“Yes, sir.” Sodge’s jowls shook as he moved, slowly lifting his chin and pursing his lips the closer he came. The man needed to work on his poker tells.

“Take a seat, please.” Kieran closed the doors.

Sodge finished placing the tray on the coffee table between two stylish though comfortable leather armchairs. “A seat, sir?” Sodge looked around in surprise.

“Yes, Sodge. Please.” Kieran retook his chair and waited for the butler to uncomfortably take a seat. He wasn’t used to being talked to as an equal or sitting in the same room with the master of the house. He’d been a servant for two of Kieran’s lifetimes or longer, and he’d always been treated as one. It was the only way Kieran had ever thought of him, as well. The silent help, always underfoot but never in the way. It was the reason for Kieran’s major slip-up—the reason he had let everyone down.

“Please, sir, this is unseemly. Who will pour the tea?”

“The…tea.” Kieran had asked for coffee.

As if hearing Kieran’s thought, Sodge pursed his lips again. “Civilized people drink tea. Cultured people. Your father drank tea until the day he died.”

“My father was lactose intolerant and hated coffee without milk or creamer in it. He quit out of spite for milk, and drowned his tea in sugar. I hardly think that is the sign of a civilized and cultured man.”

“You never did understand the finer things in life,” Sodge muttered, turning his face to the side.

“You may pour the tea, if it makes you happy,” Kieran said.

“Yes, sir.” Sodge stood with effort, clearly feeling the years now that Valens’s blood oath and the accompanying perks had been ripped away.

“Sodge, it has come to my attention that someone in my employ has been talking to Demigod Flora of New York.”

Sodge stiffened. “Oh?”

“She and her crew showed up in West Virginia barely a day after I did.”

“That sounds most unfortunate. Her team must be nearly as good as yours.” He finished pouring the light brown liquid into a dainty cup painted with purple flowers—something Kieran’s mother might’ve picked out. He reached for the silver spoon sticking out of the silver sugar bowl, something his father had liked. Valens never missed a chance to show off his wealth.

Kieran put out a hand. “No sugar for me, thanks. Milk will be fine.”

Sodge sniffed. “I didn’t bring milk, sir. It’s bad for you.”

Kieran sighed. Sodge wasn’t making this any easier.

“Fine. And no, her team is not nearly as good as mine. Most of them are now dead, despite the fact that she brought her best and brightest. She’ll be in the market for some new oath holders. Is that something you’d be interested in?”

Sodge stepped to the side and clasped his hands behind his back. He hadn’t poured himself any tea, and he didn’t plan to sit again. Kieran let it go.

“I have no wish to enter a strange Demigod’s rat race, thank you very much,” Sodge said haughtily.

“Then I wonder why you would consistently feed her private information overheard from discussions in this house, Sodge.”

Kieran placed his elbows on the arms of the chair and steepled his fingers against his lips, waiting.

Sodge straightened a little more, although no remorse showed on his face. No fear or regret, either.

After a moment of silence, it was clear he did not plan to deny the allegations. Kieran gave him a little credit for that.

“You’ve put me in a tight spot, Sodge,” Kieran went on, dropping his hands and leaning back. “I would like to honor my father’s position for you—I’d like you to keep your home—but I simply cannot allow you to stay here if you plan to share sensitive information. After this, I cannot trust you.”

“I didn’t do anything you haven’t,” Sodge said. “You came slinking into your father’s house under false pretenses, learning his secrets and spying on him, like a filthy rat.”

“Yes, I did. And when he found me out, he planned to kill me. I do not plan to kill you, Sodge.”

“Go ahead. It will be a hero’s death.”

“You are not a hero. Because of you, many people died. Because of you, a man’s future has been jeopardized.”

“Yes, well, the Demigod of New York has always been lacking in her ability to close a deal. Your father always said that.”

“Then why go to her?”

“Because she is of Zeus, and I thought she would jump at this chance.”

“She did. Good call. If you do not plan to take up a position with her, I must decide what to do with you.”

Sodge stood there stoically, looking straight ahead, and offered no help or direction.

“You liked working for my father,” Kieran said to stall, wishing Sodge would give him something, anything, to work with. His mother had thought Sodge was good at heart, though irrational when it came to Valens. Kieran didn’t want to kill another little piece of his past if he could help it.

“Of course I did. He was fair and just. If I had gone around your father’s back and done this, he would’ve tortured and then killed me. He was not a soft man, like his son has turned out to be. He was an exacting leader in this uncertain age.”

Kieran sighed. “Shall I ask you to leave, is that what you’d like?”

“I have nowhere to go. That must’ve crossed your mind.”

“It has. It has also crossed my mind that you’d rather die than give a blood oath to me. Which leaves me at an impasse, I’m afraid. I can’t have you in my home without some way to control your scheming. I can make some calls—see if anyone else will take you.”

“Only a few in the world can live up to Valens’s status. He was one of the best. I wouldn’t degrade myself by entering the employment of anyone lesser.”

Kieran shook his head, at a loss. The old man was leaving him no choice but to cast him out.

He opened his mouth to promise the man a healthy retirement and a home of his choosing, but Sodge continued.

“Your father thought you had the potential to be as good as him, someday. That you two would control half the world, magical and otherwise.”

“Yes, well—”

“He was not wrong, though your methods would make him turn over in his grave. I do not claim to understand the world of the Demigods, but it is my place, and so I will embody my place. I will accept the blood oath, on the condition that when the Hades woman”—his nose curled—“figures out how to grant immortality to both of you, you will renew the blood oath with that ability embedded.”

Kieran did a bad job of containing his shock.

“If that’s all, sir, I will come back to clear away the tea.” Sodge turned to leave without a formal release, something he had done with Valens. “Oh, and…” Sodge turned back at the door. “I knew, of course, the woman from New York would not pose a threat. That is why I called her instead of Demigod Zander, who would’ve taken the boy right out from under your nose. Despite Flora’s high standing, she has always been mostly useless. And now she knows the son is as good as the father. You will have no more trouble from her.”

With that, Sodge let himself out of the library and closed the door after himself.