Chapter 82: The Hug of Doom

Chapter 82: The Hug of Doom
The doors burst open, interrupting the little gathering, and the guys turned to look.

“X!” Syre happily said.

Xavier made a face, holding an armload of stuff against his chest as he stood in the doorway. “Why’re you so happy to see me? Anyway, I’m not interested. Have any of you seen Aurelia?”

Fayed, who, for some reason unknown to Xavier, was tightly holding an exasperated Vlad, stepped aside.

And, like magic, his movement revealed Aurelia, who had been completely hidden behind him.

“What on earth? What are you doing here?” he asked, hurrying toward her.

“Hello, Xavier,” she politely greeted.

“There’s no time!” he responded. “Come, we’ll go to my castle. We must discuss your acquisition of those items.”

She blinked. “Really? Why?”

“Why else?” He smirked. “I’m going to help you get them. I know!” He sighed. “You’re grateful. So grateful, you could cry, and now you acknowledge that, without me, you would be lost. But there’s no time for tears, let’s go.”

“My beautiful but dumb brother,” Zen gently said. “We’ve already discussed that.”

Xavier blinked. “What? You guys?”

“Yeah,” Syre said. “We’re going to help Aurelia get the items on the King’s list.”

Her eyes glittered, an enchanting smile curving her pink lips. “You want to join us, Xavier?”

His expression was flat with displeasure. “Join?” He scoffed. “I wanted to help you myself.”

Syre looked hurt. “Why? You don’t want to work together?”

Xavier rolled his eyes. “As if any of you want to work with me.”

“You’re right,” Zen flatly said. ‘We don’t. That’s why we’ve gone on countless missions together for the past four centuries, and fought for each other’s lives like the death of one is the death of all, you absolute bonehead.”

Xavier’s face was glum with a nearly petulant frown. Aurelia could’ve even sworn she’d spotted a pout at one moment.
“Whatever,” he grumbled. Sensing a stare heavier than the others, he turned to Vlad with a scowl. “What are you staring at?”

“Oh, please,” Zen pleaded. “Don’t start one of those barbaric ego battles, I’ll rip my own ears off.”

Syre inched toward Xavier as he and Vlad stared at each other. “X. Did you think we wouldn’t want to work with you anymore? You think that’s why Seth suspended you?”

Aurelia winced, biting her bottom lip at Syre’s accuracy. When you were brothers for centuries, there was probably no way to lie to each other. They knew each other too well.

Xavier glanced at Syre, whose precious face and glossy red eyes stared up at him with all the innocence in the world. Feeling guilty suddenly, he cleared his throat. “No, Syre, that’s… that’s not…”

Silence slipped into the circle— the brothers surprised by Xavier’s sudden vulnerability and Xavier, horrified to have his feelings exposed.

Silently, Fayed’s arms slipped away from Vlad, and he stepped over to Xavier. Xavier blinked cluelessly at him… and then he was trapped! The muscle belt of Fayed’s arms snapped around him.

“Hey!” X complained. “Get off of me, Fayed! I’m not joking! Get— ouch, Fayed, please…”

The arms were immovable, wrapping Xavier against him.

“Tell us,” Fayed instructed.

“Well done, Fayed,” Zen said, nodding.

One of the items X held dropped to the floor in the struggle and Aurelia picked it up. It was an old paper scroll.

“Fine, I’m sorry!” Xavier was yelling.

“For what?” Zen interrogated. “For getting yourself suspended when we need you most, or for thinking we don’t need you?”

“Both!” Xavier spat, rolling his eyes. “You tell Fayed to let me go right now.”

“No, I hope he crushes you until your brain bursts, since you don’t use it to think.”

Syre sighed. “Why would you think that? Of course, we want you around; of course, we need you. We love you.”

X gagged. “Stop the torture!”

“What is wrong with you?” Syre complained. “Even Vlad accepts my affection. You need help.”

“I need you to release me,” Xavier muttered, glancing awkwardly away. “I’m fine.”

Ethan scoffed. “You’re such an overthinker, you know that?”

“You’ve probably been feeling so lonely,” added Syre. “But Maria said you won’t give any of your old party mates access to your castle any longer.”

“Yeah,” added Ethan. “It’s the second time this week that I’ve seen two women stomp furiously away from your place. What’s going on, man?”

“Nothing,” Xavier murmured. “Mind your own business.”

“You are our business,” declared Syre, hugging Xavier. “Here’s a friendly kiss.”

“Help!!”

Fayed burst out laughing at Xavier’s scream.

“He ducked,” said Zen, grinning. “Kiss him again, Syre!”

“Here comes the love and adoration,” announced Syre, puckering his lips and moving slowly toward Xavier’s cheek.

Aurelia could hold back the giggle when X screamed again, horrified by the onslaught of affection. He and Vlad were so similar, she thought. Was that why they fought so much?

Thinking of Vlad, she glanced at him. Aurelia froze.

Her smile slowly faded, her eyes filling with wonder as she stared at him. Now free of Fayed’s hold, he stood happily to the side, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched Xavier face his own torture.

But that wasn’t what shocked Aurelia. What stunned her was the look on his face. She couldn’t see his eyes, but there on his mind-numbing pair of lips was the faintest hint of a smile.

She stared, entranced.

To her horror, he turned and caught her looking. Aurelia snatched her gaze away and quickly yanked open the scroll Xavier had dropped.
Clearing her throat, she started reading the writings.

Wait, no. She wasn’t reading it at all, because it was written in some foreign tongue.

Frowning, she looked at the drawing at the center. Some red, glowing gem set up on a tall rock at the center of a bubbling pool of lava deep inside a volcano.

Oh, goodness. Hopefully, none of the items on her list were in such places.
Her heartbeat faltered as something came to mind. Quickly, Aurelia turned to the desk Seth had been sitting on, and she picked up the list he’d left there.

She read it again. Unease curled into her stomach.

The… Blood Crystal of Nox?

Surely, not.

“Guys?”

The men stopped. Like different members of the same body controlled by a single brain, they all turned to look at her.

Aurelia looked up from the list, trying not to panic as she showed them the scroll. “Is this… the Blood Crystal of Nox?”