Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
“We are all precious to the Geist but none are more precious than those who attempt to join them.”
Four months later, I wondered if I would grow gills at any moment.
Dante and I were spending more time in the pool than out.
The pads of my fingers were constantly pruned.
Just like the strength Trial, it seemed to be unspoken knowledge that the fourth Trial had something to do with swimming.
Every time I thought too much about what it might be, I remembered Dahlia dragging Cyrus’s limp form out of the fourth tunnel, soaking wet, and I quickly moved my thoughts along to something else.
I’d become a veritable fish these past months and had begun outpacing the younger kids in the pool.
Nearly five months couldn’t possibly measure up to Dante’s lifetime of swim training, but I was confident enough that I no longer waited for my partner to join me if I arrived at the Mitte first for our training.
He was impressed, though he would never say so, and I was proud at my ability to pick up such a foreign skill so quickly.
We hadn’t spoken of what had almost happened between us that night at Cosmo’s party.
His grandfather’s vulgar announcement had given us both a lot to think about regarding our mutual attraction.
We were both stubborn enough to avoid caving to our baser urges simply to spite the Viper patriarch, but that left a lot of pent up frustration we each had apparently determined to work out in training.
Needless to say, my ass hit the dirt more times than I could count during those four months.
We still saw Olympia on a nearly constant basis.
She and her partner had passed the third Trial during the months we’d been training for our fourth, so they too were in the pool nearly every waking hour of the day.
We were the only two pairs remaining at this level of the Trials.
Everyone else had failed the second or the third or hadn’t tried either yet.
For the most part, she avoided me, and I avoided her, though we shot each other glares from time to time when our partners weren’t looking.
The way she watched after Dante when she thought I couldn’t see her, eyes wide and jaw slack like a lost puppy who’d been kicked by its master but just wouldn’t take the hint, irritated me.
Olympia’s partner, Luca, was nice enough.
He was the reigning champion of the Mitte’s insanely complex obstacle course.
I assumed Milo had told him about me after Cosmo’s party because he seemed to go out of his way to be friendly any time he saw me at training, despite the glares he earned from his partner for doing so.
Milo himself had become somewhat of a fixture around House Viper as well.
While I’d moved on with Bria from classes with the children to private tutoring in reading comprehension, Milo came to teach me the stories and the histories that weren’t strictly religious.
He brought ancient historical texts from the libraries of House Avus and guided me through passage after passage, always making me promise not to tell anyone that he’d borrowed the books before he left for the evening.
Bria worshipped the Geist. She taught me songs and passages from their Sacred Texts and promised blessings to follow studies.
Milo had no such compulsion. He was religious to an extent, but he was also dubious.
He questioned the nature of the Geist, the truth of the heroes, the plight of our kind.
He asked me what I thought the Culling was, a question that I’d always privately wondered but only dared to voice aloud on that day I’d exploded at some innocent Second Ringers and Cyrus had to drag me away.
Thinking of Cyrus and Darius had made me so despondent, Milo had ceased to mention the annual disappearances and stuck to legends and academic study instead.
He didn’t have to teach me. No one had asked him to. But he seemed to feel a personal responsibility to educate anyone he deemed lacking and, I liked to hope we were becoming friends.
It felt strange to be making a friend again. I felt almost guilty, as if I wasn’t honoring Darius’s memory in the way I’d set out to. But I had to remind myself that it would be uncharacteristic of Darius to expect me to remain friendless forever.
When I emerged from the Mitte one day after a particularly invigorating training session, leaving Dante behind as he’d claimed to want more weight training—as he always did now that we’d been gifted the Blessing of superior strength—Milo sat outside, waiting for me.
He’d plunked down on a bench nearby, an open book propped up on one leg.
Milo grinned when he saw me. He closed his tome and jogged over.
“How was it?” he asked the same way he did every day.
“I’m getting better at holding my breath.”
We set out on the path back to House Viper’s estate.
“Dante’s still not satisfied, though,” I muttered with a sigh. "He probably won’t be until I drown.”
