CHAPTER 187: CHAPTER 187: NORMAL FOR ONCE

The world went white, a pulse of raw ether roaring through the lab like a storm that had lost its name. Papers and instruments rattled across tables, sparks leapt from the lighting rigs, and Connor cursed loud enough to echo.

Elias could feel that the backlash would throw him across the floor of the lab, and he braced himself for the recoil.

Victor’s arms closed around him in the instant before the surge burst outward. The alpha’s scent flooded the room, smoke and heat, sharp enough to burn through the chaos, while a shield of crimson energy expanded from his back like wings snapping open. The surge hit it head-on, splintering into harmless sparks that evaporated in the air.

Elias clung instinctively, blinking against the afterimage burning his retinas. "Victor..."

"I’ve got you," Victor said, his voice low and fierce. His crimson gaze cut through the fading haze, tracking the source. The power hadn’t come from Elias, well, not most of it. He knew Elias’s touch, his tentative pull at ether, and the thin thread of resonance between them. What had twisted through it, sharp, taunting, older than the stones under their feet, was not Elias.

The lab still hummed with aftershocks, light fixtures swaying, and the acrid tang of spent ether clinging to the air. Elias felt the vibration in his bones, but Victor’s hold around him didn’t falter, one broad hand steady at his back, crimson wards flickering like a shield around them.

Then, a voice. Low, amused, and entirely too calm for the wreckage it followed.

"Not bad," the stranger drawled. "For a first try."

Victor’s head snapped up, crimson eyes narrowing. "You."

A man leaned casually against the far table, white hair cropped neat, blue eyes bright as ice, and dark suit unrumpled as if he hadn’t just appeared in the middle of an ether surge. He smiled as though he’d been expected all along.

Uno.

"Really, Uno?" Victor’s voice was sharp but more irritated than dangerous, like a parent catching a child with a hand in the cookie jar. "You couldn’t resist, could you? One training session, and you had to stick your nose in."

Uno lifted his hands in mock innocence. "Oh come now. I barely touched him. Just a nudge." His grin widened, easy and unbothered. "Besides, if I left you to it, you’d still be explaining the difference between ’draw’ and ’shape’ by next month."

Victor’s jaw flexed, but the corners of his mouth betrayed the faintest twitch. "It’s called teaching. Something you’ve clearly never mastered."

Across the room, Connor’s eyes were about to pop out of his head. Ruo’s mouth hung open, tablet clutched so tightly her knuckles went white. Robert didn’t move, stone-faced but stiff, as if bracing for the ceiling to come down. Ashwin, pragmatic as ever, just muttered under his breath, "We’re all fucked," though his hand still hovered near his weapon like it would help.

Elias, held fast in Victor’s arms, stared at the suited man for a long beat, then dragged a hand down his face. "Am I the only one who’s going to ask the obvious?" His voice was hoarse but steady. "Why the fuck are you here?"

Uno’s smile softened into something infuriatingly pleasant, as though Elias had just offered him tea. "Because," he said lightly, "watching the Executioner play house is the best entertainment I’ve had in centuries."

Victor groaned, tipping his head back like he was praying for patience. "Normal. For once. Is that so impossible?"

Uno tilted his head, blue eyes glinting. "Where’s the fun in that?"

Elias was still pressed to Victor’s chest, Victor’s arm locked around him like a band of iron. He hadn’t tried to move, but the tension running through the alpha’s body was enough to tell him escape wasn’t an option anyway.

Uno’s blue gaze flicked to him, amused, curious, and bright as a flame catching dry paper. He shifted his weight as if about to push away from the table, one hand half-extended like he might reach.

Victor’s wards flared crimson in an instant, wings snapping wider, the pressure in the air thick enough to make Connor stumble back a step. "Don’t," Victor said flatly. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried the crack of a blade being drawn. "He’s mine."

Uno’s smile sharpened. "So quick to bare your teeth. I wasn’t going to take him." He tilted his head, white hair catching the sterile lab light. "Only to see how close you’d hold on."

Victor’s grip around Elias tightened, thumb brushing once more at the mark on his nape, a reflexive gesture of claim and calm in one. "Close enough," he said. "Closer than you’ll ever touch."

For a beat, silence. The wards hummed faintly, Uno’s grin widened, and the room felt like it was waiting for something to shatter.

Then Uno laughed, rich and unbothered, the sound rippling across the lab like it belonged there. "Executioner, you really haven’t changed. All this time, and still you bristle like a wolf over scraps."

Victor’s crimson eyes burned brighter, but his mouth twisted into something dry and dangerous. "Two times," he said, voice low. "In five hundred years. That’s how often you’ve shown your face to me. So tell me, Uno... why now? Why walk into my training room like this?"

Uno only shrugged, hands sliding back into his pockets, posture loose as if none of the wards mattered. "Because the last time I let you off the leash, you made a kingdom choke on its own prayers. I thought it wise to check in on what kind of leash your mate is tying around you."

That landed like a drop of ink in water... spreading, staining.

Elias stiffened in Victor’s arms, head tilting enough to glare at the man in the suit. "I’m not tying anything," he said sharply. "I’m just trying not to explode his lab."

Uno’s grin widened, eyes glinting with something Elias couldn’t read. "Exactly," he said softly.

Victor’s jaw locked, the crimson light around him tightening to a glare. "Normal," he repeated through his teeth. "For once. But no... you never could resist poking at what’s mine."