Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Unify yourselves in strength. The only way that Sanctuary can hope to survive is through the careful, methodical curation of bloodlines. The weak will be cast down so that the rest may live.”
-Quote from an Anonymous Founder, Lost Texts of Legend, Date Unknown
Before Dante and I could rise to meet the day on our own terms the next morning, we were summoned to the patriarch’s office.
Cautious, we made our way through the darkened halls to the propped-open door above.
Cosmo sat behind his desk, his cold, cruel gaze settling on his grandson who followed me into the room before standing, clenching his jaw, against the opposite wall.
Dante? I asked.
He didn’t respond, but his lip twitched as the only acknowledgement that he’d heard me through our mental bond. Frowning, I strode deeper into the room and faced Cosmo.
“What’s this about?”
“I’m certain you already know.” Cosmo leaned forward and clasped his hands together over his desk, his gaze swiveling from me to his grandson and back. “Your decision, Dante.”
“We need more time,” I blurted. “We’ve been so busy training. We haven’t had time to properly discuss—”
“I gave you one month,” Cosmo spat. “You’ve had two.”
“Two in which we’ve defeated two more Trials,” I snapped back at him, glaring. I stepped closer to his desk.
The old man rose slowly, the sleeves of his robe falling down around his arms and pooling on the wood surface against which he leaned.
I kept my eyes on his, despite how obviously he was trying to intimidate me.
Not this time. I raised my chin and stood my ground against the patriarch of House Viper.
“I don’t have to give him a choice at all,” Cosmo ground out through gritted teeth.
“I already have an offer on the table from a willing participant of a fellow High House, a young woman who successfully made it through several Trials of her own. She may not be the best available option, but if my grandson refuses to convince you to reproduce with him, then she is a satisfactory alternative. I could have made the arrangements with Nascha the moment she offered them. The only reason I’ve held out at all has been in the hopes that the both of you might see reason.
But I see now I was entirely too optimistic.
A mistake I won’t repeat. As of tomorrow evening, Dante, you’ll be betrothed to Olympia of House Avus, and I expect—”
“I’ll do it.”
Cosmo nearly snapped his neck, he turned to look at me so fast. Dante shifted toward me slower, gaze narrowing in a mixture of concern and confusion.
Don’t, he warned. You don’t understand what you’re agreeing to.
We’re in this together, I reminded him. My mind was already spinning with one single plan, one possible chance to buy us just a little more time. Do you trust me?
“Well, it’s the least you can do seeing as you’ve already agreed to this match in return for your family’s survival,” Cosmo muttered, interrupting mine and Dante’s conversation without knowing. Still annoyed but obviously feeling victorious, he sat back down and readjusted his robes around him.
Adrian—
I asked you not to marry her, I said.
Wanting me to not marry Olympia is not the same as wanting to marry me yourself.
Do you trust me?
He frowned, his eyes boring into mine with an intensity only he’s ever seemed capable of.
Unquestionably, he answered quietly. Then his tone changed to sorrow and I heard the warning in his voice as it entered my mind. You’ll never be free of me.
I think we’re past that point already, Viper.
I wiggled my brows to indicate the sheer fact that we’d had this entire conversation in our minds, and his lips quirked up a little in response.
“Obviously, I have no idea what you’re saying to one another right now,” Cosmo interrupted, pulling us out of our mental conversation. “But I take my grandson’s smile to mean you’ve reached an agreement.”
“We have an offer for you,” I told him, turning my full attention to the patriarch of House Viper. “You can make whatever announcement you wish for appearances’ sake, but you don’t actually hold us to anything until after the Trials.”
Cosmo’s gaze flicked to his grandson. I could have sworn I felt Dante tense behind me but his grandfather must have been receptive to whatever he saw in his expression because he grunted and, with a nod, pushed something toward me. “Here.”
It caught the light and glittered from all angles. Sitting on his desk between us was a green velvet box containing a shimmering golden band with an enormous emerald dazzling atop it.
