Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Olympia
No one, not even Nascha herself, could imprison me in that infernal glass house she called a home if I didn’t want to be there. And, simply put, I did not.
Even though she’d coddled and condescended the entire time she’d placed the key in the lock and turned it, she’d still locked me away.
Rather than helping me through my “anger issues”, rather than guiding me through my “grief”, my grandmother had found it easier to toss me into my room and leave me there until I was no longer a danger to myself or others, or so she said.
But she’d put my own cousins on guard to keep me hidden away.
She’d turned our family against me and they’d obeyed her orders without question.
I was certain one of them had already run for her now, after however long it’d taken them to realize I was gone.
I grinned like a fiend as I took the steps down to the Second.
It was practically a habit by now. My feet knew the route better than my mind but not so well as my heart.
It was stupid, foolish, and embarrassing, this trek I’d begun to make every night since he’d gone into the Tenth.
But it was unavoidable as well. Dante and I hadn’t been bonded the way we’d been raised to believe we would but that didn’t mean I had no ties to him at all.
And there was still something about that Adrian girl I knew in my bones wasn’t right.
So I strode straight across the cobbled roads of the Second Ring the moment my feet hit the landing at the bottom of the stairs.
Glancing side to side to ensure no one was out late enough to see me, I made my way quickly into the hedges of the house opposite the stairwell.
I’d found this entry point early on. It was a breakage in the shrubbery, a hole in the hedge which opened straight onto the immaculately kept lawn of the Alanis family.
It was so dark amidst the brush that even I, with my enhanced sight, could hardly see.
I cursed once when a thorn pricked my side and internally scolded myself for wasting time at House Viper before this.
I should have come here first. Cosmo had his secrets and I would uncover them in due time, but the Bexley’s had their secrets too. I’d learn them all or die trying.
I crept through lawn after lawn, doing my best to stay in the shadows, skirting fences or climbing over them when no other way presented itself.
Finally, I was there. A beam of light stretched from the kitchen window out into the night.
I slid against the side of the brick house to its edge, only daring to peer around the corner and look inside when I heard voices from within.
The oldest brother was sitting at the table, frowning over a rumpled up piece of paper stretched out on the wood before him while that treacherous acolyte from House Viper, Dante’s cousin, made exaggerated movements with her mouth as she pointed at the page.
The eldest brother’s brow wrinkled as he then made the same exaggerated movements with his own mouth.
I snorted before pressing a hand to my mouth to stifle my chuckle. The fool was learning to read like a child. How pathetic.
More interestingly, the other brother, the middle one who had some grudge against Cosmo I'd yet to figure out, was locked in low conversation with the murderer he’d married.
His posture was rigid and color was rising in his cheeks as he pressed his lips flat and watched his wife.
He looked anything but pleased as he listened to what she was saying.
I couldn’t hear the words and couldn’t read her lips either as she was turned away from me, but her body language said enough.
They were arguing. I was made even more certain of my estimation when, a moment later, she threw her arms into the air and stormed from the room.
The younger brother watched her go with a look of regret while the elder and the acolyte both stopped their phonics lesson to give him a wary glance.
The eldest brother said something then that had the younger one shaking his head.
I strained to hear what they were saying but couldn’t make out a word of it through the thick walls of the sturdy Second Ring house.
With a sigh, I backed away just as the younger brother left the room.
The eldest and the acolyte exchanged a look before returning to their work.
I considered my options. I’d never gain any valuable insight into this family by watching them through their window.
If I couldn’t hear what they were saying, if they never went anywhere other than the ridiculous Third Ring jobs they still clung to for some reason, I would never learn a thing about them, which meant I would never understand her. And that just wouldn’t do.
Tapping a toe on the lush grass, I thought about ways I might gain an ear into the Bexley household in addition to an eye. Still thinking, I turned, then froze.
She was staring at me over the top of the fence that stood between the Bexley household and her own.
A faded, graying old thing that spoke volumes about how long it had been since Adrian’s family’s new home was last inhabited.
She had wide hazel eyes and a mop of strawberry blonde hair on her head which hung well past the freckles on her face to just below her shoulders.
I was caught, we both knew it, but I wasn’t the sort to ever admit I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be.
So, instead of muttering some excuse and bolting, I met her stare with one of my own and let my lips spread into a challenging grin.
With a soft gasp, she dropped below the fence line and I saw her running back into her own house a moment later.
Snickering, I turned on my heel and sauntered back through the yard toward the street beyond.
I’d just pulled my boot through the bushes when a long suffering sigh filled the night. I grimaced before turning slowly to face him.
Milo was resplendent in his pale blue blazer, collared shirt, and white fitted pants, as always.
Even his pristine leather shoes shimmered in the moonlight.
His chestnut curls bounced around his ears as he shook his head and I could feel the disappointment radiating off of him even though I couldn’t see his face.
“Honestly, Olympia,” he tsked.
Irritation welled up within me so suddenly, I clenched my fists at my sides to keep from swinging one at him.
“Nice to see dear grandmother lets one of us out of our cage now and then,” I sneered.
Stepping toward him on the street, I performed my signature move, crossing my arms and glaring at him from beneath my bangs.
“You know you aren’t in a cage, Olympia,” Milo replied in that indifferent monotone which always got under my skin much more effectively than any sort of emotional outburst. “If you would only follow grandmother’s rules for a little while, you’d earn her trust back again, easily.
But you insist on taking these little jaunts down here late at night, and for what?
What is it you hope to gain from them? You can’t bring him back.
No matter how hard you try or how badly you want to. Harassing this poor family won’t—”
“You don’t know shit about me, cousin. You never have.”
Milo raised a brow but remained silent for a time. I did as well, though more out of spite than for lack of anything to say.
“You have a massive estate to roam about freely,” he said after a moment.
“You have access to a library full of books, a kitchen full of food, sparring grounds and exercise arenas. You have luxury most only dream of and yet you call it a cage. You speak of your home as if it’s a prison.
You may think I don’t understand you, and maybe I don’t, not entirely, but I know one thing for certain.
You have not known suffering, true suffering, a day in your life.
You’ve never starved or worked or rationed your water.
And you’ve never had to because of grandmother.
So act like a spoiled toddler all you want but do it from the confines of our home where she ordered you to remain. ”
I fought to keep my reaction at bay. I couldn’t lie, Milo’s honesty was a surprise.
Not that Milo wasn’t usually honest. In fact, my cousin was often brutally so.
But he’d been tiptoeing around me for so long now, just like all the others, in recognition of what I’d lost. He’d allowed me my grief, given me time, and provided me with the space I needed to heal.
Now, he was apparently done with the coddling.
“You have no idea,” I ground out, my voice a dangerous whisper, riding the knife’s edge of fury.
“You’ve never cared about anyone enough to feel the pain of losing them.
You hold yourself in such high esteem, keeping all this distance between yourself and the rest of us.
You only let Adrian get close because you knew she couldn’t challenge you as a Third Ringer. She was too weak.”
“Apparently not.”
My words had been harsh, meant to hurt, but Milo had responded with bland apathy.
No matter how awful the things I said to him were, no matter how much time I spent sharpening my words into blades meant to pierce and maim, he maintained his composure.
My cousin was like a steel wall, impenetrable and unaffected by the weaponry hurled against him.
Or perhaps he simply knew I didn’t mean it.
“Come home,” he said. His tone made it clear it was not a request. “Grandmother wishes to speak with you.”
I’d known this was coming. From the moment I left my room behind, slipped out through the window, and scurried down the slippery glass walls, I knew where my night would end. So I scoffed, strode past my cousin, and headed back up the stairs toward House Avus and my grandmother’s room within.