Page 54 of Dark King Daddy

Someone had removed the glass he had used on the morning of his death.

Otherwise, the room looked as though he might return from a meeting and complain that we had gathered without him.

Anton went behind the desk, but did not sit.

I took one of the chairs opposite. Uncle Kostya closed the door and remained standing.

The river moved beyond the windows.

“What?” Anton asked.

Uncle Kostya looked at me.

Not rudely. Not with indifference.

He looked at me as a man assessed the last available bridge across dangerous water.

“The traditional solution is also the fastest,” he said.

Anton’s face changed.

“No.”

I looked between them. “I would like to know what he’s proposing before you refuse on my behalf.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“Anton.”

Uncle Kostya answered.

“Daniil Sokolov marries you.”

The words entered the office and altered its dimensions.

I heard the radiator click. A horn sounded on the river. My father’s pen lay across the desk exactly where he had left it.

“No,” Anton repeated. His voice was quieter now. More dangerous. “Ksenia is not freight to be transferred between families.”

“I did not say she was.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Uncle Kostya’s expression remained calm. “Do not insult me because you dislike the answer.”

“It isn’t an answer.”

“It has been an answer for hundreds of years.”

“So has murder.”

“True, and if I thought it would work, I’d suggest it.” Kostya was shrewd. He’d been a good ally to father, and a good uncle to us. And the thing about him was, he was often blunt, and almost always right.

Anton stepped around the desk.

“No one offers my sister to anybody.”

Anton turned on me. “Ksenia.”