Chapter Twenty-Three #2
“Cora of House Avus is pregnant,” Cosmo said as his greeting as he shut the door to his office. He settled in behind his desk, keen eyes cast over us, narrowed with purpose. I considered the name. It sounded familiar.
Milo! Cora was supposed to have been Milo’s original partner before the Trials paired him up with someone else.
“She only passed one Trial, and the child’s father did even less than that. No one is expecting great things from that child. But that hasn’t kept Nascha from bragging about it at every turn.
“She’s made me an offer, Dante. And I thought that Adrian, as your partner, should know about it. Particularly because of the arrangement we made to assist her brother in subverting the will of the tribunal.”
My fists clenched at my sides. I wasn’t going to like whatever Cosmo was about to say.
“Nascha has offered Olympia as your bride.”
My gaze whipped to Dante, whose eyes shuttered even though not a single muscle in his body slackened and not an ounce of his expression shifted.
He maintained that carefully indifferent expression even in the face of such monumental news.
But I’d stared into his gaze enough times by now to understand when the emotional door had slammed shut.
“She understands that we may have…other arrangements,” Cosmo spoke, glancing my way. “But apparently the girl herself requested she make the offer.”
My jaw tensed. I’d been right about the matriarch of House Avus. Scheming bitch.
Dante wasn’t mine. He wasn’t a scrap of meat for Olympia and I to brawl over like two rabid dogs in the street. And yet, her overreach, the audacity of the attempt she was making to claim him for herself, knowing that the Geist had paired us together, made me see red.
“Is this how the First Ring remains in power?” I asked. Cosmo’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t look my way, keeping his eyes firmly on his grandson. “The sale of your very own family in an exchange of flesh?”
“Shut up, foolish girl.” Cosmo quipped before turning back to his grandson. “It seems you have two options. One that is willing, and one that is…dare I say, better. At least, for breeding purposes.”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes and crossing my arms.
“You have a month to decide.”
Cosmo delivered that final blow as if it were nothing to him, as though he were asking Dante to choose between two strips of cloth with which to set the table. He waved a hand in dismissal, and Dante turned on his heel and stalked out the door.
I stared after him in shock.
Dante.
I tried reaching out across our mental bond but didn’t get a reply.
Dante.
I followed him out of his grandfather’s office and halfway down the hall, but he ignored me.
“Dante,” I said aloud.
Finally, he whirled around.
“I would never ask it of you,” he growled.
I halted directly in front of him, having nearly run right into him when he stopped, my face only inches from his. His green eyes blazed and his jaw ticked with barely restrained rage, his chest heaving against mine.
“I know,” I breathed.
He blinked, eyes flashing once before he stepped away.
“I’ve known this was coming.” Dante turned away from me and began to pace. He ran a hand through his hair. “Since I was a child, I’ve known that all of this would be arranged for me someday. I even expected it to be Olympia, but now that it’s here, now that it’s time, I don’t—I can’t—”
“I know.” I reached out and grasped his hand.
He looked down at the contact, gaze remaining on our joined fingers as he swallowed.
“I don’t want her,” he confessed so quietly, I had to lean forward to hear him.
“Then don’t have her,” I whispered back.
His eyes shot up to mine. There was so much meaning in them, so much unsaid between us, so much we still hadn’t spoken of no matter how many times I’d found myself in his bed, beneath him, entwined with him, these past months.
There was something delicate about that part of our relationship, something far more terrifying than deadly Trials or elitist expectations.
We were both afraid that if we talked about it, it would become real. And if it was real, it could hurt us.
“I—I don’t know—” I stuttered, my cheeks prickling with heat. His lips quirked up into a mischievous smirk. I sighed, and dropped his hand. “We’ll find a way around it. We could chop your balls off. It would be hard for your grandpa to come sniffing after heirs then.”
Dante chuckled darkly at that, lopsided grin on his lips.
“I thought you liked my balls,” he drawled.
I punched him in the shoulder.
“The Trials have to be more important, right?” I said. "If we can complete all ten, Cosmo will have to let you do whatever you want, right? I mean, you’d basically be gods-chosen at that point.”
Dante frowned, looking away from me, but gave a curt nod in answer a few moments later. I exhaled, relieved that he was willing to put this off for a while longer.
“I suppose that means we have a month to train for the sixth,” I said.
He nodded slowly.
I left him with his thoughts after reaching out to give his hand one final squeeze, then made my way back down the hall toward the room I’d occupied since my arrival at House Viper, trying to ignore the squeezing sensation closing in around my heart.