By the time they were alone, Julian had already decided he was done accepting Lucian's silence as control.
The room was quiet, but it did nothing to soften what had followed them in. The attack, the reveal, the look on everyone's face when the word Variant entered the room like it had always been waiting there, all of it still sat between them. Julian could feel it pressing under his skin, but it was not the reveal itself that held him there.
It was Lucian.
Julian turned to him fully.
"You used me."
Lucian did not look away. "Yes."
The answer came so cleanly that it made Julian angrier than denial would have.
He laughed once, short and bitter. "You really do make everything easier for yourself."
"That isn't what I'm doing."
Julian's gaze sharpened. "You don't get to tell me what this is."
Lucian held his eyes. "Then say it."
Julian stepped closer.
