Chapter 22 #2
In the dimly lit interior door of the acolyte’s quarters, Bria stood with wide eyes and a horrified expression. Her cheeks turned beet red as she glanced sharply away.
“I didn’t see anything,” she said quickly. “I mean—I didn’t—“
“It’s alright, Bria,” Dante assured her with a grin. “We’re the ones in your space. We’ll get out of your hair.”
“No, I—“
He raised a brow at her objection and she blushed even more furiously.
“I mean, I was looking for Adrian,” she explained.
I stepped forward. “Bria?”
“Yes. Um, I—your mother is here. She’s asking for you."
***
“Adrian?”
Just beyond the monstrosity of wrought iron lining the estate stood my mother, waving a hand hesitantly, an expression of concern plain on her face.
“Mother?” I hurried forward to meet her. “How did you get here?”
“I told the guard at the gate that I was coming to see you. He didn’t want to let me through but I…well, I—” A muffled sob escaped her, and she partially collapsed into my arms.
“Come inside,” Dante told her, having apparently followed me across the yard. He threw the gate open and gestured us forward.
I deposited my mother on the stone bench near the gardens. Dante asked if we wanted any refreshments, but I sent him away with murmured reassurance. Once he was gone, I sat next to my mother.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked.
She turned to me, eyes moist with unshed tears.
“I begged him, Adrian,” she replied, still sniffling. “I told him that the tribunal wouldn’t look kindly upon his going against their judgment, but he wouldn’t listen. He just wouldn’t—”
“Who? What are you talking about?”
“Warren. He’s planning on marrying that girl.”
“Dahlia, mother. You know her name.”
She nodded and tugged a raggedy handkerchief from her pocket to dab her eyes and blow her nose.
“He said he was still going to do it,” she finished, voice cracking.
“He went to find her just this morning. I begged him not to. I pleaded with him to see reason. The tribunal issued their judgement. She’s meant to be a Decker.
If he were to marry her now and bring her up to our level… I worry what the tribunal will do.
“Adrian, please, you have to speak to Cosmo. We have to get in front of this before it costs us everything. I know your brother’s heart is in the right place and, truthfully, I’m proud of him for his decision, but they could humble us too! All of us. And who would benefit then?”
As she spoke, a nagging sensation swirled in my very core, like the tether to Dante in the very first Trial. Only this time, it wasn’t magic pulling me toward something better, some greater purpose. It was rage uncoiling and unravelling my tenuous grip on sanity.
I rose abruptly.
“I’ll fetch Bria,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “She will see you back home safely.”
I stormed away in search of House Viper’s patriarch, leaving my mother weeping on the stone bench nestled within the ancient garden.
Warren was doing the right thing. That was what I told myself as I searched.
He was saving Dahlia, which was precisely what I would be doing if I found myself in any position to offer such salvation.
But he was taking a risk as well. He was risking offending the tribunal in the hopes that his candidate sister could fix the wreckage before it affected our family.
And I didn’t appreciate being thrust into this gamble without my knowledge.
Where is your grandfather? I asked noiselessly as I strode through the empty foyer and descended the short steps to the great room below.
I don’t know. I haven’t seen him all day, Dante replied. Why? What’s happened?
I need to speak with him. It’s urgent. Perhaps you should be there as well. You would serve to remind him of just how much he’s invested in me.
I strode purposefully through room after room, ignoring the servants bowing to me and the other members of House Viper jumping out of my way, stopping only once to send a maid scurrying after Bria with a request to retrieve my mother.
For a moment, I considered that Dante might not respond. Partner or not, he didn’t owe me this. But his answer came a moment later.
He’s in the drawing room. I’ll meet you there.
Relieved by Dante’s decision, I turned and made my way to the elaborately decorated room located behind the dining room of the mansion where the elders of the family sometimes adjourned to drink or smoke and talk about the issues that plagued the lower rings which they hadn’t an interest in or a knowledge of.
“Cosmo,” I said as I strode through the door.
“Adrian,” he replied in greeting. He sat leaned back in an enormous recliner with a pipe in his mouth, reading an old book. “Come to rage about your friend once more?”
I kept my temper in check, only clenching my fists at my sides to keep myself from flying off the handle. Behind me, Dante slipped inside the room. If Cosmo noticed his arrival, he gave no indication.
“I’ve come to ask for your help. For my family.”
