Chapter 36 Family Matters
Family Matters
Ronan
Itrudged upstairs to my old bedroom, surprised to find it exactly as I’d left it. I’d half expected my dad would have turned it into a second office out of spite.
But then again, he’d always said I’d come crawling back eventually. Perhaps keeping it like some weird time capsule from my youth was his version of spite. He’d made sure I knew my return was inevitable, my escape temporary.
The housekeepers at least had gone through and kept it dust-free, but otherwise it didn’t feel like anyone else had been inside in the ten years I’d been gone.
Half a pack of stale vaporleaf sat on my desk, the bottom drawer half open with a sock hanging out, abandoned in my hurry to pack and leave.
The walls still held the interests and accomplishments of my childhood—old movie posters, participation trophies I’d received for sports I’d never wanted to play, and books I’d taken from my mom’s collection to read whenever I’d wanted to feel connected to her.
An old family sword, humming with power, sat in its sheath on a shelf above my desk, whispering tales of bloodshed and battles won.
I snorted, kicking off my boots and falling face forward onto my bed. The last time I’d used that blade, my friends and I had been high on bruum, and we’d tried to slice fruit off each other’s heads.
I’d nearly lost a horn that night.
A knock sounded on the door, and it opened before I said anything or even moved.
“Boundaries, Maia.”
She scoffed, and I turned my head slightly, opening one eye to find her leaning against the jamb, a wide smile on her face. “Bounty hunting? Really?”
With a sigh, I rolled over on my back. “Like you didn’t already know. And besides, it paid the bills.”
I felt her presence as she moved across the room, the bed creaking from where she lay down a few feet away from me. “I should be super pissed at you, you know. You just abandoned me.”
I peeked at her, recognizing the teenager I’d left behind now in the face of a grown woman. She looked healthy, appeared happy. And she and my dad hadn’t killed each other yet.
It didn’t matter if his children were his polar opposites or his carbon copies—no one got along with him.
“You know it had nothing to do with you,” I replied. “I needed to get out. I needed to cut ties. And…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And you were collateral damage.”
“I get it,” she replied, her voice soft. “But that doesn’t make you any less of a shitty older brother. I was eighteen, you know. And even though I resented the way dad always favored you, I still looked up to you. Still loved you. Still wanted you around. Especially without mom here.”
Fuck, I was really letting down all the women in my life, wasn’t I? “I know. And I have a feeling a simple ‘I’m sorry’ won’t really cut it.”
“No, it won’t.” She turned onto her side, propping herself up on her elbow. “I have some ideas on how you can make it up to me, though.”
I glanced in her direction, smirking as I caught her eye. “I’m sure you do.”
A comfortable silence filled the air, and for a moment, it felt good to be home. Maia and I had never been super close, but that was because I’d always been too wrapped up in my own misery and kraken shit to have given her much attention.
But if I was back now, that could change.
“So,” she started. “A mate. Tell me about her.”
My chest constricted, both with desire to shout Sage’s name and virtues from the rooftop, and from the guilt and pain of being separated from her, not knowing what kind of fresh new torture Victor was putting her through.
“Her name’s Sage. She’s a witch.”
“Omega, you said?”
I nodded.
“I would have pictured you with another alpha, to be honest.”
“Yeah, me too. But she’s… she’s great. She likes my beard. And my car.”
Maia chuckled, the cadence an echo of the warmth she’d inherited from our mom. “Well, that’s obviously the most important qualities one looks for in a mate.”
“Obviously. And she’s… she’s… I don’t know, it’s hard to describe.
Funny. Brave. Kind. But we spent less than forty-eight hours together, and I didn’t even know she was my mate until the very last second, while she did the whole time and had to wrestle with returning to Victor or telling me the truth.
Truth that would have forced my hand to protect her and ended up with me dead as a result. ”
“That’s messed up.”
“Yeah.”
We both lay back down, staring at the ceiling.
“Why’d you even make a demon deal, anyway? I never thought you’d be that reckless.”
I thought for a moment before responding. If anyone else had asked, I would have given some kraken shit answer, like how I knew I was the best, that I never even considered the possibility that I wouldn’t get my bounty.
