Page 41 of A Game of Love and Betrayal

Relief flashed through Orion’s eyes as he lifted the black cloth and secured it around Ryker’s face. The thick material was manufactured specifically so that even beings with strong senses, like fae, vampires, and shifters, couldn’t see out of it.

Once Ryker was blindfolded, the others quickly followed suit. Blaring sirens and faint screams accompanied the group as they entered the basement.

Another tremor hit as they descended below the Hall of Choice.

Death was in the air today.

CHAPTER 12

Unexpected Complications Arise

The bunker was freezing. Even though Brynleigh’s blood ran cold, and the dropping temperature wouldn’t kill her, she was uncomfortable. She could only imagine how bad it was for the others. She wore a thin violet t-shirt and workout leggings, not having dressed to spend the day underground.

A musty scent tickled her nostrils every time she inhaled, and a suspicious dripping sound came from nearby. At least there wasn’t any tell-tale scurrying from mice or other rodents.

After the guards had blindfolded them—many of the women had cried and screamed during the process—they had led them down several flights of stairs. From what Brynleigh could tell from her limited information, they were deep underground in a cement room. If there were any lights, she couldn’t make them out through the material they’d forced over her eyes.

Hours had passed since they descended into the bellies of the Hall of Choice. At first, a few women had cried. Some, like Esme, were stoic. In a display that confirmed how horrible Valentina was, the fire fae had verbally berated the guards, assuring them they would hear from her mother if the threat was fake.

Hallie had nearly passed out from shock. Now, the Fortune Elf rested her head against Brynleigh’s shoulder. A shuddering sob occasionally ran through the smaller woman, but she seemed to have run out of tears.

The men were somewhere down here, too. Brynleigh could sense their presence, along with even more guards.

Another vampire must have been working with the soldiers. Their shadow magic crawled over Brynleigh’s skin, and she sensed the presence of their darkness. They must have filled the bunker with shadows, adding another layer of security to keep the participants from seeing each other.

The guards had handed out protein bars and bottles of water, but they hadn’t had anything for Brynleigh. She needed blood, and soon. Her stomach twinged, warning that hunger wasn’t far off.

Instead of focusing on her need to feed because she couldn’t do anything about it, she turned to Hallie. Keeping her voice low so no one else could overhear, Brynleigh asked, “How are you feeling?”

“I didn’t See this,” the Fortune Elf whispered hoarsely. “Mama told me I shouldn’t Look ahead much while I was here in case I accidentally Saw my future husband. I shouldn’t have listened to her. I should’ve walked the silver planes more often. If I’d known?—”

Brynleigh reached out blindly and put her hand on what she thought was Hallie’s knee. “You couldn’t have changed anything. You heard the guards. The rebels attacked Golden City.”

Brynleigh was surprised that it had taken them this long to attack a Choosing. It didn’t take a genius to correlate the rebel attacks and the class disparity in the Republic of Balance. Issues were bound to arise, seeing as how the majority of the Republic suffered under the rule of the Council.

Even now, Brynleigh knew she and the other “commoners” were only Selected to take part in the Choosing to appease the citizens of the Republic. Valentina and the others whispered behind their backs, taking little care to hide how they felt about the women they deemed beneath them.

Still, it was frustrating that the rebels were causing problems during Brynleigh’s Choosing. She’d spent years meticulously crafting her plan, and now everything was falling apart. This was an unexpected complication she’d rather not deal with… and wasn’t the only one that had arisen.

Brynleigh and Ryker were forging a connection, which was her plan. What she hadn’t seen coming was the way she couldn’t stop thinking about him. He haunted her every minute of every day. Even while she slept, she thought about him.

The deep rasp of the fae’s voice and the smoky quality that edged his words intrigued her. Her heart sped up while they talked, no matter how much she tried to stop it. Even though she imbibed blood daily, she couldn’t get her fangs to stop aching.

Her body’s reaction to Ryker was a problem, and she needed to fix it. He was supposed to want her, not the other way around.

Rule number six: let nothing distract you from your goal.

Today, Brynleigh had almost slipped up and told him about her nightmares. The words had been on the tip of her tongue. She’d been seconds away from admitting that when she slept, she dreamed of deadly waves and burning lungs.

The rebel attack stopped her just in time.

She needed to remember who Ryker was. What he’d done. Over the past month, he’d put on a good front of being a kind, caring man, but she knew the fae hiding beneath the surface was a cold-blooded killer. Her entire town was dead because of him.

Brynleigh was so caught up in remembering exactly why she hated Ryker that she didn’t hear the guards moving at first.

“Can I have your attention?” a commanding voice came from the front of the room.

Silence fell. The bunker was so quiet that a pin dropping would have been as loud as a clap of thunder.

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