CHAPTER 249: CHAPTER 249: WARNING

Elias fell asleep not long after their conversation. He rested on his side facing Victor, his hand loosely curled in the fabric of Victor’s shirt, as if his body refused to release the reassurance he had finally accepted. His breathing settled into an even rhythm. The ocean’s distant tide pressed softly against the open balcony doors, steady and quiet, and the curtains moved with the breeze in slow, unhurried waves.

Victor remained awake.

He lay beside Elias without moving him, keeping his arm around Elias’s waist. The room was warm and dim with only the low glow of the bedside lamp and the faint wash of moonlight coming in from the balcony. Elias slept deeply, untroubled now, his expression calm in a way that felt rare. Victor watched him for a long moment, the rise and fall of his chest, the way his hair fell partly across his forehead.

His irritation didn’t fade, but it stayed contained, held back for Elias’s sake. Not directed at him, but at the interference that had placed them in conflict again when they had already crossed that ground months ago.

Victor leaned forward slightly and pressed a quiet kiss to Elias’s temple. Elias didn’t stir. That was enough.

His body remained lying beside Elias.

His awareness did not.

The shift of consciousness was seamless and silent, like stepping from one room into another without opening a door. Victor’s physical form stayed where it was, the warmth of it still wrapped around Elias. But his presence moved.

The world shifted into depth and weight.

Below the ocean’s surface, the water turned blue and green, and light filtered through uneven ribbons that moved with the current. Pressure wrapped around everything, thick and quiet. It wasn’t cold here; the water was warm and heavy with power.

Poseidon stood on the seafloor as though gravity meant nothing, his hair moving in the slow currents like strands of pale kelp. The ocean around him didn’t push or surge. It held still, attentive.

"You came faster than I expected," Poseidon said without turning.

Victor didn’t respond right away. He simply stepped forward, and the water moved around him without resistance, forming space where there should have been none. His posture was controlled, just like it had been beside Elias. Only here, there was no need to soften it.

Poseidon finally turned his head, his expression calm, almost thoughtful. "So, what honor do I have with the executioner being here?"

Victor’s voice was steady. "You know what you did."

"Of course I know," Poseidon answered, with the same infuriating ease he always carried. "Too bad Jonathan was useless in the end."

"You gambled that he would kill Elias while you kept me distracted and failed miserably." Victor’s crimson eyes shining in the dark of the water.

"Well, unfortunately, because he baited Jonathan into acting, my plans are ruined. Fortunately, you can’t kill me without breaking the rules."

Victor stepped closer. The pressure in the water shifted with the god’s movement. The ocean itself reacted, currents halting, sand freezing mid-drift, as though the entire seabed understood a predator had entered the territory.

Poseidon’s expression flickered.

"You made yourself very bold tonight," Victor said. His voice echoing underwater. "But I am losing patience."

Poseidon lifted his chin a fraction. "Patience was never one of your virtues."

"It is now," Victor replied. "Because Elias asked it of me."

The name alone made the ocean swell around them, reminding anyone with any sense that Elias was important. Everything revolved around him.

Poseidon exhaled through his nose, almost amused. "And yet here you are, talking to me instead of holding him."

Victor didn’t rise to the bait. He didn’t move at all.

"You used Jonathan," Victor said. "You encouraged his corruption to grow because you thought if he destabilized the weave enough, I would have no choice but to descend fully. To take my true form. To tear him apart with the kind of execution that shakes the structure of the pantheon itself."

Poseidon didn’t deny it.

"You wanted me stronger," Victor continued. "Because you are already preparing for the next war. And you know I will fight it."

Poseidon’s lips curved, slow and faint. "If you already know all this, why are you here asking questions?"

"I’m not asking," Victor said. "I’m warning you."

The water around Victor rippled from the ether. The kind that didn’t belong in the living world. The type that emerged from the unmaking side of creation.

The seafloor sand crystallized.

Poseidon’s casual posture sharpened, just noticeably.

"You risked Elias," Victor said, and the temperature in the water dropped, not colder, but still, like sound itself was being suppressed. "Not just his body. His mind. His sense of self. You pushed him toward the same fear he spent months climbing out of."

Poseidon’s tone stayed maddeningly calm. "He needed to remember what it means to love a god."

"That was not yours to teach."

"It clearly was," Poseidon said lightly, "because you wouldn’t."

Victor’s eyes darkened further, the crimson shifting toward something that didn’t reflect light at all.

"You misunderstand," Victor said. "I chose not to break him."

Poseidon’s smile faded.

"I could have taken him," Victor continued. "Completely. The day he agreed to be mine. I could have made him a vessel. I could have made him an extension of my will. I could have devoured every thought that did not include me."

The water vibrated, deep and resonant.

"But he is not mine because I consumed him," Victor said. "He is mine because he stayed."

Poseidon’s jaw tightened. "You sound like a mortal."

Victor stepped in until there was less than an arm’s length between them.

"And you," Victor said, voice quiet and lethal, "sound like someone who has forgotten I am not bound to mercy. I am bound to law. If you force my hand again, if you so much as touch the thread of his fear, I will not kill you. I will remove you. I will erase you so completely that the sea will not remember it ever held a god."

The ocean shuddered.

Poseidon didn’t move. His expression remained composed. But his silence was a concession in itself.

"...Fine," Poseidon said at last. "I won’t touch him again."

Victor didn’t thank him.

"You shouldn’t," Poseidon added, almost like a passing remark. "Thank him either. If he hadn’t stepped forward first, you would have lost control."

Victor’s eyes narrowed. "You talk too much."

"I’ve been told."

Victor withdrew his presence and the ocean released a long, quiet exhale.