Page 31

KLEOS

I f I confessed to almost anyone I knew that I dined between the high sorcerer of the underside and his legendarily evil grandfather, they would offer me a straitjacket and a nice padded room.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly apprehensive after letting Lucian know I’d be just fine meeting a well-known serial killer.

I was a little bit afraid. But I sincerely doubted he would have offered if Cassius was still a genuine threat.

I called Gideon and let him know the greater lines of our findings for the day.

Though I doubted he would have said much against it, I didn’t confess that I was still at the manor, or that I didn’t intend to leave it tonight. I blushed at the thought.

The phone call didn’t last long, and I’d only attempted to return to my current read when Lucian reappeared. “Dinner’s ready.”

“Already?”

He smiled ruefully. “I didn’t think it wise to make the monster hiding somewhere in your belly wait.”

I rolled my eyes; to be fair, I had been known to go from hungry to hangry on occasion, so he had a point.

I followed him a few doors down, biting back my question.

Were we truly going to eat with his grandfather?

The answer waited for me in the kitchen, which kept the dark and red looks of the rest of Lucian’s wing, though it was considerably brighter.

A long-haired carbon copy of Lucian waited for us, seated at the head of a long rectangular table, one eyebrow crooked.

I gulped and stepped inside.

C assius was a silent, keen observer. He said hello, and occasionally yes or no, but there weren’t many other words crossing his lips. His eyes, however…

They were more steel than silver, and seemed to see far beyond flesh.

We all devoured the delicious creamy pasta, and Cassius poured wine while Lucian offered everyone a second helping of carbonara.

“Just a little. It’s too good to say no.” Finally, I leaned in and said, “I have to ask.”

I was likely emboldened by the third glass of smooth red wine.

Lucian visibly tensed, and it occurred to me that he might think I’d ask something along the lines of, You seem like a decent enough bloke, how come you murdered a bunch of people a few decades back?

I wasn’t that socially inept. Or drunk.

“How come you two look so much alike?”

It was uncanny. Between the two, Cassius seemed to be ever so slightly younger, perhaps—early twenties, while Lucian was more mature—so, had I known neither, I would have assumed they were brothers.

They had the exact same build, tall and lean, but muscular, framed by a positively decadent pair of large shoulders.

The pale hair and molten silver eyes were almost identical.

I was surprised, and frankly disturbed when the two exchanged a grin. Men who looked like them shouldn’t fucking smile at the same time. It wasn’t fair to panties everywhere.

“Because my father is a vain bastard, that’s why,” Cassius replied, using more words than he’d said all night.

Then he continued, “I only know of three other sons of his—and he’s had many, over the centuries.

We all have the same trademark good looks.

As does every boy born in our line. The girls, they can get their appearance from the mother’s side, hence my Cassiopea. ”

Lucian’s mother had dark hair from what I recalled. I wasn’t sure about the color of her eyes, as I had never stood close enough to her to notice, but it was fair to say she had taken very few features from her father.

“But the boys? We all favor him. I’m certain he’s cursed his bloodline.” Cassius grinned and added, “If you two have boys, they’ll be little copies of us. But I’d rather have another girl in the family. They’re far less dramatic.”

“You’re in no place to judge anyone for their drama, Cassius,” Lucian retorted, while I was too busy blushing and stuttering.

He’d just said it like Lucian and I were going to have kids together. And Lucian didn’t even bother to correct him. I could have just died of embarrassment.

My mortification must have been visible, because Lucian told me, “Don’t let the old man get to you. He just loves babies. He’s bound to make any female who comes within reach of us feel highly uncomfortable by taking them for broodmares.”

Cassius Regius loved babies. And by the sound of it, Lucian didn’t mean to roast over a fire. I was certain half of the vale would explode on spot, trying to get their minds around that. “Really?”

“Entirely inaccurate,” the patriarch assured me. “I would never wish a child on that Aristeia girl. She’d trip over and drop it every day.”

They weren’t simply similar in looks, they also had the same dry humor and manners. I remembered Gideon mentioning Cassius had trained Lucian but they were much closer than that.

