CHAPTER 294: CHAPTER 294: DID I DO A GOOD JOB?

The typing bubbles that had flooded the screen just moments ago vanished in unison. The silence in the group chat was suffocating, as if even digital air had been sucked out.

Sirius: It’s a family chat. You’re not family.

Dax: The moment Christopher is in it, it’s my business.

Nothing else. No emoji, no clarification, no follow-up. Just the single line, left hanging like a guillotine above them all.

Mia: ... Hi, Dax. Your Majesty?!

The typing bubbles flickered again, hesitant, as if every cousin and sibling on the thread were weighing their next words like stepping onto thin ice.

Lucas: Well. That escalated quickly.

Lucius: You’ve lost your mind.

Sirius: He has. Entirely.

Lucas: Relax. If Dax wanted us dead, he wouldn’t announce himself with a chat bubble.

Lucius: That’s not reassuring.

Sirius: No, that’s deranged.

Lucas: Deranged? Why would I be deranged for adding my friend to the second group, which is where people that didn’t make it in the first one are?

Dax: Give me the first group.

Lucas: No.

The silence after Lucas’s flat "No" was almost worse than Dax’s arrival.

No one typed.

No one dared.

Sirius: Lucas... did you just tell a king "no"?

Mia: HE DID. I miss my simple life.

Chris: You are not the only one.

Andrew: Lucas, you can’t just...

Cressida: Oh, he can. And he did. Remarkably clean, too.

Serathine: I love my son’s drama.

Sirius: It’s suicide dressed up as a challenge. Same result.

Lucius: You are playing with fire that will not burn you alone, Lucas.

Lucas smirked faintly at the screen, thumb hovering.

Lucas: You all panic too easily. He asked. I answered. Clear boundaries are healthy, aren’t they?

Mia: Healthy? You just denied a king access to the one group where the rest of us breathe in peace!

Chris: If you call this peace, I’d hate to see your definition of war.

Andrew: Christopher, not the time.

Chris: It’s never the time, apparently.

The typing bubble pulsed again. Dax. Everyone froze.

Dax: Christopher should be where I am. That is all.

No elaboration. No demand. Just the weight of inevitability in a single line.

Mia: ... I think I’m going to pass out.

Sirius: Don’t. He’ll smell the weakness even through Wi-Fi.

Cressida: He’s not wrong.

Lucas tipped his head back against the pillows, green eyes glinting, a quiet laugh caught in his throat. He typed slowly, deliberately, the click of each letter feeling like a hammer on glass.

Lucas: Christopher is already here. Which means you already have what you wanted. No need to covet the rest.

Again, the group stilled. Even Sirius didn’t dare break it this time. The silence on the screen was almost satisfying, the perfect kind of absurdity Lucas lived for.

The screen lit his face in shifting bursts of panic, sarcasm, and clipped warnings. Everyone was scrambling to contain the fire, throwing words at the group like water at a blaze that had already taken the walls.

Lucas, meanwhile, reclined deeper into the pillows, one hand propped lazily behind his head, the other idly scrolling. His damp hair stuck to his temples, the faint warmth of the bath still clinging to his skin. The sheets smelled faintly of cedar where Trevor had leaned close before leaving.

He should have been exhausted. Instead, his chest shook with barely contained laughter.

Dax said nothing further. No "seen," no indicator, no sound. Just his presence, looming. Silent, suffocating, unreadable. And it was enough to send everyone else into chaos.

Mia: He’s not leaving. Why isn’t he leaving?

Andrew: Because he doesn’t have to. He’s watching.

Sirius: We’re basically lab rats in a cage right now. Congratulations, Lucas, you’ve doomed us.

Lucius: Lucas, you will regret this.

Cressida: Not soon, though. For now, it’s delicious.

Serathine: The boy knows what he’s doing. He always does.

Lucas smirked faintly at that, shifting the phone just enough to angle away from the brightness. He did know what he was doing. He wanted Chris and Dax boxed into the same space, forced to acknowledge one another. And judging by the silence pressing down on the chat, it was already working.

He tapped the screen once more, scrolling back through the backlog of messages, the bickering, the overreactions, and Sirius’s relentless commentary. The contrast made the present silence feel even louder.

Lucas exhaled a soft laugh, flicking the phone onto the empty side of the bed. For a moment, he lay in the quiet, listening to the faint buzz of new messages lighting up without looking.

The phone buzzed again, longer this time, insistent until he reached for the phone, a call.

Lucas blinked once at the glowing name on the screen.

Dax of Saha.

His lips curved faintly. ’Well, well.’

He slid his thumb across the screen, lifting it lazily to his ear. "Your Majesty," he drawled, voice smooth, with no rushing.

A low chuckle rumbled down the line, dark and amused. "Having fun, are you?"

Lucas tipped his head back against the pillows, green eyes glinting toward the ceiling. "Immensely. Though I didn’t expect you to join the encore this soon. Usually kings like their entrances grand."

There was a pause on the other end. Lucas could hear the faint exhale, the kind of quiet reserved for predators deciding whether to toy with their prey.

"You think you’re clever," Dax said at last, his voice calm, smooth enough to hide the danger under it. "Dragging me into your circus."

Lucas smiled wider, his tone soft but edged with mischief. "Circus? Please. This is just a family chat. I thought you could use the moment to soothe your spiky consort."

"Don’t you think this is too far?" Dax asked and Lucas could picture him with his easy, dangerous smile.

"For Chris, yes. But judging by your tone, you already have the solution to your problems."

Another pause stretched across the line, weighted and deliberate. Lucas could almost hear the smile in it, the scrape of iron hidden under silk.

"You presume much," Dax murmured at last. "About me. About Christopher."

Lucas hummed, lazy, as if he weren’t lying half-naked in bed sparring with a king. "Not presume. Observe. You wouldn’t have stayed in that chat otherwise. Silence can be louder than teeth if you know how to wield it."

A low chuckle, darker this time, rolled through the receiver. "And you think you can wield me as well?"

"Not wield," Lucas said smoothly, eyes glinting faintly in the dim light. "Nudge. Point a storm where it’s already blowing." He shifted against the pillows, green gaze sliding toward the faint glow of his phone screen. "Besides, you didn’t deny it. You do have your solution. Which means Chris has one too... whether he likes it or not."

The air on the line tightened, and Lucas knew he’d struck close to something real. Dax didn’t speak for several breaths, but when he did, the words came low, threaded with warning.

"You gamble boldly, Fitzgeralt’s spouse."

Lucas laughed softly, utterly unbothered. "You owe me pistachio pastries for this; I know you already had access to the first group. Did I do a good job keeping your omega from fleeing?"