Chapter Thirty-Three #3
Dahlia was sitting up a bit now, glancing from me to Wolf, wide-eyed. Pax shifted uncomfortably in the corner as if fearing I was moments away from handing over one of the best kept secrets of this city.
“I invited you here to negotiate but I’ll remind you which of us truly has more to lose here,” I told him, letting the authority ooze into my tone.
I didn’t like speaking down to him like this, didn’t like feeling that superiority I’d had bred into me and had since been trying to forget, but he’d threatened this city, my city, and left me no choice.
“You have access to very many angry people who may or may not be willing to die for your cause of equality, but I have the resources, the knowledge, and, frankly, the high ground. A violent assault would only end badly for your people. So let’s do this the right way.
Let me show you how seriously I value a partnership with the lower rings and how dedicated I am to improving the standard of living down on the Third and the Deck.
Give me the time I need to do so or I turn off the tap, literally. ”
Wolf’s eyes narrowed and that fire burned brighter behind them but I knew he understood my threat for what it was.
“And how are you going to prove you’re willing to work with us?” he bit out angrily a moment later. “How are we supposed to believe you actually see yourselves on the same level as us after centuries of your superiority complexes?”
I couldn't help my gaze drifting to Olympia.
“I’m working on that,” I muttered and my cousin stiffened.
Wolf mumbled something that sounded a lot like a curse before rising to his feet.
“You have a week, rich boy,” he spat. “After that, all the threats in the world won’t matter. I won’t be able to stop them from tearing down your gates even if I used my own body to do so.”
I watched him for a moment, caught off guard by the admission that he might not be as in control of this rebellion as he wanted to seem, but then reached out and shook his hand. Dahlia watched us, bored expression back in place, before standing and glancing at Olympia.
“I assume you want me to take him back now?” she droned indifferently.
“Do you want company?” my cousin asked from the shadows.
“No,” Dahlia replied, shaking her head. “I’m not afraid of him.”
Wolf hissed out another curse but followed after Dahlia when she turned to make her way to the door.
I wanted to call out to her then, needed to know where she stood in all this and why she seemed to hate the man called Wolf nearly more than I did, but I couldn’t while he was around.
So I let her go and made a mental note to reach out to her again as soon as I could or at least send Olympia to do so.
Pax followed them out, joining Cleo to ensure they left the premises without incident, and I turned to Olympia before she could slip out as well.
“I need you to try something for me,” I told her, reaching down to open the top left drawer of my desk. I frowned down at the glowing necklace the second I could see it sitting there, nestled against a stack of old letters.
“That thing again?” she asked, peering over my shoulder as I stepped aside and gestured down at it.
“Put it on.”
Always the suspicious one, she looked down at it and frowned before glancing back up at me.
“Why?” she asked.
I sighed, punching the bridge of my nose.
“Just do it,” I told her. “Please.”
After only a moment of hesitation, she reached down and extracted it from the drawer.
She turned it side to side, examining it slowly before unclasping the chain and reaching up to drape it over her neck.
She cocked her head to the side to clasp the chain back and then pulled her hair out of it before looking down at where it rested against her chest. She watched it for a moment, pulsing quietly against her skin, before looking back up at me.
“It’s still ugly as shit,” she said.
I snorted and shook my head.
“You don’t hear him either,” I whispered quietly, in awe.
“Who–” she started, brows furrowed, but I was already opening another drawer and pulling Eximius’ journal out of it, already heading for the door.
“I need you to come with me,” I told her. “Bring that. I don’t want to touch it.”
She blinked at me for a moment as if I’d lost my mind but then hastened to join me, the necklace still bouncing against her chest.
She followed me into the hall and we both strode quickly through it, taking a circuitous route to avoid where Pax and Cleo had likely escorted Wolf and Dahlia out.
Olympia didn’t ask any questions about why I was avoiding our cousins even when we stepped out into the night using a side door that was only ever used when Aunt Helena had too much to drink and came to vomit in the bushes where she thought no one noticed.
In fact, my cousin didn’t say a word until I descended to the Second and set a course straight for the House of Harlowe with that journal tucked beneath my arm.
“Milo,” she said warily just after I marched up to the gate and began shouting for Jude to come out at once. Olympia’s eyes darted around us as the member of the House by the door ran inside with wide eyes to relay my message. “You aren’t supposed to be below the First. If anyone sees you–”
“They’ll tell Cosmo,” I finished for her. “Or Nascha, or Raghnall, or maybe even Wolf. It doesn’t matter. We need this information, Olympia, especially if Bade is sniffing around for it as well. We’re out of time.”
Her eyes widened.
“You think Cosmo is after the journal?” she whispered in disbelief. “But how–why? How would he even know it exists?”
“Not the journal,” I clarified, giving a pointed glance at the necklace she now wore.
Her lips parted and her fingers went up to grip the pendant in her surprise.
“Do you have any idea what time it is, Milo?” Jude’s annoyed tone could be heard throughout the courtyard as he took his time strolling to his own gate. “Honestly, creating a scene like this is precisely why I told you–”
He froze, the words dying on his tongue as his gaze found the soft glow upon Olympia’s breast. I smiled, victoriously. He’d deny it. Of course, he would deny he knew anything about the jewel, but it was too late now. I’d seen his reaction.
“That…” he started, eyes bulging as he trailed off. “Where did you get that?”
“The journal, Jude,” I demanded, digging in my heels so he knew I wouldn’t budge on this. “Now.”
His eyes shot to mine and he blinked once more.
“Yes,” he agreed much more readily than I thought, “but not out here.”
That easily, the gate clicked open and slid aside and Olympia and I were entering the House of Harlowe as the first outsiders to do so since the lockdown occurred.