CHAPTER 272: CHAPTER 272: MISJUDGEMENT

Mia set her phone face-down on the coffee table like it was a live explosive. "You’ve officially lost your mind. He’s going to kill me if he finds out I let this happen."

Lucas was still sprawled against the cushions, fry box balanced on his chest like a crown jewel. He flicked a look at her, green eyes glinting with amusement. "Relax. He won’t kill you. At worst he’ll loom and terrify you into promising never to lie again."

"That’s worse!" Mia hissed, tugging at her sleeves. "You didn’t see his face when he asked last time... he already suspects I know something."

"Good," Lucas said simply, stealing another fry. "That means you’ve got leverage."

Mia blinked. "Leverage? Against Dax?"

Lucas leaned forward, tapping her phone with a grease-stained finger. "Tell him what Chris gave you. The general area. Nothing more. Let him think you’re trying your best to help, that you’re just a dutiful little sister poking at old Palatine gossip. That will keep him busy digging while we..." He lifted his phone, the Glass Crackers group still glowing on the screen. "...have our fun."

Mia gaped. "Fun? Lucas, this is..."

"...treason? Maybe. Delicious, isn’t it?" He smirked, eyes glinting with the thrill of it. "Besides, it’s not like you’re lying. You do know the general area, and you’re giving it to him. It’s enough to keep him occupied without handing him the knife to put at your brother’s throat."

Mia groaned, dragging her hands down her face. "You make it sound so simple."

"It is simple," Lucas said, leaning back again, voice smooth with lazy arrogance. "Feed the alpha crumbs, keep him gnawing on them, and meanwhile we sharpen Chris into something Saha won’t see coming. By the time Dax realizes, he won’t know whether to strangle us or send flowers."

Mia peeked at him through her fingers. "You’re insane."

Lucas grinned, sharp as glass. "Insane, maybe. But Dax still has to pay for what he’s done."

Mia dropped her head back against the cushions with a groan. "Why do I always end up in the middle of vendettas?"

Lucas tipped the fry box toward her like an offering. "Because you’re useful."

"Comforting," she muttered, snatching one anyway. "So your plan is: I throw Dax a breadcrumb, he chases it, and meanwhile you and the queen mothers of chaos turn my brother into a Sahan-proof consort?"

Lucas’s grin widened, wicked and unrepentant. "Exactly."

"You’re all going to get me killed."

"No," Lucas said, his tone suddenly quieter, sharper under the surface. "Not killed. You’ll be fine. Because Dax’s eyes are on Trevor right now, whether he admits it or not. Windstone told me the corruption Benedict laced through Palatine’s clergy is just as deep in Saha. If Dax starts pulling on that thread, he’ll have corpses piling at his feet before he remembers to glare at you."

Mia froze, fry halfway to her mouth. "You’re saying Trevor’s purges reach all the way there?

Lucas leaned back, expression cool, almost detached. "Dax’s priests are already rotting. It won’t take much to break them. That’s what Trevor’s working on downstairs, tearing Alan and his little friends apart, one confession at a time. And when Dax realizes the infection’s in his own house..." His smile sharpened, cruel in its precision. "He’ll be too busy to tighten Chris’s leash."

Mia let out a shaky laugh. "You’re terrifying."

Lucas tossed the empty fry box onto the table, green eyes gleaming. "No, Mia. I’m practical. Dax had his fun with me once, circling Trevor like he could pry me loose. Now he can choke on his own game. And if we give Chris the tools to stand his ground in the process..." He shrugged, lazy and lethal all at once. "That’s not treason. That’s balance."

Mia stared at him, caught between exasperation and reluctant admiration. "Balance, huh? Funny how your balance always comes with blood on the floor."

Lucas smirked. "That’s how you know it works. Now, draft that message."

Mia’s hand hovered over the phone like it might bite her. "Draft that message, he says," she muttered. "Like it’s just a grocery list and not an invitation for Dax to incinerate me with his eyeballs."

Lucas stretched out, draping an arm over the back of the couch as though he owned both it and the tension strangling the room. "Please. If he incinerates anyone, it’ll be the priests rotting under his nose. You’ll just get... mildly scorched."

"That’s not reassuring," Mia snapped, but her thumb was already waking the screen.

Lucas leaned closer, voice low, velvet wrapped around glass. "Tell him what you know. A clinic. A town. Far enough from home to avoid suspicion. Don’t oversell it. Dax respects crumbs more than he respects miracles."

Mia grimaced, tapping the keyboard with stiff, careful fingers. "And when he digs and finds more than I gave him?"

"Then he’ll think you’re smarter than you are," Lucas said with a wicked smile. "Congratulations, you get promoted from terrified little sister to useful little sister. And useful people survive."

She shot him a glare, but the words still went out, a neat line of text that glowed on the screen before she could second-guess it.

’There was only one clinic far enough from home for Chris not to be noticed. I don’t know the name, just the town. Maybe start there.’

Her breath caught when the double check mark lit blue almost instantly.

Lucas’s smirk deepened. "See? Already busy. He’ll have half his kingdom tearing through archives by nightfall."

Mia slumped back, phone clutched to her chest. "And meanwhile?"

"Meanwhile," Lucas said, picking up his phone and flicking back to the Glass Crackers chat, "we sharpen your brother’s teeth until even Dax cuts himself on them."

Mia gave him a long look, a fry dangling forgotten between her fingers. "And here I thought Duke Trevor was the scary one. That’s what all the staff said, anyway. Now I’m starting to think we misjudged you."

Lucas’s grin curved slow and sharp, green eyes glinting. "Oh, Trevor is the scary one. Don’t mistake that. But me?" He leaned back, tapping his phone lazily against his knee. "I’m the one who points him at the right throat."

Mia blinked, then let out a short, incredulous laugh. "So you’re telling me he’s the storm and you’re the compass."

"Exactly." Lucas’s tone was smooth, almost amused. "And between us, storms don’t get mild just because they’re married. They just get more precise."

Mia shook her head, muttering under her breath, "Gods help us... you two together are worse than the rumors."

Lucas’s smile thinned into something merciless. "Good."