It had gotten to the point where I probably even believed that lie myself.
But now that I was home, and that chapter of my life was officially over, I could finally admit the truth.
“Because I didn’t care if I died.”
Maia stilled, reaching over to grab my hand. “Fuck. That’s messed up, too. No wonder you and Sage are mates; you both got death wishes.”
“Nah,” I replied. “I got a death wish. She’s just got a martyr complex.”
She let out a stifled giggle, and then I gave her hand a small squeeze, letting her know she could laugh. That I was okay.
I mean, I wasn’t, but I needed to be to get through this and get Sage back.
Once she was safe in my arms, I could spend all my free time breaking down about being right back where I’d started. But at least I’d sleep like a baby afterwards, knowing I’d be waking up right next to her.
“Dad never told me why you left, by the way.”
I sat up. “What?”
She sat up, too, bringing her feet up and sitting cross-legged. “All I knew was there was some incident after we got rid of Ivan, and then you were gone that night, without so much as a ‘See you later, kiddo.’”
I raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Come on.”
She shook her head, a genuine, pleading expression on her face. “I really don’t know.”
I ran a hand down my beard—it was a little itchy, but I’d power through—and let out a deep sigh. “You don’t remember how I was trying to broker a ceasefire with the Dragoviches?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “You were?”
A little over ten years ago, when I was twenty, I met Ivan Dragovich, heir to the Dragovich crime family. His girlfriend had racked up a massive tab on expensive champagne at one of our clubs and turned belligerent when staff asked her to pay.
He came and apologized for her behavior, taking care of the bill with no questions asked or further incident.
I ran into him again a few months later, and we struck up a bit of a friendship.
We had a lot in common, after all, and it was nice to talk to someone who could understand me.
Who could relate to the stress and the pressure of being the heir to a crime family neither of us were really interested in heading.
“Dad found out, of course. I thought he’d be mad at first, since we’d been having a lot of flare ups along the shared borders of our territory, but he actually commended me. Said maybe it was time to usher in a new era of cooperation between the families.”
“Oh,” Maia whispered. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah,” I replied with a sad scoff. “I was such an idiot.”
For my twenty-first birthday, I’d decided to host a party at the VIP lounge of The Peacock, the crown jewel of our nightclubs.
“Dad encouraged me to invite Ivan,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief. Ravaric, I still couldn’t believe how naive I’d been.
Ivan had shown up, of course, with several high-ranking members of the Dragoviches in tow as his entourage.
“It was a fucking massacre.”
My dad had pulled me out of the room for a minute under the pretense of wanting to show me something, then locked the doors, trapping everyone else inside. Once I realized what was happening, I begged and pleaded for him to reconsider.
But all he could do was smile and tell me how proud of me he was.
I left Ignareth that night.
Smoke began to sneak out through Maia’s nose. “See, this is exactly why you need to be here. To be in charge. These old ways of doing things, the constant fighting, the senseless killing… Magiks don’t want to come here anymore.”
I shook myself out of the violent reverie, the last sounds of my friend screaming for his life echoing in my mind. “They don’t?”
Whenever I came across any news about Ignareth, I purposefully ignored it, so I didn’t have any clue what was really happening here anymore.
“No. Haven’t you heard? Tourism has dropped by over ten percent in the last few years, with the other city-states taking over what made us so successful, bit by bit.
You want clubbing? Now everyone’s going to Noctis.
Gambling? Fenmoor’s new Blue Moon Casino is so popular, they’re opening a second location.
Tideholm’s dining scene is booming, and I’m sure you haven’t noticed, but the shopping in Halcyon is off the charts. ”
She gestured to her outfit, which I hadn’t noticed before. I supposed her black leather pants and cream tank top—was that cashmere?— were stylish.
But I knew crap all about women’s fashion.
“And I keep telling Dad that even if we end up as the only family left in Ignareth, it won’t matter if we’re sitting on an empire of ashes. But does he listen?”
“Nope.”
