Page 1 of A Game of Love and Betrayal

Prologue

Long ago, many centuries in the past, an Empress ruled over this continent. The Rose Empire was vast, prosperous, and generally a good place to live.

Until it wasn’t.

Internal wars tore the Rose Empire apart. Elves battled dragons, merfolk staked their claim in the Indigo Ocean, werewolf packs settled across the continent, and vampires moved to the frigid, frozen north. The citizens of the former empire formed kingdoms.

Four of them, to be exact.

Prosperity reigned in the Four Kingdoms as well… for a time. All too soon, however, the pull of power and money became too strong for some to resist. Once again, tensions rose. Wars were fought. Power ebbed and flowed.

Time went on.

Elves Matured and Faded. Vampires were Made and died. Werewolves lived beneath the power of the moon, growing their packs over the centuries.

And humans?

They simply… existed.

Life continued. The balance was broken and then reformed. For a time, peace reigned over the continent.

Several millennia later, the Four Kingdoms evolved again and united beneath a shared banner. The fae crossed the Indigo Ocean in the Great Migration, bringing their impressive magic. Technology soared in this new time, and all the species coexisted in the Republic of Balance.

It was during this time that our story took place.

CHAPTER 1

Fangs or Blade?

“I’m feeling benevolent this evening, so I’ll allow you to decide how you want to die.” Brynleigh de la Point pinned the sniveling, half-dressed man with a glare that she hoped said, This is the last choice you’ll ever get to make. Out loud, she added, “Fangs or blade?”

The man blinked from his position on the bed, his sluggish mud-brown eyes struggling to follow the vampire’s movements across the dimly lit, shoddy studio apartment. The faint glow of streetlights several stories below filtered through the grimy glass of the single window above his head, adding a yellow tint to the space.

His inability to focus could have been caused by his half-mortal blood, the prohiberis Brynleigh had liberally sprinkled in his drink earlier to block his magic, or merely a side-effect from the pints of alcohol he’d consumed throughout the evening. Judging by the smell wafting off him, it was probably a combination of all three.

The shadows binding the man’s arms and legs likely weren’t helping matters either. They operated on Brynleigh’s command, and there wasn’t anything he could do to break the dark bonds.

If the man hadn’t already concluded exactly how dire his situation was, he would shortly.

Brynleigh tapped her booted foot on the dirty floor, avoiding a questionable stain a few inches from where she stood. The sooner she got out of this apartment, the better. “What’s your choice?”

He slurred, his voice pitifully weak, “I… uh… neither?”

Brynleigh barely suppressed a sigh. Did he have no self-respect? The least he could do in the face of impending death was be strong and fight with everything he had.

“That’s not an option.” Brynleigh withdrew the sharp, thin dagger sheathed on her thigh. It was one of the many weapons she’d hidden all over her person before venturing out tonight. “Choose, or I will for you.”

Providing an answer would have been the intelligent option.

Instead, this man proved that not only did he lack self-respect, but he was anything but intelligent. His lecherous gaze raked over Brynleigh, starting at her head and dipping past her black tank top to her dark blue jeans. He smirked, probably determining that her choice of outfit meant that she was ready for a night on the town, not to kill a scumbag such as himself.

The bound man proved her suspicions correct a moment later. “You’re not going to kill me.”

If his response hadn’t been so predictable, Brynleigh probably would have been disappointed. It was just like a man to take one look at her golden hair and curvy body, and decide that she couldn’t be a killer because she didn’t look like one. He wasn’t the first to make that erroneous observation, and much to Brynleigh’s dismay, she was fairly certain he wouldn’t be the last either.

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Brynleigh willed her shadows to tighten, their constrictive embrace proving her deadly point. “Only one of us will be walking out of that door alive, and it will be me.”

He scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Come on, baby. I just wanted to have a bit of fun.”

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