9. Thalia
THALIA
B arrett Stratos.
My eyes passed over the paperwork for his enlistment into The Order’s recruitment program. Something had nagged in the back of my mind from the moment I first saw him training with Micah two days prior. I had never seen the male before…
So why did I feel as if I had?
There was no mention of his background, his family, his history—just his name, and his description.
I knew the family name—the current head of House Stoicheion was a Stratos—but I had no knowledge of him having a relative named Barrett.
“Who are you?” I mumbled under my breath.
“Thank you for helping me get these done,” Damien said from where he sat at his desk. I looked to find him bent over a stack of parchment, quill tipping back and forth furiously as he wrote.
Marcus huffed a laugh. “You’d never be on time with anything if it wasn’t for us.”
“Our impeccably organized king would never be late submitting his work,” I said with a knowing look.
“All right, you two,” he chided. “I’m not behind, I just need to get this done before I head to the Godsrealm for a few days.” Damien’s voice seemed to tip off at the end, as if he had said something he hadn’t intended to.
“You’re leaving for the Godsrealm?” I asked, arching a brow as I set a stack of completed paperwork on his desk for him to sign.
Marcus and Damien glanced at each other nervously, and I frowned. He rarely went to the Godsrealm. There were those of us who did, either for diplomatic missions with The Twelve or for importing goods the way Semele did, but rarely did he join.
“Speaking of the Godsrealm,” Marcus said, seeming to shift the direction of the conversation. “Vivienne should be back tomorrow.”
Damien’s brows rose. “I received word Tobias’ mate welcomed a baby girl a few months ago in the Godsrealm.”
“I didn’t even know she was pregnant,” Marcus said, his lips pressing together. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Tobias doesn’t exactly like me. I don’t expect him to say anything, but I thought Vivienne might’ve at least mentioned it to me.”
“That is odd,” I said. I hadn’t seen Vivienne since she suddenly up and left for the Godsrealm nearly a year prior.
I hadn’t realized she and Tobias were close.
They were siblings, yes, but Vivienne had faced backlash when she and Marcus were bonded without her family’s blessing. Perhaps things had been resolved.
“I haven’t really spoken with Tobias. I only heard the news through Xavier,” Damien said. “I wish I could give you more insight.”
“Why did they go to the Godsrealm to begin with?” I asked.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Marcus said, his brows furrowing. “Vivienne seems to avoid my questions in her letters.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Damien said, lifting his attention from the paper on his desk.
“You’ve had enough on your plate,” Marcus said. “Besides, I’m sure she’s all right. I’m probably overthinking things.”
“It isn’t a diplomatic mission?” I asked, glancing at Damien, who seemed to contemplate that thought.
“I honestly don’t know what they’re there for,” he explained. “I don’t think they have family there, but I might be wrong. I’m not always involved in the actions of The Council. It could very well be a visit with one of the courts.”
It could very well have been. The Kyrios did act as emissaries if they chose, but usually, they sent someone in their stead. It wasn’t normal for them to bring their families .
“Perhaps it’s just a family vacation to repair things,” I suggested.
Marcus let out a low breath. “I’m eager to see her. The last letter I received from her, she sounded… I don’t know, off.”
I tilted my head. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “I can’t quite place it, but something about how she’s spoken to me in her letters since she left has just been...off. She left so suddenly to begin with, and there were a few times where the gaps between her responses to my letters went a bit longer than I’d like.”
“I wish I didn’t need you here as much as I do,” Damien said in a near apology.
Marcus shook his head. “I’m sure she’s all right.”
“Mated males can be a little overprotective at times,” I said in a teasing tone as I returned my attention to my work.
“Yeah,” Marcus said, narrowing his eyes on me, but he shook his head. “It’s been a little over a month since I received her last letter. I’m sure she’s been busy helping Tobias and Jesta with the new babe.”
“A new baby is a huge deal,” Damien said.
“I’m probably just being an overprotective mated male,” Marcus said, his voice full of sarcasm as he slid me a teasing grin.
I snickered.
“Thalia, can you take this to Salwa for her to log in the Archivallia?” Damien asked, gathering the mess of parchment papers before tapping them into a clean stack.
“Sure,” I said, rising from my seat and hurrying to his desk to take them.
“Try not to worry your little head, Marcus,” I said, nudging him. “I’m sure Vivienne is well and just as eager to see you as you are her.”
He gave me a half smile. “I’ll try not to.”
I left them to their work and hurried down the hall toward the small study, the one where Salwa worked when she wasn’t tending to the Archivallia. Muffled conversation reached my ears as I neared the door to Salwa’s office. I stepped closer and stiffened when I heard Lucia’s voice.
“...the complete file on Barrett’s case yet?”
Salwa’s voice was muffled and more distant, likely sitting at her desk at the far end of the room. “I finally found it. It was oddly misfiled.”
“That’s unlike you to be disorganized,” Lucia said, confusion lacing her voice.
“I haven’t handled this file since I cataloged it in”—the faint sound of flipping pages reached my ear—“1422. After his trial.”
I stiffened. Trial?
“So someone else took it?” Lucia asked.
Gods, I shouldn’t be listening in on this, but I couldn’t bring myself to knock, couldn’t pull away.
“It’s been modified,” Salwa said after a brief silence .
Footsteps, ones I assumed were Lucia’s, echoed off the wood. “Modified? By who?”
