This was an offer for alliance from the patriarch of a major house, but it was more of a demand than anything else. Raghnall knew the position we were in. He knew the power Cosmo had gathered in such a short time as well as anyone else. He was taking a calculated risk, extending an olive branch dipped inpoison and waiting to see if we’d take the bait. He knew he had us up against the wall, but what could I do? Refuse to marry his granddaughter and set yet another major House against my own? Put my entire family at risk for my pride and a desire for my own freedom? I was the Heir of my House, required to make the best decision for my family and this city. This was that decision and he knew it. There was only one choice to be made.
My grandmother suddenly rose from her chair and circled the desk until she stood in front of me. She leaned in, took my shoulders in both hands, and stared into my eyes with an intensity I’d only seen her reserve for her gods.
“You’re my grandson and I love you. I would have burned our ring to the ground long ago if it weren’t built of my own blood,” she vowed. “If you don’t want this, we won’t do it.”
My heart swelled with the devotion I felt from my grandmother in that moment but this wasn’t about my choice. This transcended my personal liberty, my own hopes and dreams. This wasn’t about me. This was about our House.
“I don’t barter in women,” I said.
My grandmother nodded, letting go of me and straightening up as if it had been decided.
“But,” I started and her gaze snapped to mine. “I’ll talk to Isla.”
She raised a brow, “Isla?”
“I’m not the sort of man who keeps going after a woman who doesn’t want him, grandmother. Cora has her Viper. I wouldn’t pull her away from him, even though I know Raghnall would. She should be happy.”
“And you, Milo? What of your happiness?”
“What of Isla’s?”
Nascha frowned, clearly perturbed by my unwillingness to answer her question.
“Speak to her then, hafid, but make your own decision,” my grandmother said firmly. Then she patted me once more onthe shoulder before turning and walking from the study, calling back to me once without looking. “Keep studying the diary. Perhaps you’ll find a way to save us all without Raghnall or his granddaughters.”
I frowned as her blue skirts vanished down the hall. She really believed that. She truly thought there was something so important in this ancient journal that it could possibly affect the here and now.
I shook my head before sitting up. Leaning against my desk, I scrubbed a hand down my face and stared down at the diary in front of me. Despite my grandmother’s instructions, I couldn’t bring myself to fall back into the insane ravings of a lunatic when a marriage offer was consuming my thoughts. I’d spent months now avoiding Isla and Cora, both for very different reasons. Now I had no choice but to seek them out.
Unable to focus on the journal any longer, I rose and headed for the door. I found Pax standing dutifully on the other side of it, as always. My cousin seemed to think he was my personal guard as well as my assistant. I wished he wouldn’t. It only made me feel worse knowing I was keeping someone else awake when I spent my evenings locked away in this study.
“I’m going to visit a friend, Pax,” I told him. “Try to get some sleep while I’m gone.”
He watched me for a moment, wary and indecisive, as if my brief jaunt across the First Ring was the most dangerous decision he could possibly imagine. But I held firm and, after a moment, he relented with a nod.
I left him there, hoping he would heed my advice and not follow me anyway or send someone else to. Then I made my way across the First Ring while trying very hard not to think about Raghnall or either of his granddaughters. The man was full of greed and not just for wealth but or influence too. He sought to breed as many children and grandchildren as he could andattach them to anyone in Sanctuary with even a hint of power. He’d tried to arrange something between Isla and Dante once, before she was partnered with me, and when that hadn’t worked, he’d offered Lyra, another of his granddaughters. Knowing Raghnall, he’d probably offered Cora too, and even all of them together, but Olympia had never said as much. The Vipers turned him down flat every time. None of Raghnall’s offers could compare to Olympia. Not that any of it mattered in the end.
I paused outside the gates of Viper, realizing my thoughts had drifted to their House along my walk. No one stopped me from entering the garden. With such heavy security on the stairs, the Houses hardly employed any on their own property since the only ones able to reach them were other First Ringers and priests anyway. Someone would stop me if I tried to enter the main house but luckily that wasn’t my destination.
Instead, I turned down a side path and headed for the older stone outbuilding behind the garden. I knocked once before I entered, just to announce my presence.
Bria was sitting at one of the rough hewn desks in the dim light hastily strung up which indicated this hadn’t always been a place of study. She didn’t even turn when I entered.
I knew how easy it was to lose yourself in your work better than anyone so I approached cautiously, rounding the room until I was in her peripheral vision.
“Bria,” I said and she only jumped slightly as her head whipped around to find me in her space.
She went from shock to a friendly smile in an instant, even shutting her book and standing to greet me.
“Milo,” she spoke in greeting. “What a pleasant surprise.”
“I’ve got more messages to send out,” I told her, pulling the envelopes from my pockets and holding them out.
She raised a brow.
“More requests for knowledge sharing?” she asked, plucking them from my hands and looking down at the recipients scrawled on top. “You know they won’t answer.”
“Persistance is key,” I told her with a smile. “You never know when you might wear somebody down.”
