Page 181 of House of Lilith

He himself seems accumulates quite an army, especially when he wipes the floor with Aine, receiving such an impact from his forces that she gets sent flying back, along with the throne. Still midair, she gets zapped out.

But then Howe, who seems to have smartened up and moved on from his obsession with Max’s land, attacks Lorcan, making me hold my breath.

He succeeds, making Lorcan let out a scream when the invisible blades cut into him, zapping him out of the Game. And this is a real victory for him, I think to myself when I see he’s now the strongest of us all.

I refuse to pay any attention to the self-satisfied smirk he throws at the murmuring audience.

But this is a victory formeas well, because I’ve already gotten my hands on some of Lorcan’s army.

Still, when the Game chooses Max for the next move, I just know who he’s going to attack. I have a much weaker army than Howe.

And Max does turn to me and I do intend to let him win, barely, so I can get at least a part of his army under my control as well. But what I see flashing through his eyes when he moves to attack is thisexpectationfor me to let him get his way.

It makes me so pissed, I completely disregard the fact that this is thedumbestfucking move for me right now.

And when the Box’s magic pulls up and enlarges our two armies clashing, I grit my teeth and I ball my hands into fists, channeling all my magic into the few soldiers I can use without showing my hand.

Within two seconds, I’m spitting blood from the injuries his army’s inflicting on me and I’m down to so few soldiers, I fear I’ll get zapped out the Game any moment now.

Then I feel my magic’s become weaker and I whip out my knife and I cut into my forearm, sensing a look from Max’s direction.

I look up at him, still gritting my teeth and making his eyebrows pull down when my army startskillinghis.

I watch his uniform get soaked with blood, his eyes rounding in what seems to be a mix of surprise and fear, before he gets zapped out.

And just like that, it’s just me and Howe, I think as I turn to face him. And sure, he has a bigger army, but he doesn’t know it’s all mine, from when he took from Aine, Lorcan, Max…

I smile when I see his throne glow.Hiswill be the first move, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

My smile only grows wider when he moves to attack and fails to do anything. I feel the control over his armies deep in my bones. He doesn’t give up easily.

I can see the determination on his face as he tries to use the sheer power of will, then his shifter magic, then the power of will all over again. I know how much he wants this, but that doesn’t mean I’m supposed to give it to him.

“What the…” I see him mouth.

And I can hear and sense shifting from the audience as well.

But the Box signals it’s my turn now. And this is not something I’ve planned all along, but I feel the need to linger in the moment, watching his eyes narrow at me.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demands, making my eyebrows shoot up. And it’s more serious than angry, when he says, “Are you fucking holding back now, Romanov?”

“Oh I’m not,” I say with a smirk that only grows wider when an idea pops into my mind that I just can’t resist.

Finally, I move to attack, making him flinch a little before all the soldiers currently on the board fly up and get enlarged.

Spotting his eyebrows pull down and hearing low, feverish chatter from the audience, I use my Blood Magic to keep all the remaining soldiers in the air for a moment.

Before I shut my eyes.

And make them all burst in a shower of blood, spraying everyone and everything around me.

When I open my eyes, for a second, there’s silence, Howe staring at me intently, all covered in blood, looking as if it’s dawning on him, what I did.

My head snaps up and I see Hourglass glow with a green light before it gets sucked back into the Box, my Shadow Throne starting to glow green as well. The crowd goes wild.

I won. I fucking won, I think as music starts blaring from the speakers.

I see Howe get out of his throne, and I’m still stumbling out of my own, when I sense Max’s presence to my right.

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