“Don’t bother,” I snapped and strolled toward the door. “I won’t be imposing upon your hospitality any longer. Dante and I have two Trials left. I’ll be staying with my family from now on. If we actually make it to the tenth Trial, I’ll be grateful for the extra time I have with them anyway.”
I strode from his office and out the front door of House Viper. Even as I made my way down to the Second Ring and my anger began to dissipate as I thought of the look on Cosmo’s face, I couldn’t help thinking that perhaps that was something I should’ve done a long time ago.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“To be Culled is not to fail. It is, of course, not the chosen path for our candidates. But it is an honorable one all the same. Service to the Geist makes a soul whole regardless of the way in which we reach it.”
-Sermon of the High Priest Abisai; 1,844 Age of Sanctum
In my haste to put Cosmo behind me, I hadn’t paused to gather any of my things. Not that I had many possessions to begin with. Still, I made a mental note to get in contact with Bria later and request that she have my things sent to me at the first opportunity. Though I wasn’t sure that Bria wasn’t also in on keeping the enormous secret of the tenth Trial from me, she’d always been kind, and, if I could trust anyone in that house, it would be her. That realization hurt. The fact that Dante wasn’t included in my considerations of who I could trust hurt worse.
I sighed as I climbed the steps of my family’s Second Ring home and rang the doorbell.
“Adrian?” my mother blinked at me in stunned surprise before stepping aside and aggressively motioning me in. “Come in, come in! I was just making lunch. Are you hungry?”
I nodded. I was. I hadn’t noticed just how much before, but my stomach gurgled as I stepped inside. Perhaps I’d overstayed my visit to the library. In truth, I hadn’t even realized what time it was.
“Adrian?” Warren asked as he came out from the living room. “What are you doing here?”
Dahlia emerged from the top of the stairs, and Maurice came in from the direction of the kitchen.Oh well,I thought. I might as well get it all over with at once.
“I, um, got into a bit of a disagreement with the honorable patriarch of House Viper,” I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck uncomfortably. “It seems I’m no longer welcome on the premises.”
They stared at me for a moment, blinking. Then, Warren burst into laughter. He doubled over, slapping his knee. Dahlia joined in a moment later, chuckling along. My mother giggled. Even Maurice smiled.
“I’m sure we’re disgraced in one way or another,” Warren said finally, standing back up and wiping a tear from his eye, “but, pardon me for saying, it’s about damn time.”
I grinned as my older brother slapped me on the back and pulled me further into the house.
“Are you moving back into your apartment then? Or maybe you’ve come to stay here?” My mother asked, a small bubble of hope in her tone. “It’s your house, after all.”
“I would like to stay here. If you’ll have me.”
She beamed and threw her arms around me in an embrace so tight, I struggled to breathe.
“I’ve been readying a room for you all along,” she cried.
My smile faltered.
She’d always expected me to come home. Whether I failed or not, she’d been working on creating a space for me to call my own, a place for me to come home to. Because she didn’t knoweither. She didn’t know that my success would mean that I would never return here, would never see her or Maurice or Warren again.
“Is Dante coming to stay as well?” my mother asked, her voice dropping to a whisper.
The remaining mirth drained from the air. I glanced at each of them. They all waited with baited breath.
“I’m sorry,” I replied. “I should have told you about our engagement in person. I should have come and announced it before Cosmo could spread the word. I know I said I was busy, and I was. But the truth is, I just wasn’t sure I could do it.”
None of them spoke for a moment, then my mother squeezed my shoulder and offered a maternal smile.
“If you love him, dear, then I’m certain we will too.”
My gaze snapped to hers before turning to find Maurice, who nodded, and Dahlia, who smiled sadly back at me. Warren was the only one still frowning.
He hadn’t told them. He hadn’t told any of them about my bargain with Cosmo. They didn’t know that this wasn’t a real engagement. They believed we’d chosen to spend the rest of our lives with one another, without duress and unencumbered, just like the rest of Sanctuary believed. And maybe we had. I hadn’t wanted to consider it before. It was easier to pretend Cosmo was the one forcing our hand but, truthfully, Dante had been given a choice. And I’d asked him to choose me.
“Even though he’s a First Ringer,” Maurice scoffed but he was smiling. “And a Viper at that.”
I forced a smile for their benefit, nodding to appear gracious of their open-mindedness, but I couldn’t help but glance at Warren again, who gave me one grave nod. He thought I was a captive. Would it break my brother to know that I’d climbed willingly into bed with the Viper heir?
