I slid my hand into the mouth of the serpent at the end of the left arm of my chair. Its body wrapped around the leg, etched into fine detail. The others followed suit as Thalia watched, and I nodded her on, even though I wished there’d been more time to prepare her for what was to come.
Power came at a cost. There could be no dominion over the city without pain.
I pressed my middle finger down against the button formed from the serpent’s tongue, the needle at the center puncturing my skin until blood dripped down around the button and into the locking mechanism beneath it.
I kept my eyes on Thalia’s as she inserted her finger into the serpent the same way I had. Her eyes widened as the tip brushed over the needle, but she swallowed back her apprehension. The eyes of the other five families rested on her shoulders as she squared them, turning her gaze away from mine and looking straight forward.
Tobias sat across from her, his head cocked to the side as he watched her the same way I did. She didn’t so much as flinch when she pressed her finger into the needle, bleeding herself for the right to claim her place on the council.
Once the vial below her button had filled with blood, all of the needles retracted into the locking mechanisms within the chairs. Blood slid down the bodies of the serpents, draining into channels as the slight decline in the circular floor pulled it toward the center. Thalia leaned forward in her seat as the blood mixed and surrounded the six points at the center circle, the six tails where they extended from our chairs to intertwine into one body.
Six families. Six heads of the serpent.
The gear at the center of the circle between us turned, the metal groaning as it spread apart and the panels of the floor retracted back into their hidden pockets beneath our seats. My feet dangled as the ground beneath them disappeared, leaving me with no way to stand from my chair until our business was concluded.
Thalia stared down into the hole in the floor in horror, getting a bird’s eye view of the pit below and of the sandy enclosure where her mother had died for a crime that was far from worthy of death.
It was rare that I’d been permitted within the council chamber as a boy, only often enough to have some idea of what would happen should I assume my place as head of the Regas family one day. More often than not, I’d sat in the sandy pit below, playing with the axes and knives and shields while I looked up at the dangling feet of the men above.
Never had a woman sat there, delicate heels pointing down like daggers.
Thalia tore her gaze off the pits below, pursing her lips as she pulled her hand free from the serpent’s mouth. She shifted in her seat, crossing her legs carefully and revealing a long line of bare thigh in the asymmetrical hem of her dress. Leaning back in her seat, she donned the mask she’d worn for most of her life.
An indifferent Queen upon her throne.
She drew her finger into her mouth, sucking away the drop of blood that remained while the men in the room watched her, waiting for a reaction. “I presume there is a point to your dragging me from my bed so early in the morning. Might I request you make it?”
“Origen should have killed you along with your whore of a mother. A slut can only breed a slut,” Alexander Galanis said, his voice lacking vehemence. He spoke as if it was common knowledge that all the men in the room thought similar.
To kill a child for the crimes of her mother….
I hated it here.
“A pity for you, I suppose,” Thalia said, seemingly unruffled by his wish for her death as a girl. I couldn’t imagine it was an entirely strange concept to her, with a father who didn’t care whether she lived or died outside of what he could gain from marrying her off.
“Enough,” Elias ordered, rolling his eyes. “We have a genuine conflict that has been brought forward by a member of the Hasapis family. Surely that is more important than petty squabbles amongst ourselves.”
“How convenient for you to find yourself sitting on the council during such a time of turmoil, Elias. Your father’s heart must have been simply unable to handle all the stress that Regas caused with his attack on two of our most dear families,” Alexander said, glaring at Elias from across the open chasm between them.
“It would have been difficult for any man to possess a functioning heart when it was cut from his chest,” Elias answered, leaning forward. “We all know my father did not die of natural causes. I won’t pretend he did.”
“You killed him to take his place on this council,” Alexander accused, and I sat back in my seat. Thalia mirrored the posture, draping her forearms on the golden arms of her chair and watching the show. Listening for any bits of information the others were foolish enough to provide, not fully grasping that they had not one, but two enemies in their midst. “I have to ask myself, why now?”
Elias leaned forward, gripping the edge of one arm of his chair as a single one of his hands came down upon the head of the snake. “Because it is time for a new generation to control the six families. I am as much an opportunist as my father was before I killed him at our family dinner.”
“You may be within your right to usurp your father’s throne, but Regas’s involvement goes against the treaty between our families. We are not to interfere in the hierarchy of the others. Not only did he nearly eradicate two family lines, but he involved himself in the politics of the Lykaios family as well for his own benefit. Such things are forbidden, and he will be punished for them,” Alexander said, glaring over at me.
He clearly thought he’d trapped me within the confines of the treaties we were all required to submit to, but I smirked. “I swear on the life of my wife and the potential child growing in her womb, I did not leave her side yesterday. I’m not sure how I could have been involved in this coup when we were nowhere near the Lykaios estate.”
Alexander turned to Thalia, his nostrils flaring in irritation. “And what was it that you did all day, Ms. Karras?”
“My husband and I visited his parents. His mother is looking after my sister as we adjust to our new marriage. Newlyweds, I’m sure you understand,” she said, scrunching up her nose playfully, but disgust followed in its wake as she turned her attention away from him.
