Page 51 of Until the End of Ever (To the Cruel Gods #2)

KLEOS

“ T hat’s preposterous. Outrageous!” I seethed, unable to stay still for one minute in the kitchen.

Everyone else was seated around the table, which was still cracked from Lucky and Cassius’s contest, but I kept moving around.

“I’m so sorry you lost your mother,” Lucky said. “Shitty or not. It must suck.”

Lucky was the first to arrive, less than half an hour after Lucian was taken by the Guard, with the news that Zenya Pendros had indeed been murdered, drained of all power. Mummified.

“What?” I frowned, confused. “Oh. No one cares. I meant it’s ridiculous that they’d hold Lucian accountable when he wasn’t even in the vale! Surely there’s enough security in the Hall of Truce to ensure that he never made it up to the surface today?”

“That’s the thing. A lot of people coming from the underside wear hoods and sunglasses when they come to the surface—against the light in the mountain,” Silver said gently, wincing.

“I’ve seen the recording myself: no one can prove he wasn’t one of the guys who didn’t look up towards any of the cameras. ”

Silver stuck around the Guard long enough to hear the details of the charges brought against Lucian before coming to the manor.

I made myself breathe in and out. This couldn’t be happening.

Gideon had been the last to arrive, seeming lost and uncharacteristically silent. He stared at his shoes as he muttered, “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry I made you go up to the Guard. I’m sorry my mother put you in that situation. The whole mess today was my fault. If it wasn’t for me, you’d have stayed with Lucian all day and no one could reasonably argued he had the time to nip up to the surface to kill Zenya. It’s my fault.”

There were so many flaws in his logic, a dry laugh escaped me.

“Please, Gideon, get your head out of your ass. We have enough problems to sort out without you wallowing in pointless guilt. Zenya did what she does best—manipulate everyone. It’s not your fault.

Now, let’s focus. How do we get Lucian out of there? ”

“There’s no we ,” Cassius drawled, refilling everyone’s cup or tea—except mine.

I hadn’t touched it. “You’re to remain here, where you’re safe.

The big oaf might have exaggerated his own importance in the scheme, but he made a good point: everything that occurred today was to get you up to the vale, vulnerable.

Any move you make to spare Lucian will play into the hands of whoever’s behind this. ”

“Zeus,” I spat. “Might as well use the damn name. He wants to enslave me all the same.”

“Well, he can’t now, can he?” Cassius said lightly.

The rest of the assembled crowd turned to me.

I blushed. I hadn’t shared the fact that we’d sealed a bond today.

Now wasn’t the time for what should be joyful news.

And if anyone offered me their congratulations while Lucian was locked up in the Hall of Truce awaiting trial, I’d scream and possibly hit something.

The house came to life again, the light trees flashing to alert us of another presence. Before I could move, Cassius pushed off his chair. “I’ll get it.”

No one was letting me near the door, maybe expecting me to make a dash for it and go to Lucian. I couldn’t blame them. I was tempted.

“What did he mean, you can’t be enslaved?” Silver pushed. “I missed something.”

I glanced around to my friends, considering. Maybe they should know, so they could stop fussing over me and start thinking about Lucian first.

I lowered my shirt past the mark between my breasts, right under the diamond glinting in the light, to the ouroboros shining red, like Lucian’s magic.

Lucky gasped. “Oh my gods!”

“I’m not in a mood to celebrate,” I snapped.

“But you’re—oh my gods! You’re going to stay. You’re one of us. You live here now!” she couldn’t stop smiling.

“I’m still missing something,” Silver said.

“Lucian and I are bound to each other. We completed it the moment I got my shit together earlier today. They can no longer take my soul. It belongs to him.”

Gideon gasped. “Damn. You guys don’t do things halfway, do you?”

“It felt right,” I said, defensive.

I realized we’d rushed into it, but I didn’t regret it for a single moment.

“Yeah, but like…” Silver winced. “Move one was to chain you to some guy Zeus could control. With that not an option, you think he’ll leave you alone?”

I considered her words, then shook my head. “I can’t think of that right now. Not with Lucian?—”

I stopped myself as Cassius returned, Ronan on his heel as expected. What I hadn’t seen coming was the man who followed them, looking around awkwardly.

He wore long black robes, with red embroidered threads, and a thick chain of gold around his shoulders, a shining ruby at its center. Completing the imposing look was a wide-brimmed woolen hat, flat on top.

“ You .” My voice was ice.

I hadn’t spoken to him in months. In fact, I wasn’t certain we’d come across each other since last year, other than the occasional glimpse from afar in ballrooms. Sometimes, he waved. Oftentimes, he was too busy.

