Page 98 of A Game of Love and Betrayal

A hand gripped her shoulder, the touch just on this side of pain. “Wake up. We don’t have long.”

Brynleigh hitched a breath. It felt like fiery needles were being jabbed into her.

Well, at least now she knew this was real.

“Fuck, that hurts.” Brynleigh opened her eyes, wincing at the bright light right above her. Her vision was blurry, which was an unusual event that hadn’t occurred since her Making, and she blinked several times to clear it. “What happened?”

The shifter canted his head. Auburn scruff covered his face, and shadows hung beneath his eyes. “A bomb went off, and you were hit with a shard of prohiberis-lined silver. You don’t remember?”

Another curse slipped from Brynleigh’s lips. If her mother were still alive, she’d be shocked at how her daughter spoke. But she wasn’t, so it didn’t matter.

“Yeah, that was the same way Jelisette reacted.” Zanri crossed his arms and looked down at Brynleigh. “You know, B, you’re supposed to be getting ready to kill him, not get yourself killed.”

“I know,” she said through gritted teeth. “You think I planned to get blown up?” These gods-damned rebels were throwing a wrench in everything.

“Of course not.” Zanri met her eyes, and a disapproving frown marred his features. “But I saw you with him, B. In the shadows.”

When Ryker was kissing her neck…

Brynleigh’s blood ran cold, and she gripped the sheets. The look in Zanri’s eyes, the warning in his voice…

She whispered, “Did she see?”

Neither of them needed to clarify who Brynleigh was talking about.

Zanri held Brynleigh’s gaze for a long moment before he sighed and shook his head. “No, she was talking with Representative DuBois at the time.”

“Thank Isvana.” Brynleigh blew out a sigh of relief and pushed herself up onto her elbows to take in the room. Even with the beeping equipment and screens surrounding the bed, this place was far fancier than the safe house. “Where are we?”

She should probably spend more time reassuring Zanri that she felt nothing for Ryker, but she was too tired to talk much right now. Words were hard to come by.

The longer Brynleigh was awake, the more she realized everything was muted. Dimmer than normal. Even her shadows were a gentle hum in her veins instead of the typical thrum they usually sang. If she hadn’t just spent far too long battling against the fog to access her memories, she’d be concerned about that.

“The Lily.” Zanri perched on the side of the bed. “Chancellor’s orders. She moved everyone here after the bomb went off.”

Brynleigh was surprised by that. “Even Jelisette?” The old vampire had an unusual attachment to the safe house. Brynleigh had never seen her stay anywhere else.

Whatever drew Jelisette there, she never spoke of it. Just like she never spoke of the reason she always wore long sleeves or she sometimes had a far-away, dead look in her eyes.

“No,” Zanri chuckled. “Not even Ignatia Rose could make Jelisette do something she didn’t want to. She and I are staying at the safe house.”

That made sense.

Brynleigh took another look around. “It’s… shiny.”

She’d heard of this hotel, but she’d never been here before. It was far too expensive, and besides, vampires were rarely invited to establishments like this. To say the room was gilded would be a vast understatement. It was like someone had taken all the makings of a regular hotel room, dumped them in a pot of liquid money, and called it a day.

The bed frames were gold. The television stand was gold. The doorknobs? Gold. The entire space was luxury personified, and it was extremely obnoxious. The windowsills, the picture frames, even the gods-damned comforter shimmered when the light hit them.

This show of wealth was made even more disgusting by the fact that people were literally starving in the streets of Golden City. Little wonder she’d felt like she was in a cloud. It was a rich, golden one.

She understood why the rebels were attacking.

“Yes, it is. But focus, B.” Zanri shook her shoulders roughly. “The medicine they’re giving you makes you sleepy. The doctor said you’d only be awake for a few minutes.”

Medicine? What medicine? She lifted her hand to grab his arm when she noticed the needle sticking out of her.

Brynleigh’s gaze followed the tubing to a bag hanging beside the bed. There was no label on it, but the clear liquid was going into her body. All she knew was it wasn’t blood. What were they giving her?

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