Marin moved at once.

Not because Arik ordered him.

Because Liam’s breath hitched.

"Examination bed," Marin said sharply, already crossing the room. "Now. And if you freeze my office, Your Highness, I will sedate you after I stabilize him."

Arik carried Liam to the bed.

"I can walk," Liam said faintly.

"No," Arik replied.

Marin pointed at Liam without looking away from the diagnostic cabinet. "For once, I agree with the terrifying alpha. Do not walk. Do not argue. Do not make the bleeding worse simply to preserve your dignity."

"My dignity is structurally important." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Then keep it seated."

Arik set Liam down with such care that it made the earlier violence feel impossible. One hand stayed at Liam’s back. The other hovered near his face, not touching the blood again but clearly wanting to.

Marin pressed two fingers to Liam’s throat, then activated a diagnostic scan with his other hand.

"What happened?"

"Felix," Arik said.

Marin’s expression hardened. "Poison?"

"Pheromone-based. Ether-linked residue trap in the room. Triggered when I held him."

Marin’s eyes cut briefly to Arik. "And you transported Liam through a spatial fold while he had active channel irritation?"

Arik’s jaw tightened.

"I blocked it with my pheromones."

Marin looked at the scan.

Then at Liam.

Then back at Arik.

"Annoyingly," he said, "that may be the only reason he is still conscious."

Liam gave a weak, tired blink. "I dislike that answer."

"So do I," Marin said. "But we are all suffering today."

Arik did not react.

His eyes stayed on the thin red line beneath Liam’s nose.

Marin saw that too and snapped his fingers once in front of Arik’s face.

"Your Highness. Eyes on me. If you lose control while I am treating him, you become the second patient, and I have only had one cup of tea."

Arik’s golden eyes lifted.

For a moment, the room held its breath.

Then Liam, still pale and bleeding, reached out and caught two fingers in the front of Arik’s shirt.

"Arik."

The frosted ether stopped spreading.

Arik looked down at him instantly.

Liam inhaled slowly through the lingering shield of Arik’s pheromones and said, with great effort, "Do not bully the doctor before he fixes me."

Marin exhaled once.

"Excellent," he said, reaching for a vial. "Conscious, coherent, and spiteful. Prognosis improved."

Arik’s expression did not change.

That was how Liam knew something had gone wrong.

The gold in Arik’s eyes cooled into something sharper, brighter, and infinitely less human. For one breath, his hand remained at Liam’s back, steady and warm, almost gentle.

Then the bond between them opened.

Liam felt it the moment Arik reached through it, a controlled, deliberate pressure sliding beneath the surface of his composure and finding what he had been hiding behind dry remarks, clenched teeth, and sheer, offended dignity.

Pain, deep and jagged, threading through his chest and throat, burning along his ether channels like fine glass dragged under the skin.

Arik went utterly still.

The room froze with him.

The thin layer of frost that had stopped at the leg of the examination bed surged forward again, racing across the polished floor in a white-blue web.

Marin looked down.

Then up.

"Your Highness."

Arik did not look at him.

His gaze was fixed on Liam, bright enough to hurt.

"You said you were fine."

Liam swallowed.

That also hurt.

"I said many things under pressure."

"You lied."

Liam’s brows drew together, irritation cutting through the pain with enough force to make his voice sharper than his lungs could comfortably support.

"Well, you didn’t tell me about you being the REBORN SOUL of GOLIATH!"

The last words came out far louder than intended.

That was a mistake.

A spectacular one.

Pain tore through his chest and throat, bright and vicious, and Liam immediately regretted every life choice that had led to yelling while poisoned.

He folded forward with a choked sound, one hand clutching at Arik’s ruined shirt.

Arik’s expression shattered.

"Liam."

"Cut out the marital discord until I treat you," Marin said, his voice low and utterly unimpressed as he charged an autoinjector with the efficiency of a seasoned soldier preparing a battlefield intervention. "Ancient imperial soul revelations can wait until the patient stops bleeding from the face."

Arik did not look away from Liam. "He is in pain."

"Yes," Marin said. "That is why I am holding medicine and not a glass of wine."

Liam tried to breathe.

It came out wrong.

Arik’s pheromones surged around him again, scorching dusty heat and caramel ozone, wrapping tight enough to hold the poison back but not tight enough to crush. His hand slid to the back of Liam’s neck, steadying him with terrifying care.

Marin stepped in at once.

"Arm," he ordered.

Liam lifted it halfway.

Arik helped without being asked.

Marin pressed the autoinjector against the inside of Liam’s elbow.

"This is derived from the Hadeon protocol," he said quickly, more for Arik than for Liam. "Damian survived something similar twenty-five years ago. This will bind the residue before it settles into the ether circulation."

Liam blinked through the haze. "That was... a lot of words."

"If you hear them, you are still alive."

The injector hissed.

The antidote hit Liam’s channels like liquid fire.

His body locked.

His head bowed back, crimson eyes filled with tears of pain, Liam screamed, his hands clenching on anything in reach.

Arik caught him instantly, one arm around his shoulders, the other braced at his back, holding him with such careful force that Liam could feel every place Arik wanted to tighten his grip and did not dare.

Through the open bond, the pain struck Arik too.

It was a violent, tearing sensation, like a fire meant to put out rot. Liam’s grip on Arik’s shirt was tight enough to rip the expensive fabric, and his knuckles were stark white.

Arik did not flinch.

He absorbed the pulse of the agony through their open bond, letting the pain wash over his own senses. If anything, he pulled more of it toward himself, deliberately widening his ether channels to siphon away whatever fraction of the suffering he could carry so Liam wouldn’t have to bear it alone.

"Breathe," Arik ordered, his voice a low, rough rumble pressed directly against Liam’s temple. "It is burning it out. Let it."

Marin watched the diagnostic scanner, his face illuminated by the harsh blue light of the holographic display. "Heart rate is spiking, but the channel integrity is holding. The residue is neutralizing."

Liam couldn’t hear Marin.

He could only hear the roaring in his ears and feel the immovable alpha holding him together. The liquid fire ripped through his chest one final, agonizing time, and then...

It broke.

The invisible wire wrapped around his lungs snapped.

Liam gasped, a deep, shuddering intake of clean air that tasted only of Arik’s scent. His body went entirely limp, the tension snapping out of his muscles so fast he would have hit the floor if Arik hadn’t been holding him.

Arik shifted immediately.

He gathered Liam securely against his chest and rested his chin on the top of Liam’s head. He didn’t speak. He just breathed, his chest rising and falling in heavy, measured rhythms, forcing Liam’s erratic heartbeat to sync with his own.

Marin exhaled a long, slow breath and tapped the scanner off.

"The poison is neutralized," Marin said, his professional composure returning. He reached for a clean cloth and handed it toward Arik. "He will need rest, fluids, and absolutely no stress for the next forty-eight hours. Which means," Marin added, his eyes flicking pointedly between the two of them, "I strongly advise against discussing ancient history, past lives, or anything that involves the phrase reborn soul."

Arik took the cloth with his free hand, carefully wiping the streak of blood from Liam’s chin.

Liam kept his eyes closed, his face buried in the crook of Arik’s neck. He was exhausted, his throat felt like it had been scrubbed with sand, and his dignity was currently in tatters.