“I’m not sure. Take a look.”
My heart hammered. If Salwa, the Tabularius, was unaware of a change, it was an unauthorized modification.
Lucia let out a breath. “I thought it odd for a prisoner of forty-seven years to suddenly be in the lineup for execution with no explanation.”
My heart launched into my throat.
“Something doesn’t feel right, Salwa. He’s had past incidents during his imprisonment, but nothing warranting execution. When I spoke with Damien, he informed me it wasn’t run by him or approved by The Council.”
“His original sentence was for life in the dungeons.” There was a moment of silence, and I pressed my ear closer to the door. “The records of the trial state there were some who opposed the decision, given it was a Kyrios who he murdered.”
My hand rose to my mouth, muffling a gasp. How was he not put to death for murdering a Kyrios? Why would Lucia bring him into The Order? Oh, Gods. Micah was working with him. What if he did something to him? He needed to know.
“Were there any witnesses?” Lucia asked.
Pages flipped. “There was one.”
“Who?”
“His uncle, Atticus Stratos,” Salwa said.
There was a moment of silence.
“I believe the circumstances of Elias Stratos’ death were not as they were presented,” Lucia said, pulling me back.
The world stilled. Oh, Gods.
He wasn’t the son of Atticus, but the son of a past Kyrios of House Stoicheion.
“What do you mean?” Salwa asked.
Her voice softened, and I tried to listen. “I have reason to suspect that Atticus may have given false testimony. I believe Elias’ death was not malicious but in self-defense, or something of that nature.”
“Why would Barrett defending himself result in not only the death of his father, but of his mother and sister as well?”
I stopped breathing.
“I don’t believe he murdered his sister,” Lucia said. She paused for a moment. “I think?—”
I stiffened at the sound of footsteps approaching down the hall and straightened before knocking and cracking the door open.
Lucia and Salwa both looked at me, brows raised.
“Hi—Oh, Lucia!” I said, feigning surprise in the hopes they hadn’t realized I had listened in on their conversation. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Lucia’s eyes softened and she smiled warmly, which left guilt curdling in my stomach. “Not at all, Thalia.”
I turned to Salwa and extended the papers to her. “Damien asked me to bring these to you to catalog in the Archivallia.”
“Oh, perfect. I’ll see it done,” she said as she took them.
I headed for the door, eager to get away, fearful they might realize what I had done.
“I hope to see you around, Thalia,” Lucia said as I took hold of the doorknob.
I looked back at her, her silver eyes near glowing as she smiled at me, and I didn’t miss the smug, knowing look in them.
She knew.
I sat at the dinner table later that night, rolling a small potato along my plate with my fork, my mind reeling with what I had overheard only a few hours earlier.
If what Lucia said was true, did that mean Barrett had been wrongfully tried? Wrongfully imprisoned? Was he framed?
Atticus Stratos. He was the Kyrios of House Stoicheion.
I didn’t know how he came to be Kyrios, hadn’t been involved in the matters of The Council for as long as I’d been part of The Order.
To think he had testified against Barrett.
.. Had he truly lied? Why would he do such a thing?
Lucia was no fool; she saw through more than any of us did, and I trusted her judgment.
She even seemed to know I had been listening.
How long had she known? Had she continued to speak, knowing I was eavesdropping? If so, why?
I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.
Micah was equally quiet across the table—unusually quiet.
“I saw you training a new recruit the other day,” I said absentmindedly as I speared some green beans and took a bite.
He cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. Lucia sort of dropped him in my lap.”
“I saw his file when I was working with Damien.”
“What did it say?” he asked, scooping some food onto his fork.
“That’s what’s strange. There was no history on him. No family, nothing,” I said, watching him. “When Zephyr asked about him, Lucia basically said it was classified.”
He blinked, seemingly surprised by that statement, and I narrowed my eyes.
“Did she tell you anything? ”
He hesitated, his lips parting then closing.
I lowered my fork. “You know something, don’t you?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “Only that he was imprisoned. When she told me about him, it was in typical Lucia fashion. Vague as shit.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. She definitely worked in mysterious ways, always behind the scenes, guiding us like chess pieces. It wasn’t in the way of pawns; no, it was more of nudging us into a place that fit us perfectly, or as fate would have us.
“Um…speaking of Lucia,” Micah said, and my brows rose.
He swallowed, and I frowned. Something was wrong.
“I’m leaving next week for a few days on a mission.”
I blinked, resting my fork on the plate. “Where are you going?”
He scratched the back of his neck. “It’s classified.”
I frowned, and Damien’s words flew across my thoughts. He was also leaving for a few days…for business in the Godsrealm.
I rose. “Are you going with Damien to the Godsrealm?”
He blinked. “He told you?”
“Told me what?” I asked, laying my hands on the table. “Why are you going to the Godsrealm?”
He swallowed, eyes darting around as if searching for something. “It’s…it’s nothing you need to worry about.”
“You’re going to the Godsrealm. Damien is going to the Godsrealm, something he rarely does. I feel that it is something I need to worry about.” I paused for a moment and pinned Micah with a look. “Is Lucia going as well?”
He couldn’t hide the confirming look in his eyes.
“What is the mission for, Micah?”
His shoulders sagged, and he let out a sigh. “Someone’s reorganizing The Pits.”