House of Kings(46)

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Anna growls at him. “That was not your call to make.”

“She obviously wasn’t going to have any useful information, so what good was the waste of breath?” he asks, clearly annoyed. He turns and stalks back out the door. “You’re welcome for the help, by the way.” He flips us all the bird before he slams the front door closed behind him.

“Hot head,” Anna says, shaking her head.

Danielle shifts beside me and I turn to see the horrified look on her face. She studies the Bitten woman, now dead, with fear and moisture pooling in her eyes. She shakes her head. Her gaze darts up to Anna and I. Once more, she shakes her head in disbelief before she stalks down the hall.

“I wouldn’t have preferred Lex do it that way,” Anna says as she pulls another blade. She drives it through the man’s chest and he immediately goes still. “But he was right. They’re useless if they don’t tell us anything. They’re only a threat if we let them live.”

“Just…clean up the mess,” I say as I walk away.





THE CLOCK TICKS DOWN. AT ten o’clock, Rath declares dinner served. I still have no idea who’s cooking the food. We eat, conversations naturally flowing around the table. Now that the House and Court members have had three weeks to get to know each other, it is no longer silent. Nial laughs with Serge. Lillian and Morticia chat. Even Cameron is getting Sebastian to crack a smile.

Eleven o’clock.

Eleven thirty.

At twenty minutes to midnight, everyone begins drifting away from the table. Rath begins clearing the dishes. My heart starts to race.

“You look nervous, my dear,” Cyrus whispers in my ear as we stand from the table. I look back to see the expected smile on his lips.

“Just anticipation,” I respond with my own attempt.

“Turn around,” he says. I’m nervous with trepidation at his request, but I do it. I spin, turning my back on Cyrus. He drapes a piece of cloth in front of me, and my heart races all the faster as he ties it around my eyes, blindfolding me. “Do not worry.”

But I do. Because there is always cause to worry in a game.

“Come,” he instructs. He takes my hand in his and very carefully leads me into the ballroom. And I realize just how enhanced my senses are. I hear the echo every sound makes, can sense objects in the way. It’s incredible, being able to see without eyes. Not details, but shapes and distances.

“Sit,” he says as he leads me to a chair, set directly over my father’s crest. “Just wait here for a few minutes and we’ll begin soon.”

I listen as people shuffle around. More and more Court and House members fill the ballroom. Whispers float around, everyone wondering at the contents of this last and final game.

Suddenly, there’s a choked off yelp and I flinch. Shouts and angry voices. I reach up to remove my blindfold, but there’s a soft, fragile feeling hand stopping me.

“Don’t,” they say. X.

“What’s going on?” I demand, though I don’t try to remove the blindfold.

“Just be patient,” she says and I hate her more than I ever have before. “You will see in just a few moments.”

There’s a bang, the sound of a foot connecting hard with the front door and more scuffling. A muffled yell works its way to my ears. There’s the scraping sound of two chairs being dragged against the marble floor and I hear two bodies shoved into them.

More yelling. More chaos.

“Silence!”

Cyrus’ command is deafening among all the noise. My ears ring and the ballroom falls silent. The air quakes with his intensity.

“Much better,” Cyrus says, clearly annoyed. His booted feet tap across the marble, walking toward me. His hand grabs mine, and he places something cold and hard in my hand. It has weight to it. A sharp edge.

A knife.

“This game is for you, my dear Alivia,” Cyrus says. I hear him walk behind my chair, and he places his hands on the high back of it. “This is a game of judgment and quick decisions. You must make a choice and you have ten seconds to make it. In war and leadership, we don’t often get time to make decisions. We must listen to our instincts.”

His hands slide over the back of the chair, back and forth, in gleeful anticipation.

“And make a decision you must,” he says, his voice growing chilly and low. “For if you don’t, they both will die, anyway.”

My blindfold is suddenly yanked away. I blink twice, clearing the light from my eyes. And sitting before me, bound to chairs, duct tape over their mouths, are Trinity and Sheriff Luke McCoy.

“One of these two has betrayed you,” Cyrus says. “They’ve posed a devastating threat to your House. You must kill someone and you have ten seconds to decide who. Starting…” he walks around to the side of me, holding a digital timer in his hands, with big, bold numbers for all to see. It is set to ten seconds. His finger hovers over the start button. “Now.”