“Nope,” she repeated. Her eyes glowed fiercely as she looked away, the subject firing her up. “Because I wasn’t born an alpha, so my opinions don’t count. And I’ve got so many ideas on how we could fix everything.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
She focused her gaze back on me. “Really? You want to know?”
I gave a small shrug. “Sure.” I scooted closer to her. “I mean, I have zero thoughts about the future of our family aside from just getting Sage back. And if your plans involve less bloodshed, I’d love to hear them.”
She grinned, easing the tension in my chest.
But as good as it was to see her again, I couldn’t believe she wasn’t more pissed at me. Maia obviously cared way more than I did what happened here, and if I’d never returned, then my dad would have had no choice but to leave the empire to her.
I’d ignored her for a decade and then taken her inheritance, and yet here she was, completely open with all of her thoughts and plans.
“Ignareth is an entertainment capital, right? And sure, we’ve built a reputation for drugs, sex, and money. But you can get that anywhere these days, so we need to branch out. Innovate. Give Magiks something they can’t get anywhere else.”
She pulled out her phone and started her music app, playing a song I recognized.
“What does Sirena Murphy have to do with anything?”
Maia got up and went to my window, opening the shades and pointing towards a large hotel in our territory. “The Inferno Hotel has a state-of-the-art convert venue, and so far all we use it for is magicians and comedians. They never fill the space, and honestly? They’re boring.”
She started playing her music again. “But what if we got a big-name pop star to perform?”
I deflated a bit. “I mean, that might make a bit of money, but—”
“Every. Night.”
My interest piqued again. “Every night?”
She nodded. “Sirena’s manager was here a few months ago, and we got to talking.
Apparently, the merfolk princess of pop is exhausted from constantly touring, but still loves performing.
So, I was thinking we could offer her a residency here, headlining at The Inferno, five days a week, for six months.
Imagine the kind of runics we could make! ”
Wow. Sirena wasn’t my favorite artist, but even I found myself singing along to her songs whenever they played on the radio.
She was definitely popular enough to draw strong crowds. Plus, without the fees and costs associated with being on the road, the general ticket sales would be lower than at her usual concerts, making her shows more affordable for both tourists and locals.
“I… like it,” I said. “That’s a really good idea.”
She clapped her hands together. “Right? And she’s got fans of all ages.
Dad would hate it but imagine if we actually managed to broaden the market and make Ignareth more than just a seedy destination.
We keep the casinos and the bars, of course, but what about building water parks? 3D movie theaters? Mini golf?”
Her excitement was contagious, and I was starting to feel even worse about my decision to cut my losses and leave after my dad had betrayed me.
I could have stayed, trying to use my status and influence to make Ignareth better.
Instead, I’d left it to fester and rot on its own, my sister taking up the mantle in my place.
A mantle she was being forced to hand right back to my undeserving ass.
“And then maybe growing up here wouldn’t be so bad, either,” I added.
The idea of raising kids in Ignareth had always sickened me, but not if Maia and I managed to clean the place up enough where the dirtier, dangerous parts were hidden from the light, left to those who actually wanted to delve into the darkness.
Did Sage want kids? Why had I never thought to ask her?
Oh, right, probably because asking the abused bounty you’d just captured and were taking back to be punished for their escape about their future plans was awkward as fuck.
Maia sighed wistfully, closing the curtains again.
“I’d need the other families to play nice, but I think the money would be incentivizing enough to put an end to these unprofitable public feuds that scare away potential visitors.
We’re feeling the pinch, and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t evolve. ”
“Hey, you’ve already convinced me,” I replied with a smile, which quickly faded as I remembered the hard part was yet to come. “I just gotta survive these stupid ‘tests’ first. Any idea what Dad has in mind?”
Maia shook her head. “Beats me, but he’s going to want to see you squirm.”
The old man certainly had a sadistic streak, and I already knew he wasn’t going to go easy on me. He needed to teach me a lesson, something for the whole Oniguro operation to see. That walking away wasn’t an option.
With a pat on my shoulder, Maia headed back towards the door.
“Well, I guess all I can say is good luck. And it’s good to have you home.”
I nodded, laying back down as the door closed.
I wished I could say the same, but having my sister back in my life was going to make what was coming a lot more bearable.