He raised a brow and slowly drew his gaze away from his book to me. He watched me for a moment, as if trying to decide if I were serious, before setting his book aside and folding his hands together upon his lap, waiting for me to continue.
“My brother was practically engaged to the woman you stripped of her titles,” I spat. There was no sense in beating around the bush. I wasn’t interested in playing games with him. Not when so much hung in the balance. “It seems as though her punishment hasn’t swayed his course.”
Cosmo’s jaw twitched, the only sign of his anger. “You mean to tell me that the brother of a candidate, elevated to the Second Ring of our society, above any station he has ever seen or could have ever hoped to see without you, is intending to marry a humbled Decker and bring her up to his level?”
I tensed but nodded.
Cosmo rose, his robes pooling around him as he stood, and glared at me. “Your brother intends to subvert the will of the tribunal.”
It wasn’t a question.
“No,” I answered anyway. “Warren isn’t—this isn’t political.
It’s not about the rings or the tribunal or even challenging your authority.
It’s about Dahlia. It’s always been about her, about helping her.
Whether it’s out of pity or a sense of duty, I don’t know.
But he was intending to marry her before her punishment, and he intends to marry her now. ”
“So what is it you want from me?” Cosmo snapped.
“For whatever care you have for me, little though it may be, do not seek punishment for my brother.”
There it was. The request was made. Now, I could only wait. And wait I did.
Cosmo’s eyes ticked up to his grandson, still standing behind me. Dante leaned against the bookshelf at his back, arms crossed and lips set in a firm line. He didn’t say a word but merely stared back at him. Cosmo turned away and paced to the other side of the room.
“You’ve done nothing but question my authority since the day you arrived,” he said, and my shoulders sagged in despair.
“You fight me at every turn. You’re too angry to be honed, too stubborn to be taught, and too careless to be helped.
You despise the wealthy and rage against the Geist. You’re every bit the picture of the barbaric Third Ringer our class has painted you to be. ”
I clenched my fists tighter but held my tongue.
“And yet,” he continued, “you remain. You press on, Trial after Trial, despite your gross inabilities and your open hatred of the gods. It’s perplexing. It calls into question everything I am and everything I’ve done to see my family succeed.”
He turned to face me. There was a fire behind his eyes I’d never seen before.
“I am bound to you, Adrian, whether I like it or not. And I’ll be damned if I’m not just as eager to see how this whole thing plays out as everyone else.
If, as you say, your brother’s actions were not made with malice in an effort to subvert the will of the tribunal, I’ll give you my word that I won’t seek his punishment. ”
A wave of relief washed over me, and I relished it, grinning like a fool.
“But,” he cut through my joy with a crooked finger in the air, “I want something in return.”
“Anything,” I breathed.
His lips spread into a slow grin as his gaze flicked to his grandson.
“Heirs,” he drawled.
My heart stopped and my jaw dropped. “You can’t possibly think—”
“You and my grandson are the most powerful pair of candidates in five hundred years. I can only imagine what your offspring might be capable of.”
“Fuck you.”
“Not me. Him.” He pointed at his grandson, and my cheeks burned.
I narrowed my gaze at the Viper patriarch and wondered. Did he already know? He couldn’t. Could he?
“Don’t do this, grandfather,” Dante growled. He pushed off of the wall and stepped forward.
“They will likely strip your brother of his rank as well,” Cosmo said easily. “Strip your whole family, most likely. All of the hard work you’ve done, the progress you’ve made, your candidate status, none of it will matter. You’ll all be humbled by the very Tribunal whose ruling you ignored.”
“How dare you,” I snarled, hands shaking at my sides.
“This was always how it was going to be, girl,” Cosmo spat. “There is only one use I have for you here. It’s all your kind is ever good for. It—”
“Fine,” Dante said, and I whirled to face him. “Save her family, leave the girl alone, let them claim the marriage. Then we’ll talk.”
Cosmo raised a brow. “Truly? You’ll entertain this now? After so long of trying to convince you?”
“Will you save them?” Dante asked, jaw ticking with barely restrained fury.
Cosmo’s grin was wicked across his wizened old face.
“I will.” He returned to his seat, smiling broadly up at us, his fingers templed in front of him. “Of course, I’m only one of three. If House Lynx and House Avus intend to seek your brother’s punishment, I’ll be outnumbered.”
“Leave that to me,” I snapped at him, having already considered this. “Just hold up your end, you old shit.”