The windows of the back seat of the car seemed far too oppressive as we approached the industrial district I remembered very clearly. The ramshackle buildings had haunted my vivid nightmares for years after the loss of my mother, reminding me of what waited for me if I dared to defy my father’s rules.
A blade just waiting to swing, a neck just waiting to be severed.
The town car pulled up in front of the abandoned warehouse with heavily armed security standing around the back of it. The families made no attempt to disguise their treachery or the crimes they committed here, and there was no reason to.
The police worked alongside the guards each family provided, securing the location from all manner of people who would grow curious.
I lifted my chin as one of the suited men stepped forward, opening my door for me as Calix climbed out the other side. I placed my hand in the stranger’s, pivoting until my heels touched the ground outside the car.
Allowing him to pull me free, I focused on the feeling of my silken dress settling around my thighs. It gathered on one side, draping asymmetrically and leaving one leg revealed, while the boning of the bodice pushed my breasts high. I waved the man out of my way so that I could walk toward the warehouse. Calix fell into step with me without a word and settled his hand on the small of my back as he leaned in and pressed his mouth to my hair.
I practically felt the glare he aimed toward the man who’d dared to touch my hand, the look a firm reminder of just who I belonged to in the games we would play today. One day, I might risk his wrath to test his limits and toy with another man just to irritate him.
Instead, with my anxiety over the pits rushing through me, I leaned into his touch more than I cared to admit. The back doors of the warehouse swung open as we approached, and Calix led me through them.
The last time I’d been here, I’d been far more concerned with what was happening than finding my way around on any future visit. Back then, I’d have sworn I would never willingly return.
Calix led me to a set of stairs that curved around the pit itself. We ascended the steps as I stared down over the metal railing into the sand below. There was no stain of blood to show the spot where my mother had died. As if her very being had been washed away.
I turned away, forcing back the threat of tears that burned my throat. I couldn’t show any emotion to the men who would use it against me and deem me too feminine and emotional to claim my seat on the council.
Calix rounded the top, guiding me at his side to a room encased in glass. It hung above the pit itself, stray grains of sand crunching beneath my feet and haunting me as my heels clacked against the wood floors. I couldn’t have said if the room or stairs had existed the last time or if they were new, but I got the general impression that Calix had been in that room before.
He halted before the glass door, wrapping his fingers around the olive branches crafted out of metal. Six of them extended from the center toward the edges, representing the six families.
Calix pulled the door open, holding it for me as I led the way into the room. Four other men sat within, holding court in chairs arranged in a circle at the center.
“Welcome back to ο λάκκος, Thalia Karras,” one of them said. I recognized him from his dealings with my father.
Alexander Galanis.
He was also the father of one of the girls who had tormented me before Calix stepped in.
“Regas,” Calix corrected with a smirk, snagging my eye with his. He studied me as he took a few steps to the side, lowering himself into what I could only presume was the Regas seat.
“That won’t be the case for long. She’ll have no need of your name when you’re dead,” Damianos’s brother Tobias said. He glared at Calix before turning his dead-eyed stare to me, letting his gaze travel from my feet to my head.
“Let us not get ahead of ourselves,” one of the others said. He buttoned the jacket of his suit as he stood, holding out a hand to gesture me toward the only remaining seat. “While it is admittedly unorthodox, with no other surviving Karras to claim their seat, Thalia will have equal rights in all decisions made by this council.”
“Thank you, Lykaios,” Calix said, smiling slightly as the other man gestured me on. I walked past two of the other council members, pausing in front of the shining metallic seat that remained. I ran my fingers over the back of it, touching the symbol of my family that was etched into it.
The fish emerged from the water, surrounded by anemone as I turned my back to it and faced the circle at the center. Two spikes pointed toward the ceiling in the very center of the back of the chair, looking menacing. I lowered myself into the seat, touching the arms and running manicured nails over the metal.
Calix cleared his throat, raising a brow at me as he drew my attention to him at last. “Should we begin?”
