Chapter 421: 421. She’s Trapped, and This Is The Perfect Chance To Make Her Regret It

Rex thought about this honestly.

"I’ve been doing it long enough that it has become an unconscious habit," he said. "It’s just how I move through situations."

Mireya looked at him. "Do you ever get tired of it?"

"Hell nah," Rex said.

"That’s what’s frightening about you," she said. "Not the canyon. Not the ring. The fact that you don’t get tired of it."

She paused.

"Everyone else eventually gets tired. Eventually they want to stop calculating and just be somewhere."

Rex said nothing to that.

"Nerith says nature takes your side," she said.

Rex said nothing.

"She wasn’t saying it to me in a cruel way," Mireya said. "She was saying it because she was frustrated and because she meant it."

"And it frustrated me more than everything else that was said tonight because I don’t know what to do with it." She paused. "She believes in you the way people believe in things they’ve felt rather than reasoned toward."

"And she’s not an easy person to fool."

"No," Rex said. "She isn’t."

"Aisella isn’t either," Mireya said. "And Talyra’s the most skeptical person I’ve met in two years of Academy work."

She was looking at Apollo, not at Rex. "All three of them. Completely. And it’s not performance."

"I’ve been watching people perform loyalty and trust long enough to know what it looks like." She paused. "They actually believe it."

"I know," Rex said.

"Does that mean anything to you?" she said.

Rex considered the question. "Yes," he said. "It means I’ve done my job correctly."

Mireya laughed, which was not the response Rex had expected. It was a short, tired sound that had no humor in it but was also not angry, the laugh of someone who has reached the edge of their ability to be surprised by a person and has arrived at something adjacent to acceptance.

"You’re not going to give me anything, are you?" she said.

"I just gave you the accurate answer," Rex said.

"Right," she said. "The accurate answer."

She looked at Apollo one more time.

Mireya exhaled once. "In the morning," she said. "In front of the group. I’ll say what you need me to say."

"Make it convincing," Rex said.

"It’ll be accurate," she said. "What I said tonight came from a compromised position and bad perception after an electrical hit, and I don’t have the clarity to stake the kind of claim I was staking."

She met his gaze. "That’s what I’ll say. Because it’s true."

"And also useful to me," Rex said.

"And also useful to you," she agreed.

She looked at Apollo one more time. Then she looked at Rex with the specific expression of someone calculating what they’re going to need to live with.

"I need it to mean more than an apology," she said.

Rex looked at her.

"I said things that will follow me," she said. "I know how these groups work, and the story will travel."

"People at the Academy will hear a version of what happened tonight, and the version they hear will be the one that has me as the person who made unfounded accusations after taking a hit." She paused. "I need it not to be that."

"Then you need the apology to come with something that explains why it happened," Rex said.

"Yes," she said.

"And you need it to come from someone whose account is already established as credible."

"Yes," she said again, knowing exactly what she was agreeing to.

"Then come to my room," Rex said. "And we’ll work out what that looks like."

Mireya looked at him for a long moment with the expression of someone accounting for every element of a decision before making it. Then she stood, and she did it with the particular steadiness of someone who has made a decision and intends to hold it.

"This is for Apollo," she said. "And for my reputation... not for anything else."

"I know," Rex said.

"I want you to know I know what this is," she said.

"You’ve made that clear," Rex said, and held her arm.

"My room now..."

...

Rex didn’t let go of her arm as they walked. He led her through the corridor, his grip firm, almost bruising. There was no warmth in his stride, only the heavy, rhythmic pace of a predator moving toward a destination.

When they reached his door, he pushed it open and pushed her inside.

As soon as Mireya crossed the room, Rex raised his hand. He didn’t look at her, but his eyes were fixed on the air itself.

He focused his elemental magic, creating a dense, vibrating layer of energy that enveloped the walls and ceiling. The ambient noise of the hallway and the distant footsteps fell silent in an instant.

The room became a vacuum of silence, a tomb built for two.

He turned to face her, his jaw tense and his eyes ablaze with a cold fury she hadn’t witnessed during their tactical discussions.

