Page 67 of Undertow
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Sagan
Seeing it all in black and white from Myriam upset me in a way that was hard to control. My dragons were ready to come out and kill all the elders… And then some.
“It’s been about twenty years since any of them have done their actual jobs and traveled as an emissary for the royal family,” I muttered as I looked at the pages, my hands shaking. “I know it’s tedious, but please get with Raquel and try—I need some reasonable number of how much it costs to house them per day.”
She chuckled and nodded. “Smart.”
I met her gaze. “I won’t forget this.”
Her eyes softened. “You’re drowning and it’s my job now.”
No, this was more than I’d asked her for and this was now her mission too. “Your father still doesn’t allow forcing women or drugs, right?”
She flinched and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sex workers are illegal in Protesia and Father doesn’t touch it. Clubs with nudity only.” She waited until I nodded. “But he does drugs. Not the hard stuff. Not the life-ruining highly-additive shit.” She licked her lips and came to an internal decision. “Not after they destroyed his uncle.”
That was interesting and I filed it away for later. “Tell him to detangle from anyone who deals drugs to abuse women. That’s where your king is going to focus and hard after the eldest princess was sexually assaulted while at a noble party meeting a potential mating alliance.”
She blew out a harsh breath. “Forcing women isn’t Father’s thing.” She nodded when I snorted. “Yeah, that might have changed given he was planning to sell me, but… That’s different in his eyes. Drugs are different.”
“Fair, but busting the ones who sell them and they work with him will lead to him having to answer questions he won’t want to—attention he won’t want. It’s very different than rich kids getting high at parties and his poker tournaments. Even if I hate his loan sharking, someone will always do it and he keeps the other monsters at bay.”
“I’ll let him know. Thank you.”
“Also, make it clear not to branch out here. I told you that I plan to legalize it all, but it’sallowned by elders and I’m taking them down. So if he has his fingers in any of those pies, he should start withdrawing them. Especially the ones on our border.”
Her eyes flashed shock and worry. “Thank you, Sagan.”
I nodded and waved what she’d given me. “Thank you.”
“How do you want to handle the money you brought in?”
That was a good question, but first I scheduled a video call Sunday brunch meeting with all the Alphas. They could have someone else attend in their place, but I was pretty sure they would make it when I said it was mostly about updates to the elder situation and progress on managing the castle for guests.
Hint. Hint.
After some back and forth, I decided to ask Aunt Maple for help. I didn’t tell her what was going on, but simply asked her to give me a hand with something.
She joined us after dinner with Treena, which shocked me, but she didn’t hide her suspicion as she studied Myriam. Maple had made it clear she wasn’t a fan of me having a Metcalf as an aide but understood why I was doing it.
Uncle Darren wasn’t as accepting but kept quiet because it would look bad if he argued with me about something so important.
I told them both the truth about the elders and that I planned to seize assets from their accounts and skip the game they would ever pay me back. While they were reeling from that, I handed Maple the long,longlist of everyone my parents owed money to without telling her what it was about.
“Who on that list—I need this put in order of who we trust,” I told her.
“Who has the biggest mouth and would be problems with information that could hurt Sagan,” Myriam added.
“What is going on, Sagan?” Maple demanded. She shook her head when I tried to brush her off. “No, you tell me what is happening right now. If you’re in danger or—”
“You’re being ahugehelp, but leave this to us,” I told her. “You keep pushing Elira’s buttons and help me turn around the opinions in the castle who know you—that’s what I need. And this. I promise if I need anything else, I’ll ask.”
She searched my eyes. “You won’t tell me. Really? Not me?”
I licked my lips. “There are some things I do as heir, not as their daughter, but you will always be his sister.”
“Plus, we’re not even sure of anything yet,” Myriam lied smoothly. “We want to look into some things more, but we don’t know who to cross-reference with and who to worry about. The wrong person gossips about something from Elira or the elders and—”
