With him so close she could feel herself getting both nervous and excited. What was it about him? “It’s too early to tell.” Another lie, she’d used everyone elses fear of him to her advantage on a number of occasions now, and every time it had worked. At the time she’d only thought it a triumph, but now reflecting back on it, she was starting to think that perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea, her smug grin faltering a little. Pushing herself flush against the edge of the bath she didn’t like being cornered, it put her on the defensive and things never ended well around him when she did.
Her teeth clenched together as he dragged out the ‘when’, clearly he didn’t think that would be overthrown. The downside to stealing power, was you had to constantly fight to keep it. They’d never be able to let their guard down, and if they did, it would be the end of the human tyrants. “Maybe not at first, but they will.” If there was one thing she could count on, it was her own stubbornness, she wouldn’t stop until they did. They had to, right? No matter what she did now, they would see it as trying to survive… she still clung to that idea, however foolish it might be. Her grin returned ever so slowly as she closed the distance between their faces, her lips hovering just in front of his. “That’s where you’re wrong Gaius, I will be the one standing over you.” A threat, a promise, a fantasy.
Those last words stung more than she would have liked, and more than she’d care to give credit. She did keep coming back to him, no matter how stubborn she was and how much she willed herself to stay away, she always wound up in front of one of his doors. Pressing a hand to the centre of his chest she pushed him back, not hard, but hard enough to move him out of her space. “You should go.” Like she had any real power here, like this was her bath in her room and she was simply asking him to leave. She was done talking about ‘whta ifs’ and 'maybes’, while it gave her some degree of hope for the future, it was pointless because somewhere deep down she did believe that this was her life now. She’d already surrendered to it now she just had to surrender to him and stop denying it.
“With how long I have claimed you, it is most certainly not,” he replied. Gaius was very sure she was not being honest with him. “I’ll find out how well it has been going for you. I’m certain one of the other slaves will be happy to tell me.” His entire job for a decade had been to pull information from the unwilling and he had no issue with doing it again. He would find out just how much Nyx was using him to smooth her own life. Whether or not he allowed it to continue would be determined by what she was using him for. Would she tell him herself or simply wait for another slave to be put under his knives? He really didn’t care either way, but if she chose the second option, he would make very sure that the slave knew exactly who had sent them to him.
“Do you ever wonder about those who were in power before us? Where did they come from?” In a few generations, if his family held onto power, they would simply become normal. It would be a ‘we have always been here’ rather than a ‘we are the fresh conquerors’. Slaves and humans would become used to them. That was what they needed, but until then Gaius had no problem keeping his eyes out for those who would overthrow his family. He still remembered seeing his family’s old villa for the first time, seeing it filled with half breeds. His family’s history was in this land even if it was not directly in this castle. During the war, watching over his shoulder had been normal and now that continued. Very little had changed for him and he couldn’t help but laugh at that fact.
As she closed the distance, his grin grew and he pressed his lips to hers, teeth biting at her lower lip as his hands slid down her shoulders. Whether she would admit it out loud or not, the whole castle knew she was his. From what she was saying, she had even used his name and that only solidified it more. Without a fight, he let her put distance between them. “We should go,” he whispered to her, hand snaking around to grasp her wrist, fully intending to drag her out of the water with him. She was going to this dinner, even if he had to knock her out and carry her over his shoulder, she would be there. “Don’t worry,” he chuckled, “I’ll make sure you’re presentable for the king.”