Milo chortled. “Think you’re almost ready for the Trial?”
“Possibly. But it’s hard to know when you aren’t sure what to expect.”
“I overheard Olympia yesterday saying she and Luca were ready for their fourth.”
I jerked my head up. “Didn’t they just finish their third?”
He nodded.
“Grandmother says they’re rushing into things, but Olympia’s been…
” Milo glanced at me, then averted his eyes.
“It’s like she’s trying to compete with you, Adrian.
Passing three Trials is huge. Nearly every one of us in House Avus who goes through the Trials don’t make it past two.
But she’s not satisfied. And I don’t think she will be so long as you and Dante are ahead of her. ”
“What does Luca think about it?”
“Luca doesn’t take it so seriously. He and I never have. The Trials, for us, have always been about doing the best we can and what happens, happens. It’s easy to deal with failure when you’ve learned to expect it.”
“And difficult to deal with success when you don’t,” I added.
He smiled. “I imagine so.”
We’d reached the fork in the road which I would take left to go to House Viper and he would take the right to return to House Avus.
“Grandmother has asked me to invite you to dinner,” Milo said, almost sheepishly. “She says I spend too much time at Viper, so you should spend some time at Avus.”
I laughed.
“I’d be honored,” I told him. “But not tonight. I’ve got to stay at my own apartment every now and then or my roommate will turn it into a den of miscreants in my absence.”
He raised a brow but simply backed away down the appropriate path.
“I won’t keep you then.” Milo raised his hands in mock surrender after tucking his book into the crook of his arm and strode off toward home.
I grinned and turned left toward House Viper.
When I arrived, I strolled through the front doors, taking the stairs two at a time on my way to my room, nodding at servants I passed along the way. Once inside, I packed a few books I intended to read before bed and headed back out of the estate toward the eastern gate.
More people seemed to watch me as I passed, whispering to one another, smiling my way, nodding warmly in greeting.
It was awkward, and most of the time, I only managed an uncomfortable nod in return before lowering my head so my hair obscured my burning cheeks as I made my way down to the Third Ring.
The whole band was in my apartment when I entered. Harrison shot me one of his signature lopsided grins as I pulled my key from the lock and shut the door behind me.
“Feet off the coffee table, Pierson,” I barked at their frontman, Felix Pierson, who shot me a wink and took another sip of the alcohol in his cup that I could smell from the door.
I sighed and bent to collect a few discarded bottles, walking them to the trash.
“I didn’t know musicians were such animals. ”
“Don’t fuss, Adrian,” Harrison called out from where he leaned over the couch. “You know I’ll clean it all up.”
I knew he would. He always did. But maybe I was looking for a reason to be irritated.
The truth was, Harrison and his band had brought life back to the apartment in a way I never thought would happen again after Darius.
They were always here, hanging out or practicing, much to the chagrin of my landlord who’d come up to yell at us only once before scurrying back down to his dark basement when Dante had stepped forward with a growl and a reminder that House Viper was paying the rent.
I’d made sure to check with Mr. Stone and old Rosemary Marin afterwards though.
If either of them had issued a complaint, I would’ve told Harrison and his crew to knock it off.
But they both merely smiled and mentioned something about how it was nice to have music in the place again.
Even if it was just the grunge metal Harrison’s band preferred.
“Where’s your man?” Noah Rowley, the third and final member of Harrison’s band, said.
He could play anything from the strange stringed instruments they fashioned to the drums to little bits of metal arranged in a line and struck to form a lingering tune.
“I thought you two were practically joined at the hip.”
At the mind, actually, I thought but didn’t say aloud.
“We do live separate lives, you know,” I ground out, wrinkling my nose at a discarded bra slung over the back of one of my dining room chairs. I raised my brow as I turned to face them. “Belong to a friend of yours?”
“I wouldn’t say friend,” Felix replied with a wicked grin.
I rolled my eyes.
“I don’t have the patience for any more male arrogance today, Pierson,” I grumbled. "Just take your shit with you when you leave, women’s undergarments included.”
I strolled from the common area toward my bedroom.