeat. You think he doesn’t hear it every time you almost laugh at his dramatics, or every time you glare like you’d rather strangle him than kiss him?"

Elias’s jaw tightened. "That’s not proof."

"It’s enough for him," Ashwin countered. He leaned back, folding his arms behind his head as if the rattling ether outside was just background noise. "And if you’re worried about him being insufferable... well, yes. He will be. He’ll hold it over you for eternity."

Elias groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "For fuck’s sake."

"Exactly." Ashwin’s tone was maddeningly smug. "Welcome to the rest of your life, Clarke."