Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
I t wasn’t hard to find ways to fill my time in the coming days. Though I had done as much as I could from within my rooms at the estate, there were an endless number of things I needed to check on personally outside of them as well.
Like getting my father to sign the marriage contract for Taras. Arès must have sent it not long after Luca returned, because it had arrived swiftly with the exact terms we had outlined.
A rare, honorable soul in a sea of Iiros and Mikhails.
I strode from my room, bypassing the glass that was still on her nightstand and her comb where it was still resting on the mantle above the hearth.
I should have Taisiya take those things away. And I would…tomorrow. There wasn’t time now to bother with such things, not since I needed to take advantage of my father’s relative degree of awareness. Taras reported that he was in his study, which was telling in and of itself.
It meant he was having one of his more lucid days—or at the very least, a day in which he believed himself to be lucid. During the trek from my wing of the palace over to his, I considered the best way to approach him. How to get exactly what I needed, while making it appear as though it were his idea, before he slipped back into delirium.
Like everything with my father, this would need to be handled with precision. After taking a deep breath, I knocked on his study door.
My stepmother opened the door, a pot of steaming tea on my father’s desk, evidence of her excuse for being there. The rage that brimmed just below the surface of my mask threatened to break free at the mere sight of her.
I blinked once, my mind recalling the images of two indiscernible corpses beneath black ceremonial sheets. Then twice, picturing rivulets of blood pouring from angry wounds on pale, perfect skin.
And finally, a third time, imagining the raw, ragged scream I could rend from Ava’s throat if the scalding pot of tea accidentally found its way onto her vicious, hawklike features.
But that would be counterproductive to my purposes today. And though I despised it with every piece of my soul, she was occasionally a necessary tool in the handling of my father.
Someday, though… Someday, I would find a way to handle her as well.
“Evander.” She addressed me, saying my name the way she always did, in a low, condescending hiss, with just the smallest edge of satisfaction, like she was remembering—while simultaneously reminding me—all the times she had said it, just like that, in between lashes searing my own skin.
This is your fault, Evander.
I ignored her greeting, looking past her to where my father was conversing in low tones with Samu.
“I’m surprised you left your father’s pet unattended.” These words were quieter, but still edged with the same malicious tone she always used when offering barely concealed threats.
It took everything in me not to react. Did she know Rowan had escaped in the night? Or was she merely taunting me because she knew damned good and well that Rowan belonged to me . No one else; not even the duke.
Raising my eyebrows like I didn’t have a care in the world, I met her gaze, responding in a low tone that matched hers. “Lochlannians have never been more than a passing diversion to the men in this family. But I don’t have to tell you that.”
She clenched her jaw, but I noticed her face fall slightly, like she was disappointed not to get a rise out of me.
Twenty-one years of experience told me that she was incapable of not gloating when she thought she had the upper hand with me. So, it had been just a taunt, then. Probably .
Still, Taisiya’s ruse would help to dispel any doubts she might have on said subject.
Mairi— Ava , opened her mouth to respond, but my father had finally noticed my presence.
“My son,” he said. “What brings you here?”
His tone was pointed enough that I knew he was genuinely lucid today.
“Didn’t you ask me for time with your pet? What pulls you away from her now?” His seemingly simple questions were laced with suspicion. His steely-blue eyes studied me, looking for flaws, tells. Any chink in my armor that might give him the answers to questions he hadn’t yet known to ask.
“I am grateful for your reward, but there is business to attend to now,” I responded quickly. “Though, it can wait until you’re finished with your tea.”
I pointedly glanced toward my stepmother. It’s not for women’s ears , was the clear implication.
On days like this, when his mind was sharp and not muddled by the dense fog that kept him so confused, it was much easier to get him alone. But on days he was feeling slightly less aware, there was a chance he would keep her to cover his mistakes.
It was a gamble every time.
And while for this occasion it was not a necessity, I could never resist the temptation to watch her expression whenever he forced her to leave.
There was always the chance that she would sabotage this alliance just because she could, though, so it was still a victory when he nodded his dismissal toward her.
Moreso, when she had to hide her responding glare as she walked away, Samu following just behind. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction at his crooked nose and slight limp that Taras had gifted him with during their last round of training.
As soon as the door closed, my father raised his graying eyebrows at me. “What business?” he asked, his expression hardening into one of calculated concern.
For the first time since Rowan had revealed Ava’s identity, it occurred to me that he must have known all along. And while he always talked about the good of the clan , he would have let me blindly go on without knowing that our people, our palace, harbored a criminal of our enemies. I couldn’t help but wonder what else he knew that he didn’t speak on…
I cleared my throat, stuffing that anger back where it belonged. Now was not the time, and I knew well the role I needed to play. .
“Sir Arès has approached to offer an alliance through his daughter. He is willing to accept Taras, and his terms are agreeable.” I placed the letter in front of my father on his meticulously organized desk.
He narrowed his eyes, handling the parchment as if it were laced with poison. “What has made Lynx willing to accept an alliance now, when they have insisted for so long that all they need is their precious sea ?”
The likelihood of Elk attempting to claim the Obsidian Throne .
I debated telling him that, but it was entirely possible that it would only set him off. On the other hand, it was suspicious, not only that Arès was willing to ally, but that he was willing to accept my second-in-command. I had to give my father something.
“He is concerned with recent events,” I said vaguely.
The duke was unlikely to push if he didn’t remember recent events, and sure to take the hint if he did. After all, as far as my father knew, we were still keeping the Lochlannian princess captive.
Another reason it was important for him to sign off on this alliance today.
A muscle worked in his jaw. “You say he is willing to accept Taras?”
I nodded, sensing dangerous ground.
“Which means that he initially requested you for this…” he paused, scanning the terms of the contract. “Relatively advantageous alliance.”
His gaze flitted toward the family wing where he believed the princess to be, the implication as clear as the suspicion sparking in his cobalt eyes.
“He did,” I responded evenly. “But I put forth Taras so that I might remain open for another alliance, should the need arise. Mikhail does still have his niece.”
Who I had no intention of marrying. Then again, I didn’t have any intention of marrying at all while he was alive—though I could hardly tell him that.
His expression cleared a bit, but not entirely. “Is that who you want? Lady Galina?”
Was he leading me into a trap? I would have thought so, but for the barest edge of something foreign softening his stern mouth.
Concern? Curiosity?
Maybe that’s what made me ask him a question in turn, one that should have been rhetorical but wasn’t, not quite.
“Does it matter what I want?” My tone was low, my features as casual as I could make them, while I deliberately worked to not think about wild curls and a too-loud cackle and a slim hand wrapped confidently around the hilt of a borrowed sword. “We both know I will always do what’s best for the clan.”
Following that statement, I couldn’t keep myself from hearing the soft sound of Rowan’s retreating footsteps while I turned my back to let her walk away, and for the first time in my life, the words tasted like a lie.
My father’s eyes met mine for a long, inscrutable moment until finally he released a sigh, the sound strangely close to…disappointment.
“No. I suppose it doesn’t matter.” He dipped his quill in his ink, signing the contract before stamping it with his seal in a practiced motion.
“It’s a good alliance,” he said, handing the contract back. “You’ve done well.”
I might have taken pride in his words, were they not the same ones he used so often after I returned from slaughtering his innocent people.
Since, as so often was the case, I could hardly say that, I only nodded as I took the proffered parchment. It was a relief to leave his presence. Sometimes, his lucid days were even worse than the ones when he was confused.
It was too easy to remember that there was a time when he had been a father. That in another life, he might have even been a good one.