“Kley-bear.” My father removed his hat, running his hand over his hair, which had more white threads through the blond curls than I remembered. “I’m so sorry. I heard—I couldn’t believe?—”

He shook his head.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

I’d been used, betrayed, almost destroyed by one parent today. I wasn’t going to let the other get their claws into me.

“I found him at the Hall of Truce, trying to make his way to the underside. The poor bloke didn’t know how to open the lift,” Ronan said, slapping my father’s back none too gently. “Said he wanted to see you.”

Leander Valesco looked around the kitchen, visibly uncomfortable in a crowd he couldn’t control or dominate. The only people he knew, Gideon and Silver, weren’t on his side today. His blue eyes returned to mine.

“I’m the one who found your mother. I felt a disturbance in the temples close to my office. The altar in Zeus’s temple—I knew the spells. That’s when I understood what she’d done, what she’d tried to do. I deduced that she must have meant to do it to you .”

The simple fact that my father guessed that his wife would have wanted to enslave me made me want to throttle him. “And if you knew as much, why, exactly, did you let that woman raise me? Why did you let me believe she was my mother ?” I demanded, resentment almost clouding everything.

But at the end of the day, it didn’t matter that I’d believed my mother hated me my whole life. The only thing that mattered was Lucian.

“I take it you had Lucian arrested.”

“ No !” He shook his head. “Absolutely not. The entire setup suggested a ritual gone wrong. But the Valmont boy, Castor. He accused Lucian. As Zenya’d been drained of all power, the Guard took over.

I had no idea you were even involved. I tried to find you.

That’s when I heard the runners who brought the Regis boy in say you were here. ”

For all his flaws, my father had always had a distinctive quality other politicians lacked: he never lied. Frankly, he was terrible at it, so he didn’t try, sticking to using truth to get his way.

I made myself nod. “I don’t have time to rehash history, or bring you up to speed on the last months of my life. If you can help Lucian, I’ll thank you for it. If you can’t, get out of here. I don’t have time.”

I’d never been so cold or cruel. I wasn’t even trying to hurt him, but I truly didn’t care if my words ended up wounding the man who’d failed to protect the little girl I used to be from the woman he chose to bring into my life.

The woman who was forced to wed him. Did he even know that? I’d like to think he didn’t. But I also didn’t care enough to ask. Not now.

Leander Valesco straightened up. “I am the high magister of Highvale. The council might be above many laws, but I can play their game.”

Cassius stood, and my father didn’t even flinch. The two men stared at each other, until Cassius summoned another two teacups and poured for Ronan and my father. “What can you do?”

Leander took the cup. “They’re convening as we speak, trying to speed through a verdict.

The elders’ vote won’t count: the Saltzins and Regises cannot weigh in on the boy’s fate, as his direct family.

So it’s the will of the ruling council that will prevail.

They’ll find him guilty,” he stated without modifiers. “But I’ll oppose the verdict.”

I only noticed how much I’d trembled when my hands stopped shaking.

“You can do that?” I whispered.

My father nodded. “In truth, the ruling council doesn’t have a quorum either: with Zenya gone, they don’t have seven seats.

They’re likely hoping no one notices or argues about it.

And no one else might. But I will,” he asserted.

“I’ll call for a judgement in front of the magistrates.

This buys you time to find proof in order to protect the boy.

Only three days.” He winced. “I can’t push for longer.

I wish I could do more. No, I will do more, as and when I can at the trials.

But my power is limited. You must convince the magistrates.

Most of them detest all unders, all founders, and especially Lucian.

He’s made a mockery of the council and the magistrates by taking justice into his hands in the past. I fear that will mean many will find him guilty out of spite.

Justice may not prevail, but it’s a much better chance?—”

I didn’t listen to the rest. My father was prone to overlong, grandiloquent speeches, and he’d said everything relevant already.

The last words I heard brought a crystal-clear image to my mind, and all of a sudden, I knew what to do.

Justice may not prevail.

Justice—

I saw it clear as day. A woman in white, holding the scales in her hand, tall and proud.

We were the children of Highvale, city of the blood of the gods.

If we needed justice, we could demand it.

“I need to go.” I shook my head, my eyes taking in the people around me. A quick headcount, and I was certain. “No, we all need to go, now.”

“What?” Ronan frowned. “I just got here.”

“Dad, do your thing. If Lucian’s dead by the time we’re back, you’ll be the first I kill.” I didn’t bother to wait for a reply, “Cassius, there’s a boy in a spare bedroom. He ate all the lasagna leftovers and crashed. If we’re not back in the morning, make sure he has whatever he needs.”

Then I was off like an arrow.

“But where are we going?” Silver shouted, racing to catch up with me as I rushed to the summoning room.

Wasn’t it obvious?

“Beyond death!” I yelled back. “Theke, bring me all books on traveling to the Duat.”