Chapter Text
Salem’s lair was already pretty creepy in daylight – at least, as close as it ever got to day in her big bad Grimm-making wasteland – but night did weird things to the shadows, and when your boss’s boss could smell your fear and hunt you down like a ratcatcher, it wasn’t paranoid to be a little cautious.
It was fine. Really. Emerald wasn’t doing anything she wasn’t allowed to. Salem had said herself she had no use for them at the moment, so as long as she stayed out of Tyrian and Watts’s way, Emerald could go where she liked.
Probably.
It would be fine. She just couldn’t get cau–
“Where are you going?”
She jumped, heart pounding. “Mercury! What are you doing up?”
“Looking for you,” he sneered. “Obviously. You trying to piss off the boss?”
“Not so loud!” Emerald nudged the two of them behind a column, glancing back up the hall. It wasn’t like the cover provided any real safety, but it might give them a few extra seconds if someone (like, gods forbid, Tyrian) showed up, and even the illusion of privacy was better than talking out in the open. Anyway, he let her maneuver them, so he couldn’t have been too upset. “I’m not trying to piss off Salem. I just want to stretch my legs a little. Get some fresh air.”
“Yeah, right. You’ve barely left our room since we got back from Haven.”
She flinched. He curled his lips in a slow smirk and leaned back against the column. “What’s your problem, Emerald? Got an issue with our new boss?”
“Stop calling her that,” she hissed. It was stupid, she knew as soon as she said it, but she couldn’t take it back. “We work for Cinder, remember?”
“Cinder’s dead.” She pulled her lips back, but Mercury beat her to the punch. “Or good as, anyway. Even if she comes back, and that’s a pretty big if, Salem isn’t exactly gonna let her off easy for screwing up with the Lamp.”
“So, what?” she demanded. “You’re just going to betray her?”
“Is it betrayal if I never pretended to care?” He shrugged, one toe tapping against the column’s base. “You might’ve been in it for Cinder’s approval, but I was only ever trying to survive. Way I see it, Salem’s the winning bet right now. All I’m doing is making sure I’m on the right side.”
His logic made her want to tear her hair out, but she couldn’t argue with it. Didn’t have time to, not with that affected, whiny drawl popping up, too close. “Oh, we have a smart one,” Tyrian cooed, draping his hands over Mercury’s stiffening shoulders. He never liked it when people snuck up on him. “Did it take you this long to realize? Tsk, tsk.” Tyrian actually said “tsk,” like some sort of weirdo. “But my goddess is a merciful one. She’ll be so pleased you’ve come around to your place in our little band.”
“What can I say,” Mercury grit out, shifting his weight away from the undulations of Tyrian’s mechanical tail. “I’m happy to devote myself to the cause.”
In a blink, the tail coiled under Tyrian, pushing him up so he could lean down and over Mercury’s head, forehead inches from his and upside-down gaze locked unmovingly on Mercury’s eyes. “Good,” Tyrian breathed.
They sat still as statues for a moment. But Emerald couldn’t hold her breath forever, and her next inhale squeaked. Tyrian was at her side and touching her in an instant. “Oh, but where has my mind gone?” he chirped. “We were talking about you.” He leaned in, eyes darting maniacally around her face. “Still unconvinced of my goddess’s power? ...no. You’re still hung up on Cinder.”
She swallowed. “I just… need to see for myself. I have to see that she’s dead.”
She had to be, right? There was nothing else that could have kept Cinder away. She’d promised to always be there for her. Cinder wouldn’t abandon her to– to this without a good reason. Emerald was too useful for that.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” Tyrian’s swaying stilled, leaving him unnervingly motionless. “She doesn’t care about you,” he told her, voice flat and empty. “She never has. You’re just throwing your life after her because she smiled at you.”
Her heart sounded so loud in the silence of the halls.
He shoved her away, suddenly cheery again. “Well, if that’s what you need to move on,” he sighed, patting her shoulders avuncularly. “Just remember! My goddess is patient, but she won’t wait forever.”
Emerald’s skin crawled long after he walked away.