“You, on the other hand, would do. I sense a lot of strength in you. And an above-average degree of intelligence, too.”

“If you go on to assess the size of her hips, I refuse to share my sweets with you.”

Cassius seemed to wrestle with the desire to do just what he’d been cautioned against—I even saw his gaze drop down to my damn lap, when he couldn’t even see my hips through the table. One would think. I couldn’t be certain with these people.

Finally, he tilted his head. “Sweets?”

“Will you behave?” Lucian challenged.

“What kind of sweets are we talking about, exactly?” his grandfather demanded, sounding as dead serious as if he were negotiating an all-important business deal.

“Brownies, pie, cookies.” Another glowing rune carried my tin into the kitchen. What was left of it—about half of the initial contents. “There’s only one cupcake left and you’re not getting it.”

I couldn’t help it now, I was laughing to their faces. Neither seemed to care. “I can bake more cupcakes.”

Cassius reeled back toward me. “So you baked all this?”

Ah. Maybe it wasn’t the right time to mention that.

Lucian sighed.

“You have yourself a deal, child,” Cassius announced, selecting a brownie and placing it on a new plate.

I hadn’t even noticed, but the table was already cleared, all of the dishes in the sink. We now had little dessert plates and clean spoons. Was that the house, or had one of the two men performed a spell without my noticing at all?

Either feat was noteworthy. Spells didn’t have to be said out loud if the sorcerer was powerful enough, but I typically felt magic cast around me.

“Besides, my interference is irrelevant. The moment Cassiopea hears of this young woman, you’re doomed.” The sorcerer pointed his spoon straight at me. “Mark my words: if she catches wind of whatever you have going on, she’ll have you wedded before the end of the year.”

“You will not mention Kleos to Mother,” Lucian demanded. Just as serious, he turned to me next. “ You , stay away from my mother. And what’s going on is that we’re researching who’s cursing her, Cassius.”

That did catch the old man’s curiosity. Lucian ran through my issue in quick, clinical terms, while his grandfather frowned.

“Have you seen anything like that before?” I asked, a little desperate for insight.

As I understood, he was one of the oldest creatures in this entire city. Surely, if anyone knew of a firsthand account of a ritual performed centuries back, it had to be him.

“I’m not one for runes and little spells.” Cassius grimaced in distaste.

Ah, he was one of those: a pure sorcerer, completely relying on the magic he was born with, dismissing learned magic.

“And if it happened here over the years, well, I don’t always pay attention to what’s going on.” He shrugged.

To me, Lucian explained, “Cassius has been here since Highvale was founded.”

My jaw dropped. Though it explained his ideas about magic. Sticking to one’s innate strength was an old-school view of magic, which, well, made complete sense for a relic of an ancient world.

“Occasionally,” Lucian continued, “he goes into a sort of hibernation for a few years—or centuries. Or he locks himself up and ignores the world.”

“People are effort,” the man summed up.

For an ancient dark creature, he was so very modern , down to his vernacular. “You seem pretty up-to-date with the world.”

Lucian snorted. “That’s his TV addiction showing.”

“I do not have a TV addiction.”

“You stay up to watch new shows the moment they come out,” the younger Regis countered.

“That’s a perfectly reasonable response to the evil invention that is cliffhangers .” Cassius spat the last word like it was his personal nemesis.

“I’m with you on that,” I told him. Then a thought came to me. “Wait, you have electricity in the manor?”

Everything I’d seen so far was run by magic, and the level of consciousness the house showed ought to have made it completely incompatible with most technology.

“And how do you stream TV shows here? I mean, I know we have internet now, but the connection is so awful I can barely download pictures, let alone actual movies.”

I watched a few shows, but I had to download them on my laptop when I was out of town.

Again, the two men exchange a look, Cassius amused. He turned to his grandson. “Well?”

Lucian rolled his eyes at his grandfather before turning to me. “There’s electricity in a few rooms—including the home cinema and an office or two.”

Naturally, he had a bloody home cinema.

