“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 untilafterthe Trials.”
Cosmo’s gaze flicked to his grandson. I could have sworn I felt Dante tense behind me but his grandfather must havebeen 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 inthe 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—”
