Helios's eyes scanned the newspaper, landing on a graphic photo of the Targen courtyard—a landscape of twisted steel and butchered guards. Before Luna could focus, he slammed his palm over her eyes.
"Brother, what are you doing? I can't see!" Luna giggled, small hands tugging at his fingers.
"It's nothing, Moon," Helios said, his voice tight. He expertly ripped the front page off the paper, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it toward the fireplace. Which idiot gave an eight-year-old a newspaper full of corpses? They need to learn to screen the mail, or I'll screen their necks.
"Why don't you go and play for a while?" he said, releasing her. Luna jumped off the bed with a cheerful chirp and ran out the door. As soon as she was gone, Helios's expression darkened. "Brutal or not, they shouldn't be printing this where a child can see it."
Across the city, the Targen estate was a hive of activity. Reporters swarmed the gates like vultures, only to be shoved back by the Royal Police. Inside the courtyard, a woman with sharp blonde hair and piercing blue eyes stood over the bodies, her boots clicking on the blood-slicked stone.
"Captain Rosalind," an officer called out, approaching cautiously.
"What is it?" she snapped, her frustration palpable. "If it isn't a breakthrough, get out of my sight."
"The survivors... the five guards. They've talked. They claim a single man did all of this."
Rosalind let out a mocking, hollow laugh. "One man? Those five were so paralyzed by fear they'd claim a ghost did it if it meant they didn't have to admit they failed."
"But Captain, they all tell the same story. They say he wasn't human. That his eyes glowed red, and he moved like a flicker of light. They spoke of a gate... a gate that opened to whispers and shadow-soldiers who wore their own uniforms. And then, a girl with blue eyes and white hair appeared, and they all vanished."
Rosalind's gaze sharpened. The mockery vanished. "A Seeker organization," she whispered. She turned to the officer, her voice dropping into a command tone. "Scrub the reports. Tell the public it was a coordinated cell of elite assassins. Not a word about Seekers or shadow-gates reaches the press. Then, find every organization with members matching those descriptions—and kill those five guards. We can't have them spreading tales of the supernatural."
Back at the mansion, the atmosphere was suffocating. Every servant in the house had been summoned to the grand hall. They stood in trembling rows as Helios descended the stairs, his footsteps echoing like drumbeats.
"His eyes... they're terrifying," one maid whispered, her knees knocking. "He looks like he wants to skin us alive."
"Silence," Helios commanded.
The word hit the room like a physical blow. The servants gasped, some falling to their knees as a crushing, invisible weight settled over their shoulders.
Human, your temper is fraying, the crown's voice echoed in his mind. Don't kill them yet. You're radiating the aura of a tyrant king.
I'm not killing them, Helios thought coldly. I'm educating them.
"Do you know why you are here?" Helios asked. The pressure in the room intensified. The servants began to weep, unable to lift their heads under the sheer gravity of his presence. It was a new ability—The Tyrant's Pressure—a manifestation of the same fear he had instilled in the Targen guards.
"Is it... is it about Lady Luna?" one servant managed to choke out.
"So you do know," Helios said, his eyes beginning to pulse with a low, crimson light. He reached the bottom of the stairs, the marble cracking slightly under his boots. "One of you gave my sister a newspaper without checking the contents. You let her see a massacre."
Human, stop, the crown warned. The pressure is too high. You're going to snap their minds.
Helios ignored the voice. "Which one of you was it? Speak, and the rest of you live."
Every hand in the room slowly pointed toward a young girl with brown hair, who was curled into a ball, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Who are you?" Helios stood over her.
"I... I am Lady Luna's maid, Master Helios," she gasped, her breath coming in ragged hitches. "Please... I didn't mean... it was a mistake!"
"A mistake that nearly scarred her," Helios hissed. "You're lucky she didn't see the inside."
Suddenly, the heavy doors at the top of the stairs burst open. "Brother! Come play outside with me!"
The crushing pressure vanished instantly. The servants gasped, air rushing back into their lungs as the 'Tyrant' vanished, replaced by a man wearing a gentle, doting smile.
"Moon, don't run on the stairs! You'll fall!" Helios called out, his voice turning soft and melodic.
The servants stared in disbelief as Helios caught the jumping girl in his arms, spinning her around.
So she truly is the only anchor keeping you from the abyss, the crown remarked.
"Brother, what is everyone doing here?" Luna asked, looking at the kneeling, tear-streaked servants with innocent confusion.
"Nothing, Moon. Why don't you ask them?" Helios glanced back at the staff, his eyes flashing a silent, lethal warning. The servants began to shake all over again.
Will the maid survive Helios's lingering wrath, or will Luna's presence be enough to grant her a second chance?