The crowd pulled even farther away, leaving him to his fate, but I saw the fire ignite within my wife's eyes the moment before she stepped up to his side and raised her chin in defiance of the patriarch of House Viper. Gasps arose as, a second later, Maurice stepped up next to him as well. Then I yanked my arm out of the lingering grip of one of the priests and strode up next to Dahlia. Sophie was next, arguing softly with Graham who begged her not to go. Then Felix and Noah joined, jaws clenched as they glared at Cosmo.
The patriarch of House Viper’s lips twitched as his eyes scanned the line of angry lower ringers who’d stepped up against him. His gaze swept to a man on the far side of the Deck who stood elevated on the stairs. That man was in his middle yearswith dark reddish hair and deep burgundy clothes. He shook his head ever so slightly and Cosmo growled.
“It is not our place to question the Geist, boy,” Cosmo spat, glaring at Harrison who stood strong in the center of us. If looks could kill, Harrison would be dead a thousand times over, but they couldn’t.
"The Geist aren’t the ones who pushed her into that tunnel, old man,” Harrison called back, his tone dropping to a low threat I’d never heard from the boy before. “You are.”
Beside me, my wife tensed and stepped closer to me in expectation of a fight. In front of me, the priests did the same, closing ranks and glaring at our little band of misfits while awaiting their orders.
"It is not your place to question me," Cosmo corrected.
I saw the tick in Harrison's jaw, even as Graham reached for his shoulders and tried to pull him back, and knew this wasn't over. It was going to come to blows right here, right now. The Vipers had pushed and pushed and they’d finally gone too far. My fists clenched at my sides as I glared at the self-proclaimed holy men in front of me, wondering which of them I'd hit first.
"Is there a ceremony I wasn't aware of?" a serene voice called over the crowd.
Everyone around me peered up at the stairs to find the matriarch of House Avus standing at the top, being helped along by her ever-present grandson. I recognized him. He was the one with the curly hair, the one who'd become Adrian's friend while she was living up there with them, the one who'd attended her birthday party. I watched him as he frowned down at all of us before assisting his grandmother on the stairs. I didn't know much about the boy. I'd only spoken a few short sentences to him here or there, but Adrian had known him and she'd trusted him enough to invite him to our home, enough to call him a friend. That was all I needed to know.
"Nascha," Cosmo said the matriarch's name in greeting but his tone made it sound like more of a curse. Even I could tell he wasn't happy to see her.
"What's the meaning of all this, Cosmo?" the matronly figure asked as she took her time getting down the stairs. "Priests and acolytes facing down Third Ringers? This isn't how justice is done in Sanctuary, you know that."
"That boy—" Cosmo spat, pointing at Harrison.
Dahlia, Maurice, and I all closed in protectively around him. The others squeezed in next to us.
"Spoke the truth," Nascha interrupted. "Or do you, indeed, intend to declare yourself the gods’ newest prophet here before the pious?"
The priests in front of us shifted uncomfortably and glanced at one another. It was the first crack of uncertainty in their wall of servitude. I turned my attention back to the old woman. There was something more to the gentle matriarch, something clever I hadn't seen before. My gaze slid to Milo whose jaw was clenched as he helped Nascha down the last stair and stepped aside, folding his hands in front of him and raising his chin to glare at Cosmo as well.
"I never claimed to be a prophet, Nascha, only to follow the will of the Geist," Cosmo answered, regaining some of his composure once he realized he was losing the crowd. "As these do not. Dear boy, you can't possibly understand the ancient rites taking place before you now. The gods must be served and you must be kept from interfering. That is our only purpose here today."
He spread his hands wide and offered an oily smile intended to put us at ease. It didn't.
"Let's put an end to this conflict," he said, though the disdain was evident in his tone. "For Adrian."
My jaw clenched. I wanted to tear through those priests until I reached him. I wanted to punch him right in the mouth so hard he couldn't say her name ever again. But he was smiling and holding his hands wide and offering peace. He knew we couldn't refuse, not without becoming the instigators and earning ourselves a criminal charge and a humbling if not an execution.
Harrison just scoffed, shook his head, turned, and pushed through the crowd behind us. He was already on his way up the stairs when Graham called out to him and Felix and Noah rushed to join them. My gaze slid to Dahlia who simply shook her head once. I nodded, exhaling a breath before striding through the crowd toward the stairs. Nascha's voice rang out behind us again as we left but I couldn't hear what she was saying.
By the time we reached the top of the stairs to the Third Ring, the crowd below had dispersed. The priests made their way back up to the upper rings and the lower ringers muttered amongst themselves as they went back to work.
"What was he thinking?" Dahlia hissed as soon as we were on the stairs up to the Second.
I turned to her, lifting a brow in surprise.
"You were pretty quick to defend him for someone who doesn't agree," I said, keeping my voice low.
"I will always defend friends," Dahlia answered firmly, that fierce determination I hadn't heard in so long lacing her tone. My chest swelled with something I didn't dare identify just to hear it. "Besides, how could I not when my husband is already punching his way through a line of priests?"
It was her turn to raise a brow in my direction. I only barked out a laugh and clutched my stomach as we began to climb.
"I've always wanted to hit one of them," I told her. "Thought you'd be in agreement with me on that, Dahl."
"I'd do worse if I could," she replied, her tone turning dark in a way that cut off my laughter entirely. "But I can't. And you shouldn't either. You know what they could do to us. You saw what they did to Adrian."
Just like that, my bad mood returned.
"When Adrian comes out of that trial, we'll tell her what happened. She'll have more pull around here as a Champion. She'll be a hero. She'll be able to call Cosmo out on his shit and no one will be able to say a word about it. Gods, they might even move us up to the First Ring."