"They’re warded in iron, like the dungeons, though it’s a little less impregnable. As for the speed, give me your phone."

Immensely curious, I retrieved it from my back pocket and complied without question.

My phone was nothing fancy, because they were pretty useless other than to place calls and receive texts. The oldest models on the market would do. It wasn’t that bad, and I could technically access the internet, but I didn’t bother unless I was outside of Highvale.

Our location—in the middle of the Alps, much higher up than any towns, with no human settlement for hundreds of miles—our shields, and the general amount of magic in the air made the connection utterly rubbish.

We didn’t have a phone network or internet at all until a tech company opened a connection that worked through the shields about seven years ago.

It was a godsend—despite how expensive and inefficient it was.

Now, we could call each other and send texts, though they didn’t always reach the intended person right away.

Quickly, Lucian ran through a few of my settings and handed me the device back. I barely even noticed what he did.

“Try a streaming app now.”

I navigating through the screen, and to my absolute shock, it immediately connected, showing dozens of movie options, with zero lag. All I could say was, “ How? ”

Lucian shrugged. “I own the satellite—and network.”

My jaw fell. By this point, I thought I was pretty desensitized to Lucian’s insane level of wealth, but this latest discovery didn’t compute. He couldn’t possibly have said that. People didn’t own satellites . “How fucking rich are you?” I yelped.

He shrugged. “It was a sound investment. It pretty much paid for itself, really. A phone line is something every single person in Highvale needs.”

“Well, your network sucks.” Except it didn’t. It was working just fine on my phone. “Wait a minute, it could be fast like this everywhere?”

“Not really. The cable lines have been tricky to install and protect against the level of magic in Highvale. If millions of people used it all at once, the overall connection wouldn’t be as fast as it is now.” Lucian leaned in. “And if you share my details with anyone, I’ll know, Valesco.”

Had he really logged me onto his personal network?

“You didn’t share with Gideon, did you?” I glared.

“Do you want Gideon to have unfettered access to reality TV, shows he won’t shut up about, and porn?”

Come to think of it, I didn’t, but I wasn’t ready to drop it. It felt so damn unfair that the entirety of Highvale would depend on the shittiest of connections while he…didn’t. “Capitalism is evil. You’re way too expensive for shitty service.”

He was completely unabashed. “I don’t bother my pretty head about things such as pricing. I have executives for that. I just own the business. There was a need and I filled it. You could try to say thank you for your twenty gigabits per second, if you’d like.”

“I might when I stop being annoyed with you.”

He was grinning, so it took about thirty seconds for my mouth to curve up in response. I couldn’t help it. It was as hard to stay mad at Lucian for long; he was just like Gideon in that respect.

With a sigh, I grumbled, “Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome, love. More wine?”

Overall, the evening was disturbingly normal . Both Lucian and Cassius were charming and friendly, if a little too posh, too rich, and too damn entitled for words sometimes.

After all the dishes had put themselves away, Lucian escorted me to a room, not far from his library.

When he pushed the door, it was just like the rest of his floor, but as I stepped in, the dark walls morphed, the red and black theme switching to a dark green with silver filigree running through the walls and furniture.

I watched, gaping and in awe. It was spectacular .

Up until this very instant, I couldn’t have pictured my ideal room, but here it was, plucked straight from my mind and made real.

“The house is getting to know you.” Lucian leaned against the doorframe, unsurprised and unbothered. “Don’t tell Ronan it changed for you; he’ll be extremely jealous.”

“It doesn’t do that for everyone?” I asked.

Lucian shook his head. “You should find the usual amenities in the bathroom—the toothbrushes will be new. There are a few clothes in the wardrobe. Should you need anything, I’m right across the hall. Make yourself at home.”

That was just the problem. I felt perfectly at home.

So much so, twenty minutes later, when I finally sank into the softest, warmest duvet I’d ever touched, into a slightly too-large pair of brand-new, white silk PJs, a purring demon-cat by my knees, I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

For the first time in weeks—or years —there were no nightmares.