“Another cockroach,” Og growled, grabbing the metal dart lodged in his forehead and pulling it out with a sharp tug. He threw it to the ground at his feet. “Are there no limit to you?”
“Generally speaking, no,” Noah replied, biting down the delighted laughter that fought to burst free from his chest. Jalen’s presence at his side had significantly reduced the amount of magical pressure bearing down on him. It was still oppressive, but he could breathe again. “That’s how cockroaches work, you doorknob. They multiply.”
“Let’s just kill them,” Audren said through a yawn. “The more time we waste talking—”
“You’re welcome to try,” Jalen drawled. He rolled a dart across his knuckles. “But I don’t think any of you are strong enough to kill me without causing a bit of a scene. And Vivian isn’t goin to be all too pleased when she realized when she gets here to find a Truthseeker sneaking into her tournament and slumming with the Apostles. That feels like the kind of thing that might be actionable. And trust me. When it comes to walking the line of what’s permitted, I’m an expert. This is a step over.”
“There are four of us,” Crone said with a sneering laugh. “And two of you. I’d say we can kill you both well before you cause any real trouble for us. After all… nobody knows you’re here.”
“I think you’d be surprised to find just how much noise I can cause,” Noah said. He cracked his neck. “I survived the Night’s Shadow. You lot aren’t even in the top five of the strongest people I’ve pissed off. But please, try me. See if you fare any better than the monster that literally destroyed the entirety of Arbalest… other than me.”
“Hey,” Jalen said. “I am standing right here.”
“And him,” Noah said with a nod. “Jalen’s here too.”
“Surviving is far from defeating,” Audren said. “But right now, all we’re doing is wasting time.”
Og’s lips thinned. He watched Noah and Jalen through narrowed eyes. That brought Noah more amusement than anything else the demon could have done. Og was scared of him. It wasn’t the kind of fear that made someone run away screaming — but there was grudging respect for Noah’s abilities in his eyes. Perhaps he was regretting his choice to not kill him back when they’d met in Arbalest.
Tough luck, fucker.
“Stay your hands,” Kyyle said stiffly. His eyes smoldered with displeasure. “This little wretch isn’t lying. I knew something was up with you when we last met, but I’ve finally figured it out. And it’s a clever trick. It really is. But it won’t work.”
Er… what?
“Have you, now?” Noah asked.
“Oh, quite easily,” Kyyle said. “I just needed all the information. I know who your ex-wife is, you little shit. And I know about your cloning ability after that shit you pulled during our first meeting. It’s not hard to see what you’re trying to do here. This isn’t your real body. It won’t matter to you if we destroy it… but if we do, that means we damage Vivian’s property. And doing that means she has a legitimate reason to kick us out of the tournament. But we haven’t actually done anything against the Rules yet. Og is the only one that’s done anything off hand, and we were just planning on speaking with him to gather intelligence before reporting what we found back to Vivian.”
A second of silence dragged by.
Noah stared at Kyyle. Jalen stared at Noah. Crone and Audren stared at Og.
Og stared at all of them.
“What?” Noah asked.
“That’s right,” Kyyle said, his lips curling into a sneer. “The only one in Vivian’s way right now is you, Spider. This was the information we needed to figure out what the Truthseekers were doing. And you interfered. That means all of Vivian’s wrath is going to be directly focused on your head. So, no. We have no plans of killing or fighting you at all. The only enemy here is Og. Right?”
Noah blinked slowly.
He… thinks my fake ex wife is fucking Vivian? Vivian, of all people?
Crone looked from Noah to Kyyle. There was more unease in his eyes than those of anyone else in the room. He definitely hadn’t forgotten what Noah had shown him when they’d taken a quick trip into his soul. Then, slowly, he turned to look at Og.
The demon stared back at them.
Noah was pretty sure every single person in the room was more than aware that Kyyle was full of shit. But his story had just enough legitimacy in it that there was the smallest chance that the other Faction Heads might have actually bought it.
Og let out a cold snort. “You were planning on betraying me?”
“I suppose the cat’s out of the bag now,” Kyyle said. He turned toward Og, baring his teeth. “We have no choice but to play our hand early. Everything we’ve been preparing to catch you has been ruined.”
“How displeasurable,” Og said flatly. His eyes bore into Noah, not even flicking to the Apostle once. “I don’t believe I can handle all of you at the same time. And even if I could… there’s nothing to be gained. All you’ve done is waste my time.”
Noah’s eye twitched.
Obviously not. Come on. Seriously? This is such a load of crap. They’re all horrible actors.
Og reached back, dragging a finger through the air behind him and slicing a crackling red portal of Chaos magic into being at his back. Then he stepped into the portal, letting it swallow him whole. It snapped shut behind him with a hiss, leaving Noah and Jalen in the room with the Apostles.
There were several moments of silence.
