Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Olympia
Ishould have known Luca would skip the party.
Luckily, my former partner had never been the most observant, so I still had no trouble sneaking into his family home once all his aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings had vacated for the evening.
After entering through the low windows of the basement where Raghnall kept all his best liquor, I'd wasted no time swiping a bottle and making my way through the dark crimson halls of House Lynx.
I kept to the shadows, whiskey bottle dangling from my fingers.
I didn't take the first sip until I reached Raghnall's study. Running my fingers along the spines of books that clearly hadn't been opened in half a century, I tipped the bottle to my lips and took a deep drink. Setting it on the immaculately dusted bookshelf, I turned and headed for the desk.
Raghnall wasn't studious but he was meticulous.
Every letter was folded neatly and stacked in designated piles as part of an organizational system I wasn't neurotic enough to understand.
Three golden pens sat side by side, exactly a centimeter apart, and a crisp, clean notepad lay on the corner of the walnut desk, empty lines open to the recessed lighting above.
I poked and prodded the panels of the walls as I passed, leaning in close to examine anything that didn't appear to belong, but I found nothing as I approached the desk and, instead, looked down at the stationary arranged upon it.
Perfect, immaculate, neat. The pride of House Lynx.
I rolled my eyes and, grinning, turned the end of the left pen with one finger until it was only slightly askew.
With a snort, I shook my head and turned around.
Behind me, against the deep burgundy walls, rested a painting in a golden filigree frame.
I cocked my head to the side and examined the strange creature staring back at me.
Olive eyes and pointed ears with black tufts shooting off the tips, the beast looked not unlike some of the stray cats I'd seen wandering around the lower levels.
There was something fiercer to it, though, something more wild, primal.
Shrugging, I reached up and gripped the bottom corners of the frame in each hand.
With a grunt, I lifted and eased it off the wall.
It was heavy enough that I feared I might pull every muscle in my back as I lowered it down to the wall below despite the enhanced strength I’d earned for the last trial I’d completed.
When I stood, however, I was greeted with the sight of exactly what I'd come looking for.
Nestled into the wall and hidden behind the painting sat a massive metal safe.
So the rumors of Raghnall's greed were true.
What was it he kept hidden away? What was he stockpiling to profit off of once the Vipers cast Sanctuary into turmoil after whipping up enough religious fervor to do so?
I leaned in to peer down at the lock and frowned.
A keypad. There was a code and I didn't know it.
I glanced back over my shoulder at the letters on his desk.
Raghnall wasn't the brightest but he didn't strike me as dull enough to leave the passcode to his safe lying around in the very same room the safe occupied.
Yet I didn't have time to search the rest of the house. Even if I had the time, I couldn’t be sure it would be written down anywhere at all.
It would be a waste of my valuable time to search for something that may not exist. I still had one stop to make this evening.
There was, however, another option.
Without spending another second considering it, I pulled Raghnall's chair out and sat down. I swiveled until I faced the door and propped my feet up on the desk. Then I called him.
Your grandfather's whiskey is shit.
It took a moment. I imagined there was a bit of shock on the other end. I hadn't opened myself up to this form of communication in months, had never been fully open with it at all, but before I could start to doubt my plan, he replied.
Are you in my fucking house, Olympia?
I grinned and didn't answer.
Where are you? he snapped a minute later.
Want to play a game? I asked, drawing out every word.
I'd rather get back to my bed. I wasn't alone in it, you know.
You so rarely are. Who is it this time? Bade? Sebastian? I know Paxon wouldn't have missed Nascha's birthday.
Olympia, I swear to the Geist—
Office.
A few minutes later, I heard stomping in the hall. Luca stormed in soon after, shirt unbuttoned, hair disheveled, and pants unzipped. I snorted at the sight of him, leaned back further in the chair, and crossed my arms.
"I'm not even going to ask you how you got in," he snarled, gaze swiveling from me behind his grandfather's desk to the exposed safe at my back to the open bottle of whiskey on the bookshelf. "Did you steal his liquor?"
"Obviously."
Luca stopped in the center of the room and took a deep breath. I watched him try to regain his composure and couldn't help but grin.
