Chapter 23: Disobeying the Emperor
A Short While Ago...
"I have no idea what it is about his daughter that has caught your attention, but I know you very well, Mikhail. It’s hard to change your mind once you’ve become fixated on something. But I’m telling you, don’t mess with her. Lucius Dawson is far too dangerous to provoke."
Mikhail clicked his tongue in annoyance as he remembered the emperor’s warning before they left. Things were becoming far more complicated than he had originally anticipated.
Reaching up, he unbuttoned his formal jacket, shrugged it off his shoulders, and tossed it onto a nearby chair before thinking better of it. With an irritated sigh, he picked it up again, crossed the room, and opened the wardrobe. After hanging the jacket neatly inside, he pulled out a black shirt and slipped it over his head. Straightening the collar, he turned back toward his brother, who was sprawled comfortably across the king-sized bed on the opposite side of their private dorm room, one leg hanging off the edge as he tapped away on his phone. At times like this, Mikhail wished he could be as carefree as Nikolai.
A weary sigh escape him.
The sound was enough to make Nikolai look up from his phone with a raised eyebrow.
"Don’t tell me you’re still hung up on what Father said," he said, his thumb still idling over his screen. "We just have to take down the video Eden put up and stop drawing any further attention to her. Once we stop giving her any more attention, her newfound popularity will eventually die down. There’s no way Father would be this worked up if it weren’t serious."
"Bloody coward," Mikhail grumbled, folding the sleeves of his shirt up to his forearms. "Don’t tell me you’re giving up already when we haven’t even started," he said, his tone flat.
Nikolai sat up, staring at him in disbelief.
"And don’t tell me you’re planning to go against father’s order, Khail. Didn’t you hear a word he said? The man practically threatened us."
Mikhail crossed his arms, leaning back against the wardrobe. "Do you know me as someone who gives up easily once I’ve set my mind on something? Not once have I ever thought that breaking the curse would be an easy task, but I’ll still find a way to do it, even if I have to provoke some mighty entity to make it happen."
Nikolai rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a long, heavy breath. "You’re still convinced that girl holds the key to breaking it?"
"She’s not holding it. She is the key," Mikhail answered without a second of hesitation.
"And it seems her father might know something as well. Father seems to think this Lucius guy helped us, but what if he didn’t exactly help us? What if he was helping himself instead, and we were simply beneficiaries of it?"
Nikolai narrowed his eyes. That possibility had never even crossed his mind, but the skepticism in his expression remained intact.
"Aren’t you overthinking this?"
"Am I?" Mikhail countered. "Then tell me, what exactly did he gain from helping us break a barrier that had separated two races since the beginning of time? Doing something like that would have had enormous repercussions for him, yet he did it anyway without demanding anything in return. If that isn’t suspicious, then I don’t know what is."
Nikolai fell silent as some of the certainty slipped from his expression. He frowned slightly, turning the idea over in his head, but in the end he still wasn’t convinced. In fact, he simply hated where this conversation was heading. More than anything, he wished his brother would just drop this entire obsession with that Starlight girl and listen to their father for once.
"Or maybe he was just helping," Nikolai said with a shrug, though there was less confidence in his voice. "Not every body has some grand hidden agenda, brother."
Mikhail snorted. "You don’t even believe that yourself." He pushed away from the wardrobe and shook his head. "A man doesn’t alter the course of history on a whim, Nikolai. And let’s say you’re right. Let’s say he really did help for the sake of helping. Then he wouldn’t mind helping us again, right?"
"Nikolai..." Mikhail groaned. "Just because he helped before doesn’t mean he’s obligated to keep helping. Besides, isn’t it proper to ask for someone’s assistance instead of scheming around their family? I really don’t want us to incur a mysterious being wrath."
Mikhail stared at his brother for a moment. He knew Nikolai was only worried about him, even if he was expressing it in the most annoying way possible. Sighing in resignation, he walked over and ruffled Nikolai’s hair.
"Don’t worry, Nikolai. We just have to make sure we don’t give him a reason to hate us."
Nikolai immediately glared up at him and smoothed his hair back into place while muttering under his breath.
Mikhail only smirked.
"No need to worry, okay? We just have to move quickly and win the daughter’s heart before the father comes back from wherever he is. Hopefully, he won’t be too eager to tear us apart once his daughter falls for us."
"Who said I’m worried?" Nikolai scoffed. "It just bothers me how you’re always impossible to reason with whenever you get like this." He rubbed his forehead and groaned. "Why wasn’t I paired with a more normal twin?" he muttered.
Mikhail’s smile widened as he took a seat beside his brother on the bed. Before Nikolai could react, he hooked an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a playful headlock. "I’m sorry you’re stuck with me for life and have no choice but to support and follow all of my brilliant ideas."
Nikolai shoved him off in annoyance.
Mikhail only chuckled as his brother scooted farther away and sat up properly, creating a noticeable distance between them. "You’re right. I really don’t have a choice even if I wanted one," Nikolai grumbled. "So what’s the plan?"
"For now, we find out where she is currently," Mikhail said. "The freshman assembly should be over by now. And tell Eden to take down the video. It needs to look like we’re obeying Father."
"Aye aye, captain," Nikolai replied dryly, unlocking his phone. He swiped through a few tabs before pausing, a faint amused smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Well, thanks to her newfound popularity, her movements are constantly being updated on Asterbuzz. Seems like people are secretly taking pictures of her and uploading them every chance they get."
"That’s the price of becoming a hot trend," Nikolai said, laying flat on his back across the bed. "Everybody wants to ride the wave of that attention while it lasts."
Nikolai tapped the screen once more before raising an eyebrow. "Looks like she’s on her way to the infirmary."
Mikhail immediately bounced up from the bed and headed for the door. "Then let’s go acquaint ourselves with our lovely curse breaker."
Nikolai chuckled lightly, slipping his phone into his pocket as he followed right behind him. "Curse breaker, huh? Let’s just hope she doesn’t break us first."
Before they could make it anywhere near the infirmary, the latest update on Asterbuzz informed them that Starlight was now heading toward the dining hall. The twins had no choice but to abandon their original destination and make a complete U-turn, heading straight for the academy dining hall instead.
What they didn’t expect was the scene that greeted them when they arrived. Beatrice Ironclaw of the Perigee Clan was in the middle of launching herself at Starlight.
"What the hell is going on here?" Mikhail demanded, stopping Beatrice in her tracks.