Then Kyyle crossed his arms in front of his chest and his eyebrow. “Your move. Feel free to report this to Vivian. I’m certain she’ll take very kindly to her incompetent ex-husband’s involvement in the complete ruination of our plan to entrap the Truthseekers.”
Jalen choked on his own saliva. He coughed violently into his fist. It took everything Noah had to keep from doubling over in laughter. Kyyle sounded very, very confident in his realization. The Apostle’s voice was literally dripping in smugness.
Noah almost didn’t want to burst his bubble.
And then an idea struck him. He nearly grinned. But, instead, Noah forced concern to spread across his features. He raised his hands before himself. “You know, Kyyle, nobody has to go speak to Vivian about this at all. I think we were all fighting for the same thing. Making sure the Truthseekers don’t get to pull off whatever bullshit they were aiming for.”
“I know we were,” Kyyle said through a smirk. “I can’t say the same for you.”
“I’m sure you’d have a great time explaining that to her,” Noah said. He lowered his hands. “Think about it. Both of us would be equally as fucked if this got to her. Sure, you haven’t broken the tournament rules, but I don’t think you really want her sticking her nose in here… do you? This might be the kind of thing that’s just best left entirely alone. We both turn around and pretend it never happened. How do you feel about that?”
Kyyle tilted his head to the side in thought, as if this offer wasn’t exactly what he’d been hoping that Noah would give him. He stood for a moment in silence. Then he inclined his head.
“It does seem like it would be a bit of a hassle. And now that you’ve ruined what we were working on, there’s hardly a reason to waste Vivian’s time with it. Just don’t expect any more help from us now. If Vivian wants to know why the Apostles aren’t trying to keep the peace… feel free to explain it to her yourself.”
Right. The Apostles keeping the peace. I’m sure that would happen.
“Good enough for me,” Noah said. He sent a glance at Jalen. “Let’s get out of here. I trust you can follow me?”
“Easily,” Jalen replied with a shrug. He banished the dart from his knuckles, a small frown crossing his lips. “I’d really been hoping for a fight, though. What a let-down. You lot sure you don’t want to throw down? It’s been torture, watching the tournament go down without being able to participate.”
“We’re quite good,” Kyyle said. “Get out of our damn room.”
Noah grunted, putting as much annoyance into it as he could muster. Then he drew on the Line and stepped forward. He vanished, leaving the room behind as he found himself standing in the hallway just outside it. A shimmer of green traced through the air beside him a moment later. Jalen stepped out through it, amusement etched into his features.
The two of them stood there for a moment. Then Jalen held his arms out. “What, no hug? I thought you missed me.”
Noah burst into laughter. Then he stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Jalen and giving the other man a firm clasp on the back.
“It’s good to see you, you crazed bastard,” Noah said. “I was wondering what you got up to.”
“Not nearly as much as you, apparently,” Jalen replied with a shake of his head. “I was almost starting to think that you ran off on me without fulfilling our promised game nights. But I have to ask… you were bumping uglies with Vivian? I hope Moxie knows.”
“I most certainly was not,” Noah replied, stepping back from Jalen and shuddering. “I have no idea how Kyyle managed to get that idea into his head. Well, I have a bit of one. But it wasn’t intentional.”
“Ah,” Jalen said. He sounded slightly relieved. “That’s good. But I’m thinking I maybe should have shown up about one minute later. We got nothing out of that whole thing.”
“Are you kidding?” Noah asked. His grin grew wider. “We got exactly what we wanted. There’s no way the Truthseekers actually call off whatever it was they were planning with the Apostles.”
“Obviously,” Jalen agreed. “They were just feeding us a bit. And doing it very poorly, I might add.”
“Right,” Noah said. “But Kyyle thinks he’s got us cornered and that we won’t go tell Vivian about what we saw, meaning he’s going to just keep plugging along with his plans.”
“You want the Truthseekers to pull this off?” Jalen asked, raising an eyebrow. “That doesn’t seem like a very wise decision. They don’t tend to be the friendliest sort from what I’ve found.”
“Of course I don’t,” Noah said. He grinned. “But they don’t know that. And that means they’ll be assuming that Vivian is completely blind to what they’re up to. Just because we don’t have proof that the Faction Heads will accept about the Apostles doesn’t mean we can’t literally just bring all of this to them anyway and let them prepare for it in the first place.”
Jalen blinked. He tilted his head to the side, as if Noah’s suggestion was something so alien that he couldn’t quite comprehend it. “You mean… you want to let the Faction Heads actually try to do their job and preemptively deal with a threat before it comes around? Without involving ourselves further? No funky plan? No deeper manipulation?”
“Yes,” Noah said with a sage nod. “That sounds exactly right. The only part of this fight that I have any game in is Garina’s location. I still need to figure out where she is. I owe her that much. But, until then… let’s go find my supposed ex-wife and tell her everything that Kyyle thinks I won’t, shall we?”