Page 185 of House of Lilith

“What’s going on here?” I hear fucking Aalders demand in that pompous little voice of his.

Then Romanov calls out, “Nikolay—”

But the next thing I know, her brother is shutting his eyes and we’re all freezing in place, these tendrils wrapping around my mind. I try to turn to Romanov, but I’m unable to move any of my muscles, unable to speak, unable to do anything but stand there.

Nikolay opens his eyes. “Didn’t I tell you I’d make you respect me?” he snaps at his sister. “Huh?”

It makes me grit my teeth when she doesn’t say anything.

Ricky lifts a finger to shush Nikolay. And he throws another glance at Romanov and fucking Aalders before he fixes his eyes onme.

He takes a step closer, so he’s only an arm-length away, and he gives me this funny little smile. “I should’ve known I’d be getting the two of them here with you. As it turns out, it’s all you’ve been doing this past year.” He doesn’t take his eyes off me, but he motions at Romanov. “Sniffing aroundher.”

What the fuck is he doing? Didhebring us here somehow?

“But it doesn’t matter,” he continues with a shake of his head. “It can all still go just as I planned.”

And he gives me another smile. “So now, Dahrian,” he says, “Nikolay will let you speak, so you and I can have a little chat about the future.”

I feel one tendril unwrapping.

I let out a pent-up breath. “Ricky,” I warn as soon as I regain control of my vocal chords, “this isnotfunny.”

He shakes his head, smiling. “I realize how you must be feeling right now, but don’t worry, you’ll come to understand everything soon enough. Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?”

Gritting my teeth, I lock eyes with him and I tell him in a low but menacing tone, “Let’s start with you releasing everyone here.”

He straight-out ignores me. “How did I manage to do this, you’re wondering?” he asks as he looks down at the Box in his hands. “Well, it took a year of planning, ever since I found out we’d be coming here for the Games, for the first time since the Umbrage happened. Now, to use the Box, I suspected I’d need to become the Guardian.” He lets out a laugh. “How else does one do it?”

It makes me want to seriously hurt him. “Ricky,” I snarl.

He doesn’t even acknowledge my reaction. “But whatmakesa Guardian, you ask?” he keeps going with this excitement in his voice. “We know what spell binds him to the Box, but what makes him able to use it? No one knows, right?”

He shrugs. “So instead of just stealing the Box and failing to control it, what only an idiot would do, I went on to make sure the Box changed multiple Guardians while we were here.”

“What did you do?” I demand, getting more worried by the second.

“First I needed to get rid of Schwarz,” he says matter-of-factly. And then he starts pacing in front of me, listing. “I used these nifty little magic items to injure our brothers during the First Game, to make it seem it was him. I killed the professor he was supposed to meet during the time he was supposed to meet him. I spiked his Winter Solstice Ball drink with maedea, ensuring his neurons would start firing in all the wrong ways so he’d endanger the fragile peace between us and, finally, be removed from the position of Guardian.”

And he comes to stand in front of me with a smile on his face. There’s a touch of pride in his voice when he says, “And that was just the first Guardian.”

Now that makes me snap, the nonchalant admission to everything from lying to fucking murder. But then my mind rushes to Romanov standing there, in actual fucking danger, and I force myself to get it together and start trying to figure out a way to break this fucking spell.

“I tried doing something similar with the Archon,” Ricky keeps going, “but she was just too… unpredictable and strong. So I used a part of my plan for this grand night,” he says as he gestures at Romanov’s brother, “my dear friend Nikolay, to help me with her. And together, we made her try using the Box in circumstances in which I knew she’d most definitely be caught, that is, during a Game. It was just an added bonus, seeing her try and fail.”

Despite all my efforts, I fail to do anything to mess with Nikolay’s Mind Magic. But it’s at that moment that it finally occurs to me. The pack.

“So now it’s three of them that I’ve managed to see in their Guardian roles,” Ricky says. “And you know what that made me realize?”

I just grit my teeth, rushing to make a connection with every single member of my pack,exceptfor him.

“It’s the goddamn pendant,” he says with a scoff, pointing at the necklace he’s wearing. “Nothing more to it than that. How disappointing, isn’t it? In the end, I only needed to jump that pitiful Byrne after the Game, knock him out and steal it from him.”

He pauses, looking straight into my eyes as he tilts his head in suspicion. Then he smiles. “You won’t be able to use that in here. It’s for a reason I chose this hallway for our little chat. It cuts you off from everyone else.”

Goddamnit, I think to myself.

“Fine, I’ll bite,” I spit out, my teeth gritting with rage at him putting us all in danger like this. “What do you think you’re doing and why?”

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