There was, however, another option.
Without spending another second considering it, I pulled Raghnall's chair out and sat down. I swiveled until I faced the door and propped my feet up on the desk. Then I called him.
Your grandfather's whiskey is shit.
It took a moment. I imagined there was a bit of shock on the other end. I hadn't opened myself up to this form of communication in months, had never been fully open with it at all, but before I could start to doubt my plan, he replied.
Are you in my fucking house, Olympia?
I grinned and didn't answer.
Where are you?he snapped a minute later.
Want to play a game?I asked, drawing out every word.
I'd rather get back to my bed. I wasn't alone in it, you know.
You so rarely are. Who is it this time? Bade? Sebastian? I know Paxon wouldn't have missed Nascha's birthday.
Olympia, I swear to the Geist—
Office.
A few minutes later, I heard stomping in the hall. Luca stormed in soon after, shirt unbuttoned, hair disheveled, and pants unzipped. I snorted at the sight of him, leaned back further in the chair, and crossed my arms.
"I'm not even going to ask you how you got in," he snarled, gaze swiveling from me behind his grandfather's desk to the exposed safe at my back to the open bottle of whiskey on the bookshelf. "Did you steal his liquor?"
"Obviously."
Luca stopped in the center of the room and took a deep breath. I watched him try to regain his composure and couldn't help but grin.
"What, in the Geist's name, has you waltzing into my home like you own the place in the dead of night, much less stealing my grandfather's liquor and snooping through his stuff?" he asked, trying very hard to practice some modicum of patience.
"What's the code to the safe?
His jaw popped open slightly in surprise and then he began shaking his head.
"No," he told me. "Absolutely not. There's no way I'm opening that for you. I haven't even heard from you since the Third and now you come strolling in here asking for favors?"
"We agreed on a clean break," I reminded him, smile vanishing.
"Then why are you summoning me at two in the morning?"
I glared at him as my frown deepened. Leaning forward in the chair, I dropped my feet from the desk and met his stare.
"Raghnall and Nascha have a meeting arranged for this week," I told him. "Your grandfather wouldn't even entertain the possibility of an alliance with our House unless there was something in it for him. What does he want?"
Luca eyed me shrewdly, his annoyance turning into suspicion.
"Grandpa only knows of two ways to make an alliance," he said, slowly. "Money, which we have more than enough of, and…"
His eyes swept over my body and I stiffened.
"I thought we went over why that wasn't going to work," I growled, tone low and furious.
"With us, it won't," Luca replied with a shrug. "But you weren't the only candidate from Avus the gods paired with someone from Lynx."
My brow furrowed as I considered what he was saying. It was impossible to keep the memories from resurfacing given the topic of conversation. I couldn't help but think of the day I'd been paired with Luca and brought to Lynx to present ourselves to his patriarch, just as we would do for Nascha later. Raghnall had taken one look at me and proclaimed I'd make suitable great-grandchildren for him. Luca had only nodded, all of this having been expected, and escorted me out of his House back toward Avus. I'd fumed the rest of the week but hadn't said a word about it. Until I'd caught Luca in the steam room of the Mitte with a slightly older cousin of Dante's who was nearly as handsome. That had shut any fears of being turned into an object of sexual gratification for a husband I hadn't asked for and barely knew right down. He'd promised me I wouldn't be forced into anything, no matter what Raghnall said and, despite my best efforts, I'd actually started to like him. Still, I’d known I wouldn’t have a future with him or Dante. I’d gone from the highly trained, gifted daughter of Avus to a failure rejected by not one but two partners. That had hurt.