I gaped down at it. “Is that…”
“Your engagement ring,” Cosmo replied, gruffly, as if such a thing were a waste of his time to explain.
“You’ll wear it at all times when you’re in public.
The announcement will be made tomorrow. You can expect swarms of congratulations as Sanctuary rejoices in its most profound pairing of the last millennia.
” His gaze narrowed. “Well? Are you going to take it, girl? Or are you waiting for him to put it on you?”
I snatched it from the desk but didn’t slide it onto my finger.
Cosmo glared at me before turning to Dante. “I knew you would make the right choice, my boy. You always do.”
The praise didn’t seem to be an encouragement to Dante. He clenched his jaw harder before turning and storming from the room.
With one final glare toward the patriarch of House Viper, I followed after my betrothed as he marched through the dark and empty hallways in brooding silence.
I was beginning to wonder if he would even speak to me at all when we finally strode out into the night and he whirled to face me just outside of the garden.
“I’m sorry,” he spat.
Brows furrowed, I cocked my head to the side. “About what?”
He just stared at me as if I’d utterly lost my mind before giving a pointed glance to the ring in my hand.
“You didn’t have to do that. I didn’t want you to do that.
I didn’t want any of this. I’ve never had any control in my life, Adrian.
I don’t want that for you too. I don’t want that for anyone. ”
“But wouldn’t it be so wonderful to get married and raise that asshole’s precious grandkids in a run-down apartment in the Third Ring surrounded by the people he hates?” I asked sarcastically, smiling at my own joke.
Dante scoffed, shaking his head, but I saw the smile he tried to hide as he turned away. Still, he ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath.
“I’ll be a good husband,” he vowed, tone firm and intense as he approached me again.
“I’ll be there for you, Adrian, in whatever capacity you want me to be.
I know we didn’t plan for this, that neither of us wanted it.
But now that it’s happening, now that you’ve got that ring and the whole of Sanctuary is going to know you’re to be my bride, you need to know that I’m going to do everything I can to be a good husband. ”
“Dante—”
“I’ll provide for you. I’ll be true to you even if you aren’t to me. There won’t be anyone else. If you need me, I’ll be there. If you or your family needs me—”
“Dante, wait. Please just slow down.”
He paused but that intense gaze remained on me. “If we’re doing this, Adrian, I’m going to do it right.”
I watched him for a moment longer, lips parted in surprise at the sincerity in his tone. I blinked against it, coming back to the present, remembering my plan.
“I only agreed to buy us more time, Dante,” I told him. “After the Trials, we can find a way out of it. You could leave the First Ring and come down to the Second with me or we could even hide out in the Third for a while. He knows where my apartment is but Graham and Sophie have a place by…what?”
I trailed off when I realized he was just standing there, grinning at me.
“What is it?” I asked, brows furrowed in confusion.
“Ironically, I’m starting to think the Geist know what they’re doing after all.”
“What do you—“
He cut me off with a kiss, pressing his lips against mine with such force I found myself backed against the wall behind me. His body crowded mine as our mouths moved together and I thought, perhaps, I might have understood what he meant.
Honor and freedom. Those were the things that mattered most to Dante of House Viper.
Family loyalties, wealth, friendship, all of that seemed to come and go for him, and he allowed it, hardly bothered by their passing.
But when someone questioned his honor or backed him into a corner and forced him to make a decision he otherwise wouldn’t, that was when he would get emotional, that was when he would rise to the occasion and take action.
My plan wasn’t perfect. In fact, I could point out a dozen possible ways it could turn out poorly for us.
And I recognized that it was really just pushing our problems aside for later, problems we would still have to face eventually, decisions we’d have to make someday.
But still, I knew he recognized my option for what it was.
The only one that gave him even a chance of freedom.
So he kissed me gratefully, our bodies connecting alongside our souls. Because I was the only one who understood how trapped he felt. And I was the only one trying to free him.
When his lips moved to the soft skin of my neck, I suppressed a shiver and pushed him away.
He raised a brow in surprise at my withdrawal but I only grinned back, hand still firmly on his chest.
“We’re late for training.”