“If we’re going to get through this, you and I, if we’re going to survive, we have to do that together,” he continued. “Can you do this, Adrian? Just tell me if you can do this.”
I raised my head slightly, my amber eyes meeting his keen green ones. “I can do this.”
His jaw clenched but he nodded. Dante stepped aside so that I could walk past him to the front door of House Viper.
After that, a peace seemed to settle between Dante and I. I did my best to control my anger or, at least, to direct it into my training. I tried to use it as constructively as I could and, at the same time, tried to avoid emotional triggers that would distract me from our preparation for the Trials.
But then a week later, Cosmo surprised us with an announcement at dinner.
“You will attempt the third Trial tomorrow,” he said while tucking a cloth napkin into his collar and picking up his fork and knife.
Mine and Dante’s gazes snapped to him.
“According to both Myrine and Bria, you are sufficiently prepared. There’s no sense in dawdling any longer.”
Dante simply nodded and turned his attention back to his meal.
“How far did you make it?”
Forks clanged against plates around the table. Two of Dante’s cousins stared at me, openmouthed.
“Excuse me?” Cosmo raised a brow as he turned to look at me where I sat, farther down and across from Dante.
Adrian, don’t,he warned.
“I was just curious,” I told Cosmo instead. “It’s well known that Myrine made it farther than anyone in this family has for generations, and she only passed the fourth Trial. So I wondered. How far did you make it?”
Myrine closed her eyes and dropped her head toward her lap. Dante’s subconscious hammered into mine, but I ignored him. Bria blinked between her grandfather and me, opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it and closed it again.
Cosmo leaned back in his chair. He folded his hands across his midsection and narrowed his gaze.
“I am the patriarch of this family,” he reminded me. His tone indicated a warning.
But I ignored that too.
“Unquestionably,” I replied, nodding. That wasn’t what I had asked.
“I have the love of my family, the respect of the community. I am a leader of an ancient house. I come from a historic lineage.”
“All true. And yet…” I gestured at his long sleeves which hid the proof of his failures.
His jaw clenched.
“I failed the second,” he finally confessed.
There was an intake of breath from the larger group.
I nodded slowly.
“I only mention it,” I began, carefully, “because I was wondering when you were going to be so inclined as to allow Dante and I to decide for ourselves when we are ready for the next Trial.”
I reached for my glass of wine in an effort to appear calm, casual. In truth, I hated the drink. It was bitter and dry. But these rich fools were all about appearances, and I was figuring out that the only people in this ring who garnered any respect were the ones willing to play their games.
Adrian.
Myrine had advised us against anger. I could admit I was struggling to let mine go. I’d never reacted well to the class separation of Sanctuary, had never been able to accept that it was my lot in life to be inferior to those above me simply because of where I was born. It would take more than a few months and a common goal to set my distrust aside. Besides, I wasn’t the only one who was angry.
The longer Dante and I existed as a pair, linked in our minds, the more we communicated within one another’s subconsciouses, the closer we grew and the more attuned to hisemotions I became. I could sense the simmering fury hiding just beneath the surface of Dante’s expertly crafted indifference. I could feel his anger ignited by the way his family treated him, how they saw him, as no more than a means to an end, just another attempt to succeed in what generations of his family had failed at already.
