of iron and crowns

CHAPTER TEN,

  "TENSION RUNS HIGH," Ryan agreed with a nod as Irina described the earlier events. "Malcolm and North have been at each other's throats for the past few days too. Everyone's nervous, feeling pressured. It'll pass over."

  "Malcolm and North have been arguing for the past few days," Irina said, unconvinced and unimpressed. "Danna and Io have been acting this way for months. Danna years, even. And it's starting to affect everyone else. It's going to cause disaster, Ryan."

  Ryan winced. "To be fair, Danna earned the right to act however she wants to. You knew what you were getting into when you insisted she go to Melique."

  "Did we have another choice?"

  "You made her sacrifice some of her best years, Irina. And she never even wanted to be an agent in the first place. She's earned the right to be a bitch and say what she wants, even if it makes you and the others uncomfortable. She often has a point anyways—she's just bad at phrasing what she wants to say."

  "And Io?"

  "Something's changed her," Ryan admitted. "No one's telling you anything?"

  "Asteria probably knows. Danna, most definitely so. But no, nothing. They remain tight lipped as inanimate stones, not telling me a single thing. I asked Lady Kuroki—she has no idea either."

  "If they're keeping it that secretive, it's something major." Ryan tilted his head. "I'm willing to bet it has something to do with a man."

  Irina frowned. "I doubt it. Io's not that type of girl. She's rational and intelligent."

  "She feels too much, too strongly," Ryan shook his head. "Everyone becomes a fool when it comes to attraction and love. I wouldn't be surprised if she found her fall there. Wiser and older men and women have met their fall there."

  "Hopefully never the two of us."

  "From the way you're acting," Ryan said, "never you." Irina rolled her eyes.

  "You're saying that's your weakness too, then?"

  "Could be," Ryan shrugged, "I wouldn't know for sure until I've gone through it, would I? Let's hope that doesn't happen."

  Irina shook her head. "Such a waste of time and talent." 

   "You have to realise that not everyone wants to be a pawn in our game, Irina. Some of them just want to live a life of quiet and peace."

  And that was what Irina never understood. Why did people not want to leave their names in history, carved in the riverbanks so deep even the neverending streams and waves could not wash it away? She asked, "I am helping them become great."

  "What if they do not wish to be great?"

  Irina raised her chin at her cousin, sat in his chair behind his large desk. "Everyone wants to be great."

  "Do they?" Ryan asked. "You think Myrina Mai wants to be your definition of great, Irina?"

  "It's worked out, hasn't it? She's become one of the best, just like that. One of us. If she remained where she had been, she'd be laughed at, spit upon. Her relatives would rip her apart. No one dares put a hand on her right now." Irina shook her head. "I get it. My methods were not the best or the nicest, and I went against their wishes. But—"

  "You always think you're the smartest in the room."

  "I usually am the smartest in the room, Ryan."

  "All you know is ambition and how to climb higher, higher and higher." Ryan tilted his head, placing his brush pen on a rack. "It's not a bad thing, mind you, but sometimes you need to learn to view people as... people, rather than tools for you to use."