Pax stood at once, reaching out to pull him away, but stilled at my raised hand.
“Who?” I asked slowly. I knew who he meant, of course. Who else could it be? But I had to be sure.
“Your cousin,” he snapped. “Or haven’t you even noticed she’s gone? The Vipers have Olympia, Milo.”
I leaned back in my chair, the implications of what he was telling me whirling through my mind.
“Tell me what happened,” I said carefully.
Anger flashed in his eyes but he answered, though he paced away from me to do so. That’s when I noticed the bags beneath his eyes.
“She came to my apartment late last night, really this morning, and actually what she did was collapse outside my door,” he spoke rapidly, as if he couldn’t keep any of it in. I could hear the terror behind his tone and leaned forward as a feeling of premonition began gnawing at my gut. “She was bleeding so much. I did what I could. I wanted to come for you or a priest or someone who could help her but she wouldn’t let me. She just grit her teeth and walked me through making a tourniquet.When she finally stopped bleeding, when she was conscious for a few minutes, she started panicking about that godsdamned necklace. She said they’d be coming for it, for her, and she couldn’t let them have it. She made me promise to give it to you myself and then practically stumbled out of my apartment to turn herself into the Vipers so I’d have the chance. I tried to talk her out of it. I told her this fucking thing wasn’t worth it but she made me swear—“
His voice broke and my gaze slipped to Pax who was watching the Third Ringer in shock.
“Why was she bleeding, Harrison?” I asked slowly, carefully. “When she came to you, she was injured. Did she say how that happened?”
He frowned at me for a moment and stopped pacing long enough to glare at me.
“It was one of them,” he said. “The snakes. She told me she…ended it but not before he got her nearly as good.”
I stared at him, letting what he was telling me sink in. One of the Vipers had attacked my cousin and she’d killed him before crawling back to Harrison who patched her up just so she could turn herself in to protect the jewel. My gaze slid to Pax once more, wondering if he was putting it all together as well. This had happened right outside the House of Harlowe while Jude and I had been searching through Eximius’ journals inside. This was what had left the massive blood stain on the cobblestones I had no doubt now the Vipers themselves had cleaned up.
Olympia had almost died. She’d given herself up to our enemy to protect an object none of us even knew what to do with.
I rose to my feet, buttoning my jacket as I turned back to Harrison with a frown.
“Thank you for returning this,” I told him, nodding down to the necklace resting on the corner of my desk, covered in bloodI no longer wished to know the origins of. “But I think it’s time I see the more important one returned to us. Pax?”
Pax dipped low once before crossing the room and holding the door open for me. I made my way toward the threshold doing everything I could to appear calm and collected on the outside despite every instinct in my body screaming at me. A Viper had tried tokillone of my own and Olympia seemed to think it had something to do with that necklace. Regardless of the reason, war had well and truly begun amongst the Major Houses. There was nothing Cosmo could say to explain why one of his people was down on the Second trying to murder one of mine. And there was nothing I could say to him to make up for the fact that they’d failed and lost their life to my cousin in the process. A First Ringer was dead and another was injured. Blood spilled was blood owed.
I became aware of Harrison following after me as I reached the foyer and turned so suddenly he nearly ran straight into me.
“I hope you don’t intend to come with me,” I spoke quietly to ensure my voice wouldn’t carry to the members of my family I could see from here, still chatting over their breakfast.
“She was nearly dead when I last saw her,” he snapped, still furious. “I need to know she’s alright. I need to see her. She’s my–”
He stopped himself just in time, eyes sliding to Pax who waited impatiently just beyond us.
“I will send word to you about her status as soon as I’m assured of it myself,” I vowed.
“Milo–” Harrison started, his own tone dropping to just above a whisper.
“You’ve practically announced yourself as a sworn enemy to the Patriarch of House Viper,” I reminded him. “Your presence will only serve to raise tensions even higher. If I have any chanceof retrieving her from that vile pit of snakes, I must do it alone, as the Heir of my House.”
His gaze slid to Pax again and, for a moment, I thought he would argue against my bringing a guard, but he let it go with a reluctant nod. I turned to leave once more but hesitated when I noticed him march over to one of the benches my grandmother preferred to occupy during her obligatory parties and settle in. I raised a brow, awaiting an explanation, and watched as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall before giving it.
“I’ll wait here for yourupdate,” he snarled, nearly spitting the last word in my direction.
I sighed but turned away from him and met Pax by the door again. My cousin shot one final glare in the Third Ringer’s direction before we hastened through the door and down the path leading to the gates. A few aunts in the garden turned to watch us as we left, whispering to one another the gossip of my departure which would surely reach the rest of the family by lunchtime, but it didn’t matter. Whoever saw me leave, whatever reason they suspected for my doing so, didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered to me in that moment was ascertaining the status of my cousin, demanding an explanation for why they were holding her, and seeing her freed again.
We took a sharp turn the moment we were through the gates and made our way toward House Viper, standing like an obsidian castle across the ring. Pax rapped his knuckles against the iron gates once we reached them, like one would when knocking on a door, and a familiar boy with knives strapped across his chest raised a brow at the action before taking his time meandering over.
Holden flipped his hair out of his eyes, always in an attempt to draw your eye to the one streak of green he’d dyed into his dark locks, before glaring down the bridge of his nose at me.
“What do you want?” he grumbled, not sparing a glance in Paxon’s direction.
“An explanation from your Patriarch, pretty please,” I answered in a tone I’d intended to come across as friendly but really sounded more annoyed than anything else.