"What, in the Geist's name, has you waltzing into my home like you own the place in the dead of night, much less stealing my grandfather's liquor and snooping through his stuff?" he asked, trying very hard to practice some modicum of patience.
"What's the code to the safe?
His jaw popped open slightly in surprise and then he began shaking his head.
"No," he told me. "Absolutely not. There's no way I'm opening that for you. I haven't even heard from you since the Third and now you come strolling in here asking for favors?"
"We agreed on a clean break," I reminded him, smile vanishing.
"Then why are you summoning me at two in the morning?"
I glared at him as my frown deepened. Leaning forward in the chair, I dropped my feet from the desk and met his stare.
"Raghnall and Nascha have a meeting arranged for this week," I told him. "Your grandfather wouldn't even entertain the possibility of an alliance with our House unless there was something in it for him. What does he want?"
Luca eyed me shrewdly, his annoyance turning into suspicion.
"Grandpa only knows of two ways to make an alliance," he said, slowly. "Money, which we have more than enough of, and…"
His eyes swept over my body and I stiffened.
"I thought we went over why that wasn't going to work," I growled, tone low and furious.
"With us, it won't," Luca replied with a shrug. "But you weren't the only candidate from Avus the gods paired with someone from Lynx."
My brow furrowed as I considered what he was saying.
It was impossible to keep the memories from resurfacing given the topic of conversation.
I couldn't help but think of the day I'd been paired with Luca and brought to Lynx to present ourselves to his patriarch, just as we would do for Nascha later.
Raghnall had taken one look at me and proclaimed I'd make suitable great-grandchildren for him.
Luca had only nodded, all of this having been expected, and escorted me out of his House back toward Avus.
I'd fumed the rest of the week but hadn't said a word about it.
Until I'd caught Luca in the steam room of the Mitte with a slightly older cousin of Dante's who was nearly as handsome.
That had shut any fears of being turned into an object of sexual gratification for a husband I hadn't asked for and barely knew right down.
He'd promised me I wouldn't be forced into anything, no matter what Raghnall said and, despite my best efforts, I'd actually started to like him. Still, I’d known I wouldn’t have a future with him or Dante. I’d gone from the highly trained, gifted daughter of Avus to a failure rejected by not one but two partners. That had hurt.
But Luca was right. I wasn’t the only member of House Avus paired with someone from House Lynx.
“Milo,” I breathed as understanding dawned upon me. My wide eyes drifted up to where Luca stood, watching me and waiting. “You can’t be serious. He and Isla failed the Second.”
”What your illustrious cousin lacks in strength, he makes up for in title.”
I shook my head slowly, thinking through the ramifications of Raghnall’s demands. Nascha wouldn’t do it, would she? Milo was the golden son, the favorite, the Heir. She wouldn’t sell his future to a weak little redhead just to beat Cosmo at his own game, would she?
Without a word, I got to my feet.
“Don’t do this, Olympia,” Luca said and something flashed in his eyes as I turned away from him.
I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t have called him like that. It was a door that should have remained closed.
“Don’t just leave again,” Luca pled with me as I strode past him to the door. “Can we at least talk about it? You never even came to talk about it. After everything we went through, everything between us, you just—"
“A clean break, Luca,” I snapped, interrupting him as I whirled to face my former partner in the threshold of his grandfather’s office, a place neither one of us was supposed to be. “We promised.”
“But why?”
“You know why.”
I glared at him. How dare he pretend he didn’t know the rules just as well as I did.
How dare he act like he wasn’t aware there were only three options once you found yourself paired by the Geist. Win, marry, or ignore.
That was it. We’d been taught those options since birth.
We hadn’t won and marriage wasn’t an option so I’d had to cut him off. It was our only choice.
“We could be friends, Olympia,” he tried and I did my best to ignore the pain in his tone.
“No. We can’t.”
“Do you really think I’d use you like that? Do you really think I’d betray you and your whole House? You know me, Olympia, better than anyone else. Can you honestly look me in the eyes and claim to believe me capable of that sort of betrayal?”