Page 3 of Daemonium

A town hall? Unlikely. Nothing here was as it seemed. The entire city was one big stage for sadistic games orchestrated by unseen puppeteers. I retraced the lines that had been drawn to the building and noticed it was blocked by another. “What’s this place in front of it?”

Lana was the one to answer this time. “They don’t know.”

“Really?” I was surprised by that. So far it seemed like they knew every in and out of this place.

Charon chuckled and shook his head. “Yes, really.”

“You mean you guys aren’t all-knowing with answers for everything?” Mel joked, placing one hand on the table.

“Unfortunately, no. We’re pretty close, though,” he countered in the same manner. “This building was under renovation until recently. It finished its test runs when you three were brought onto the show.”

I wasn’t sure I believed him, but I kept that to myself. It was just as likely they didn’t want us to know yet. We’d have no choice but to face whatever challenge it presented head-on without hesitation, or risk dying in some horrific manner.

“Something you want to say, Puppet?”

I glanced at Lana, then Ciaran, who was staring at her with a perceptible glint in his eyes.

“Not particularly. Just not sure I believe everything I’m hearing.”

I wasn’t surprised to hear she was having a similar thought process to mine.

“What’s with the cynicism? Don’t you trust us? At the very least you should trust me.”

She scoffed and planted a hand on her hip. “Trust you? That’s the worst joke I’ve ever heard. I have a small inkling that you know exactly why we’re in here, which means so does your band of merry men.”

“You could give us a better moniker than that,” Maverick objected.

“I know more than you think I do,” she stated, still staring at Ciaran.

I wondered if she was referring to the photos she’d found. I still couldn’t make sense of those.

“I doubt that baby, and no matter what you think you know, I can promise you it isn’t the truth,” he replied, his tone soft.

“You mean the truth you don’t seem to wanna share?”

We all stood and watched, no one else saying a word. Since I couldn’t exactly come out and say her suspicions were unfounded, I bit down on the inside of my lower lip, concealing any emotions that may give me away. It was a skill I had honed from years of dealing with my socialite mother. As I thought back on our interactions and relationship, it only made me more conflicted. I loved my parents, despite their outdated beliefs, and it hurt to think they would put me in such a dangerous situation and even place bets on whether I would survive.

It was a betrayal I never could have imagined from them. That was starting to feel like a running theme. If this show didn’t tear us apart, our secrets would.

“We need to focus. We’re running out of time,” Ciaran stated evenly, ignoring Lana’s accusation entirely.

“When we go back out there, they’ll have the highest bounties on our heads.”

“How is that any different than before?” Mel questioned.

“Because before we were hunting you.”

“Don’t take that personally. We had an image to uphold,” Charon added.

“And?” Lana pressed,

“And we’re doing this together,” Ciaran replied. “For someone to get to you, they’d have to take all of us out first. And that’s not going to happen.” There was an unspoken sincerity in his words that Liliana surprisingly didn’t object to.

“None of you seem too concerned about your new position in this,” she speculated.

He grinned. “Why would we be concerned when we’re still going to win it all?”

Her lips slightly pursed, a palpable tension stretching between them.

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