"Now that we’re alone," Rex said, his voice low and devoid of its usual calm. "No witnesses, no reputations to uphold—just the truth."

Mireya remained in the center of the room, noting, "You’re angry," her voice a soft observation.

"Angry?" Rex took a step toward her, closing the distance. "You think this is just MY anger."

"You spent the entire night questioning my motives, undermining the stability of the group, and playing with perceptions like they were toys."

"You put yourself in a compromising position just to see if you could rattle me."

"I needed to know if you were real, Rex," Mireya countered, though her voice lacked its usual strength. "I needed to know if there was a man behind the calculations."

"And did you find him?" Rex snapped. "Or did you just find a target for your skepticism?"

"Maybe both," she whispered.

Before she could finish the thought, Rex moved. It wasn’t a calculated movement, but it was a burst of pure impulse.

SLAP!

His palm connected with her cheek with a deafening force in the soundproofed room. Her head snapped to the side, her hair whipping across her face.

Silence enveloped the room once more. Mireya remained silent, not crying out or reaching up to touch her stinging cheek.

She stood still, her head bowed slightly, her breaths shallow.

Rex stared at her, his hand still trembling slightly from the impact.

"Say something," he commanded. "Defend yourself."

"Tell me how ’unfounded’ my assessment of you is."

Mireya stayed quiet, swallowing hard as she focused on the floorboards.

"You’re right," she finally said, her voice barely audible. "I deserved that."

Rex let out a harsh, jagged breath. The anger didn’t dissipate, but it morphed into something heavier, more demanding.

He paced a small circle around her, like a wolf circling wounded prey.

"You act as if you can observe everyone else while remaining untouchable," Rex said, his voice dripping with disdain. "You watch the others play their parts, but you think you’re above the game."

"You think you can walk in, stir the pot, and then retreat to your reputation."

He stopped directly in front of her. "Bow the fuck down, you bitch."

She blinked, looking up at him with wide, uncertain eyes. "W-what?"

"You heard me," Rex growled. "If you want to treat this as a strategic alliance, then start acting like a subordinate to the reality of the situation."

"Bow. The Fuck. Down."

Mireya hesitated for a brief moment, searching his eyes for any trace of the old Rex, the composed strategist. She found nothing.

With no mercy in sight, she slowly sank to her knees. The fabric of her outfit rustled in the heavy silence created by the magical barrier.

"Lower," Rex demanded.

She leaned forward, pressing her forehead toward the ground. Rex shifted his weight, lifting his foot.

He pressed the sole of his boot firmly against the side of her head, pinning her gaze toward the floor. He applied pressure, forcing her neck to tilt uncomfortably, asserting total dominance over her physical space.

"Look at how easily you yield when there’s no audience," Rex said, leaning down so his shadow engulfed her. "When the audience isn’t on and people aren’t watching, you’re just another person caught in my orbit."

"All those questions you asked tonight... all that ’clarity’ you claimed to seek..."

He increased the pressure of his foot against her temple, letting her feel the full weight of his frustration.

"Tonight isn’t about that bullshit anymore, you bitch." Rex gritted his teeth. "This isn’t about Apollo, and it isn’t about your reputation as well."

"This is about how pissed I am because of how persistent you are trying to make me in trouble..."

"Tonight is about you realizing exactly who holds the power in this room."

He pulled his foot back, leaving her shivering on the floor. He stood tall, looming over her, his eyes raking over her form with a predatory hunger that promised no gentleness.

"If you try to resist and run away... I’ll fucking kill you and Apollo," Rex said. "You don’t want that, right?"

"You’re here to save Apollo, and the only way to do it is through me."

"Y-yes..." Mireya said and thought. ’I don’t care anymore... I made a mistake, and as the ice princess, I have to take it...’

’It’s one of my prides as the ice princess to face the problem I just made... for making them feel annoyed, making three of my friends see me as someone persistent... and I can’t snitch on him anymore because I know he is... too dangerous because he has all the power from his reputation.’

"Take off all your clothes," Rex ordered. "Every single piece."

"Now."