DIVISION 52 - BOOK I

CHAPTER LVIII

– S C O R P I O N –

I could do nothing as the very man I had to end strode through the parting crowds. There were too many eyes in the room. Too many bodies, too many guards on the wrong side. I silently clenched my teeth as he lavishly walked the marble floor with an unconcealed smile. The kind a viper showed before its fangs sank into your neck.

"My darling daughter. Finally we have a moment to reconvene." He said practically dripping irony.

The shiver that passed Makayla was almost unnoticeable and I almost drew a vanta glass blade on him there and then. But I still held face.

"Father." She swallowed. "Please. You remember the foreign relations affiliate Miss Kelsey?"

His cold, dark eyes did not leave hers as a thousand unsaid things raged beyond the black pools.

"I do, a pleasure." He returned curtly still staring her down.

I took the moment and cut in. "Emperor Xavier, such a pleasure to see you again. A shame on such unfortunate circumstances." I finished boldly.

His eyes cut to me quickly. The immediate threat suddenly dragged away from her.

"Whatever do you mean by that?" He offered nothing on his face but promise of a career end with the wrong words said. Fortunately I didn't give a single shit.

"Well our continent does not give time to rebels and criminal factions the way Merridian indulges them. It's practically humanitarian." I uttered, trying to incapsulate the pompous woman and backhand him in the same move.

It worked. His demeanour entirely shifted to that of a man with too much power. His smile turned more dark and he appraised me closely. Too closely.

"Yes I suppose so, Miss Kelsey. What was it you gave time to when your people revolted last decade in a military coup?"

I could see Makayla shifting uncomfortably beside me but still not daring to jump in. Not with the knowledge she had now. What needed to be done. But I'd done my homework on the woman's home ground.

"We executed all affiliates and bribed the leaders of the group." I said with a bored look. Acting like the leadership didn't disgust me through and through from the pair of them.

The Emperor only grew more amused.

"Yes a leader must rule with an iron first. Wouldn't you agree?" He drew slightly closer to me and I fought the urge to palm a dagger. "A leader must know when to use all the pieces at their disposal." The look on his face chilled me in a way it shouldn't have. In a way that said I was steps behind even behind the face of one of the pigs in power.

He drew in inches closer and I held my ground and my gaze, only a foot apart.

"Did you really think I would let you walk out of my tower a second time, Scorpion?" He whispered to me. Making the world fall away around me. Everything sounded far away.

He watched me with a cool look that told me he really was ahead of the game. That he had always known. Makayla couldn't move either. Our standoff lasted seconds as we took each other in. But the Emperor was never more at ease. He called over a waiter with a hand flick and took a glass slowly watching us.

He took a long sip and set it back down.

"I won't kill you here." He said with a false smile as a familiar face dropped him a bow and continued to chat in the crowds so close to us. The man did everything to save face after all.

"You will walk with me to the top of those stairs and you will do so with smiles." He told us, stepping back slowly and patting down the side of his black suit.