Page 9 of House of Lilith

One of his admirers appears to his right and pulls a box from behind his back. The board, I think as tingles of excitement rush down my spine. I hear everyone draw in excited breaths. I myself I’m like a hawk as I watch the guy grab the lame board and switch it out for the magic one.

As soon as it’s lowered onto the table, the box produces a soft clicking sound and its four sides drop away. Now it’s a chequerboard with figurines rising out of its surface, the Tower, the Ship, the King.

I feel a tingle as I watch Max make his first move, tapping his finger on it to pick his starting stronghold, the chosen Tower floating up, spinning in the air for a second and then slamming itself back into the ground with a crumbling sound, its top growing a flag.

Ah, I think to myself as I survey the board. The Belyaev’s opening.

I look up to throw my boyfriend a smile as I make my own move. He and I don’t play as much as we used to, but I know he’s still got it. And that only makes the whole thing more fun.

Especially when I see what a good mood he’s in. He keeps trying to distract me and every time he succeeds, he yells out, “Come on, Romanov, be serious, for fuck’s sake.”

It doesn’t fail to make me laugh once.

Still, I don’t let it truly distract me. I only manage to occupysomeof the territory on the board — the tundra of my family’s native land and the sweeping desert of the South Shifter Kingdoms.

Butthen, then I take my Queen and I slam it right next to his last stronghold. There’s a reaction from the audience, but I don’t care. I look up to my boyfriend, smirking, and I can tell by the look in his eyes that he sees what I did.

He lets out a laugh, a bit tenser than before, he thinks for one long moment and then he slides his King over to my capital.

There’s a murmur all around me. My eyebrows shoot up. Then they pull down and stay down as my eyes fix on the board. Wrong move. Even though it looks like he’s in a winning position, I know better. He’s opened himself up to the Karachev’s swoop. A few moves, and it’s game over for him. No escape.

Smiling and clicking my tongue, I lift my hand to grab my Queen and start the attack on his Tower. He’ll have to move it straight away, since it’ll take him more moves to get out ofhispredicament than it’ll take me to get out ofmine.

Smiling, I look up from the board. My hand never reaches my Queen. He catches my eye and there’s no smile in his eyes anymore. He stares at me intently, smiling but almost imperceptibly gritting his teeth.

It leaves me confused for a second. Is he mad?

I hear Nikolay join our audience and that makes me aware of all the people around us. Max still piercing holes in my eyes, I pause for another second and look down at the board.You just love humiliating me, he’ll say. And he does have a reputation to uphold. I know it by now. I grab my Knight instead of my Queen. And I move it to try and fail to defend my capital instead of try and succeed attacking his stronghold.

“Bad move, Romanov,” Max says, his mouth cracking into a smile as if nothing happened. The warmth is back in his eyes. I smile a reluctant smile. Disaster averted. And with much self-satisfied ceremony, he lifts his King off the board and slides it next to my capital.

The King takes out his sword and cuts my city in half.

There’s a moment of silence after the tiny rocks come crumbling to the board.

Then the crowd cheers.

“Not all Romanovs are made the same, you say?” Max asks with a smile.

“I guess I was wrong,” I force myself to say.

The crowd laughs, including my brother.

“Don’t worry, I love you all the same, cupcake,” Max says and holds out his hand to me.

I throw a forced smile at him and let him take me into a hug, but the smile slides off my face as soon as I see who’s standing behind my brother.

That fucking alpha, squinting at me with his head tilted to the side, as if he could tell exactly what happened.

Blood rushing to my cheeks, I look away, but my embarrassment doesn’t subside even after I catch him leave with the corner of my eye. No, it’s just my imagination.No onecould tell.

I get up and come to nestle myself in Max’s embrace, letting all my embarrassment melt away. I step away and look into his warm eyes, and all I want to do is ask him to take me to my room, but before I can say anything, the clock strikes midnight and the expression on my boyfriend’s face changes.

He throws me a warm, mysterious smile as he steps a few feet away and glances over my shoulder.

I frown as I hear movement all around us. And footsteps, a lot of them, as if an entire procession is approaching our table.

What the…

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