I bristled but decided to pick my battles and strode across the room to seat myself in the offered chair.
“Now, I presume you have some guess regardingwhyI sent my grandson to find you that night,” he crooned, the words sliding off his tongue like oil on water.
“To kill me,” I corrected. “You sent him to kill me.”
“Not so. At least, not in so many words. I sent him to fetch something for me and advised him to succeed by any means necessary. Apparently, he believed you wouldn’t give it up unless you were dead.”
“He was right about that.”
“Why? Why defend that necklace with your life? What is the jewel to you?”
“What’s it toyou?”
“A poor tactic, answering my question with one of your own. I’ll remind you which of us is confined to this room against our will and which of us has the power to make that person’s life far, far worse than it is. I would encourage you to consider cooperation.”
I was used to his threats so I didn’t bat an eye as he made yet another.
“Where is the necklace, Olympia?” he asked outright.
I didn’t answer.
“I know you didn’t return to the First after you slayed my grandson so you must have taken it down to the Third or hidden it somewhere along the way,” he continued. “If you gave it to the boy, not to worry, my Guardians are raiding his apartment as we speak.”
My gaze shot to his and he grinned as he realized he’d struck a nerve.
“They’re very skilled when it comes to…questioning their suspects,” he said. “If the boy knows anything about the necklace, I’ll know it too by dinnertime.”
“Don’t touch him,” I growled in warning.
“What would you do about it if I did?”
He was baiting me, mocking me, trying to coax out enough of my anger or fear that I’d give up the information he wanted, but Cosmo had never understood one thing about me. There was no one, in all of Sanctuary, more stubborn than me. So I raised my chin and held my silence. Harrison would be fine. Harrison was always fine. At least, that’s what I told myself.
“I could call it off,” he offered. “If you simplytoldme where the thing was, I wouldn’t have to send my men hunting for it.”
My men. My Guardians.Milo had been right. The enforcement of this city was so firmly in Cosmo’s pocket he had the confidence to claim them as his own, even while making threats.
Still, I said nothing. Cosmo’s grin transformed into a disturbed frown.
“If you don’t care about the boy, fine,” he barked, injuring me more gravely than he could possibly know. “But you must care for yourself. Myrine.”
Myrine hesitated, eyes widening as she looked from her father to me, but she stepped forward a moment later, pulled her dagger from her belt, and held it out to him. He took it and turned back to me with a sigh. His lips were pressed into a tight white line and he tapped a foot on the soft carpet as if inpatient.
“I take no pleasure in bloodshed, Olympia,” he said with a tone that was flat, completely emotionless. “You may not believe me in this but it is only ever a means to an end. You have information that I need and, as you won’t give it to me willingly, I must make you see reason. The quickest way to do so, of course, is through pain.”
He bent before me and reached for my arm. When I started to pull back, his hand darted out and caught my wrist, yanking my arm up toward him so sharply I had to fight back a yelp. He examined the diagonal scar there, half of the blow Bade had dealt me that night. Then he raised the dagger and pressed the point into the start of the slash, against my wrist, so hard I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out.
“You almost died from these before,” he mused in that flat voice. “I could reopen them again. I could tell everyone you ripped your stitches in some desperate attempt to escape, that you’d bled to death before any of us could find you. I could say you’d gotten a hold of a blade and done it yourself, so sick with grief you’d determined to end your own life. They’d believe me, you know. You have a reputation for the dramatics.”
This time, I did not speak because I found I couldn’t. I was so stunned I couldn’t get my tongue to work, my mouth to form words. What did one even say to such a threat?
He ran the dagger along my scar, lightly, of course, he wasn’t actually splitting me open again but it felt like he was. Newly healed and still aching, his blade left a trail of fire in its wake. This time, I did cry out. I couldn’t help it. He only kept on with the blade until he reached my elbow where he gave a quick slashto create a new cut, extending my scar by another inch and a half.
I wailed, doubling over and wrenching my arm from his hand as blood began to bloom upon my skin once more. I hissed, trembling as I tucked my arm against my chest, pressing the muscles tight in an attempt to stem the bloodflow.
“You son of a bitch,” I growled through gritted teeth as the pain ebbed through me, making my entire body shake. “You fucking asshole.”
“Where is the necklace, Olympia?” he repeated simply, crouching down in front of me so that he was at my eyeline.
