His Dark Paradox

His Dark ParadoxAvery Tu & Kota QuinnAlso by Avery Tu & Kota Quinn:KieranDorianAlso by Avery Tu:Kismet CaféAlso by Kota Quinn:Mistletoe Wishes & HookupsDisplay Me His Dark ParadoxAvery Tu & Kota QuinnThis is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.Published by Custom Cat Publishing.His Dark ParadoxCopyright @ 2023 by Avery Tu and Kota Quinn.All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without written permission from the author.Cover design by Mary Ellen Conley.Printed in the United States of America.First edition—2023 Prologue:There was a psychopath on the throne.Nuri kept his hands folded in front of him, his expression docile to help hide his swirling thoughts as the ceremony progressed to the speech portion. He stood on the large stage, at the far back in a row with other people on the royal staff, looking out over a massive crowd.Reporters flooded the front, cameras flashing, lighting up the otherwise dimly lit throne room. The middle and back of the crowd were made up of important people in the government, such as the generals and the high council, as well as the upper-level employees of Rien Inc., the largest technologies corporation in the Dual Galaxy.The CEO and newly crowned emperor stood at the front of the stage, currently in the midst of his speech about how he planned on following in his father’s footsteps to ensure Ignite remained the universe’s top technologically advanced planet. His smile was charming as he spoke, his inflection upbeat and confident. When Nuri glanced back at the giant screen displayed behind them, showing the blown-up live footage of the new emperor, even he was almost convinced they’d gotten a caring and devoted ruler.But he knew better.The speech may flow perfectly and genuinely from Silver Rien’s perfectly sculpted lips, but Nuri had been the one who’d written each and every word of it. Silver smiled like he was honored to be there, humbled even, but he’d been complaining to Nuri all morning about how ridiculous and irrelevant having an official ceremony was.As the only child of the late Emperor Sij, there weren’t exactly any other candidates around to take the throne. The crown was always going to be his, whether they broadcast him accepting or not.Silver had always been like that. If it wasn’t work-related he didn’t care, and it was rare to get him to partake in anything he didn’t care about. The only reason he was even here now and hadn’t gone through with trying to cancel the entire thing was because Nuri had reminded him how important this all was to his late father.Nuri hadn’t been certain it would work when he had, was actually a bit surprised that it’d changed Silver’s mind, but he wasn’t going to overthink it. What mattered was they were here, on stage, in front of the entire planet—and much of the galaxy, since it was being broadcast throughout—and Silver was now officially the Emperor of Ignite.Which meant Nuri had fulfilled his promise to Sij Rien.His resignation letter burned in his jacket pocket, almost as if he could feel the thin paper searing over his heart. It was rare to write things on physical paper now, but he’d wanted to be sure there was proof that couldn’t be deleted. Something tangible he could place down on Silver’s desk later.Nuri Narek was quitting.Silver wrapped up his speech and Nuri clapped along with the rest of the crowd on autopilot. He’d been planning this day out for months, ever since they’d been told that Emperor Sij’s health was deteriorating and he didn’t have much longer to live.When Nuri had been a desperate youth, he’d made a deal with Sij for the betterment of his family. Now that they’d all moved off planet and it was just him remaining, there was no reason for him to stick around other than his job. He’d been unable to quit beforehand but now that his promise had been met there was nothing left to hold him back.As soon as the ceremony was over and the two of them were back at the office, he’d hand in his resignation letter and that would be that. Most of his belongings had already been packed, his desk left neat and tidy for the next person who was assigned his position. He’d carefully organized all information about how to do his job in a digital information packet that he would send directly to the main office once he’d left. Since he’d been the secretary to an Imperial Crown Prince, and now Silver was an emperor, he assumed duties would alter, and the best thing to do was leave before that happened and made things even more complicated to go later.Because he would be leaving. Nuri had already decided. No matter how secretly scared he was about starting a new life elsewhere, or how his heart clenched whenever he thought about not seeing Silver every day, he was going.He had to.Security went to escort Silver off the stage, Nuri and the others there falling into line to exit with him. Before they’d taken more than three steps, however, the lights in the room flickered, followed swiftly by a piercing sound through the loudspeakers.He slapped his hands over his ears and cringed. The images on the screen behind him changed, going from them on the stage to footage of a hospital room.The room was three times the size of a regular hospital room, spacious and filled with sunlight that lit up the pale blue walls. The soft humming of machines came through the speakers, but aside from that there were no other sounds. It was clear this wasn’t a recording meant to expose something anyone had said. It was meant to expose someone in another way.The late emperor was lying unconscious in the bed, hooked up to machines. Even with their advancements in