The night air outside the Moon Palace tasted like steel and storm.
Lucas stood at the outer watchtower, eyes scanning the black forest where the winds whispered of something ancient moving in the dark. Cassius joined him moments later, wordless, his armor still half-buckled from a rushed call to arms.
Neither acknowledged the other.
Not at first.
But then, the horn blew once.
A threat was coming.
And the only thing between it and Athena… was them.
"She's not to leave the tower," Lucas said coolly, not bothering to look at Cassius.
"She won't," Cassius replied, equally cold. "Not if I'm breathing."
Lucas scoffed under his breath. "Barely, with the way Markus nearly crushed your ribs."
Cassius turned, sharp-eyed. "You've got a hell of a way of saying thank you."
"I didn't ask you to be here."
"No," Cassius said with a dark smile. "But she did."
Silence. Thick and sharp.
Their eyes locked.
The words unsaid were louder than the ones spoken.