Aleksander’s fingers tightened on the chair as he leaned toward her, her blatant dismissal of him grating on his last nerve. “All night long?” he asked her, leaving her with no choice but to lean away as he got closer to her space than he should have.
I’d have the chairs rearranged once I had better control of the city and the council, putting her beside me so that no one could come between us. “Of course not. We went home, where he bent me over the sofa and fucked me until I couldn’t walk. Is that what you wanted to hear, Councilor Galanis?”
“Listen here, you little—” Alexander snapped.
“Whore?” Thalia finished, scoffing. “I find it difficult to believe you would have called me a whore if Damianos had fucked me until I cried on our wedding night. So am I a whore for having sex with my husband, or am I a whore because I enjoyed it? If it’s the latter, you might consider asking yourself why your wife doesn’t enjoy sex with you. It says far more about you and the shriveled piece of meat dangling between your legs than it does about your wife.”
Elias and Atticus chuckled, raising fists to cover their mouths and disguise it. “λουλούδι μου,” I murmured, leaning forward with a smile and cocking my head to the side. “Play nice.”
She met my smile with a sly grin of her own, picking at her nails absently. “Anything for you, η ψυχή μου,” she said, making my cock throb in my pants. The devious tormenter would be the end of me.
My soul.
Fuck.
“My brother would have enjoyed breaking you,” Tobias said, leaning forward until I almost worried he might fall out of his chair. I supposed plummeting to his death would have been too convenient.
Pity.
“He would have tried, but it will take a far greater man than Damianos Hasapis to break what has already learned to bend,” Thalia said, glaring at Tobias intently. The other man didn’t back down, the muscle in his jaw flexing before he finally turned his attention away and allowed Thalia to be the victor of that skirmish.
“Enough games. I’ve called the council to order to demand payment for the blood debt owed to me by Calix Regas for the cold-blooded murder of my family. When he is dead, I will take Thalia Karras as my wife to unite our families as my brother wanted,” Tobias proposed, looking toward me and waiting for me to squirm.
“Over my dead body,” Thalia seethed, showing far too much emotion. It was something they could use against her in the long run, but perhaps it would let them underestimate her.
“But Thalia, you said yourself; you do not break. Let me see how far you can bend,” Tobias growled, gripping the arms of his chair.
“You can theorize all you want, but it is a moot point. You see, I’ve been banished from this council. I am no longer held to the treaties that bind it together. Your father thought he was clever to get rid of us, but he made it so that I do not need to obey your laws. I can do as I please, and there is nothing you can do about it,” I said, watching as Tobias’s nostrils flared in fury.
“Then what is to stop me from killing you here and now?”
“You could, but we both know I have allies in very high places. I have spent a great many years making it effectively impossible for you to kill me without signing your own death warrant. So as I see it, you have three choices. One, you can kill me and take your chances with the wrath of Rafael Ibarra and Matteo Bellandi. Two, you can banish me and my wife from this city, knowing we will not be held to your laws and may come back for vengeance yet again. Or three, and this is my personal favorite, you can reinstate the Regas family to the council and make me the head of my line. I will once again need to obey the treaty and the governance of the council going forward, and I promise you; that is your only hope of ever controlling me.”
“I move to reinstate Calix Regas as the head of his family, and give him the seat he is owed upon this very council,” Elias said, pressing his hand back into the open mouth of the snake. He pricked his finger, pressing down the button to collect his blood while he waited.
“Second,” Atticus murmured, following suit.
“Thalia, my flower, would you care to third the motion?” I asked, watching as she raised her chin in understanding.
United we could have our vengeance.
“Third,” she murmured softly, pressing her poor, abused finger back onto the needle. Blood ran down, swinging the mechanisms as the panels closed in the floor. With a majority reached, business had concluded.
“And just like that, you’ve taken back power in the city you haven’t even been a part of for over a decade,” Alexander scoffed, rising to his feet.
“I assure you; while it may have seemed quick to you, this is the result of years of careful planning. I meant it when I asked if we should begin. I am nowhere near finished enacting my revenge,” I warned, pointing a finger at his seat. “Now sit down. There is still one final matter to be discussed today.”
“I move to reassess the hierarchy of the council itself. The Hasapis family is no longer strong enough to lead us. I call for the trial by combat in ο λάκκος in one month’s time. Let our battle decide who is worthy, as has always been done,” Atticus said, holding to the conversation we’d had in the dead of night.
“You realize all families must be present in such a battle? What hope do I have against four men decades younger than I am? More importantly, what hope does she have?” Alexander said, turning toward Thalia.
“She’s a woman. She won’t be expected to fight. She will merely have to forfeit her chance to govern the council,” I said.
“The treaty says all must be present in ο λάκκος. I promise you, I will make sure she fights. If she wants to play like a big girl, then she’ll need to learn to fight like one.”
“Don’t you worry about me, Councilor Galanis. I am strong enough to beat an old man with one foot in the grave. I will see you in ο λάκκος. Try not to be too embarrassed when I win,” Thalia said, standing from her chair smoothly. She pinned Alexander Galanis with one last smug grin and turned on her heel.
I rose, following after her to leave the others to discuss the battle in one month. They knew as well as I did that there was no way around it.
There was no voting on a challenge to the power.
There was only war.
