Page 146 of House of Lilith

By the time he says that, my body is painfully tense and my head is threatening to burst so I just keep sitting there, gritting my teeth as I try to stop myself from going off the rails.

What?he pokes at me with poison in his voice.Cat got your tongue?

I force a flat, but determined voice when I say, “I think we need to talk about this a little later.”

Weak, he insists, making me grit my teeth and clench my fists even harder.You’re just plain weak. That’s how she got you toshowyour weakness in the first place.

“I said,” I snarl at him, “we’ll talk about this later.”

*

When I wake up the next day, I’m in no better mood than the one before. But the Fourth Game is tomorrow and I’ve found the situation worse than I left it when it comes to the tensions between Grimms and Fiains. I’ve even had to forbid my pack from drinking during the day, at least until we’re still here. But that’s not an actual solution and despite my mood, I at least need to be present.

So I take a seat in front of my tent, pretending to be on my phone. And the members of my pack all throw smiles when they see me wave, but no one comes to bother me.

Until my eyes dart up and I see Ricky walking down the plateau and straight for my tent.

Fuck. He’s more perceptive than most of them. He’ll notice there’s something going on and then there will be questions.

Fucking questions about things I donotwant to talk about.

And when he comes to a stop in front of me, making me raise my hand to shield my eyes from the sun, he’s frowning. And the first words to come out of his mouth are, “Um, you okay?”

“All good,” I say with a forced little smile.

That seems to appease him.

And for a second, I consider asking him how it happened exactly, that he let himself be interrogated aboutmyprivate business. But that makes me instantly start to fume so I decide against it.

“Shoot,” I just say.

“Is Brogan back from the homeland?” he asks as he throws a glance around the camp.

“She’s scheduled to arrive tomorrow,” I say, relieved it’s something as simple as that he’s come to ask, “a couple of hours before the Game.”

But he presses his lips tight and then curses, “Goddamn it.”

It makes me frown. It’s not very often you can hear a word like that from Ricky’s mouth. I lean a little forward. “What’s up, mate? Can I help?”

“Well,” he starts, obviously frustrated, “she said she’d give me my uniform by now. My last one got really damaged in the Third Game. And I wanted to do some training in the new one, so my hyena could get used to the scent.”

I remember her mentioning she got them. That’s weird. It’s not like Brogan to forget about something like that.

“I think they’re all in her tent,” I say, motioning at the one next to mine.

Ricky just squints at me for a second. “You think she wouldn’t mind?”

“I know it for a fact,” I reply with determination in my voice.

And he breathes a sigh of relief, already moving to walk away. Then he stops and squints at me again.

“What?” I ask, forcing myself not to sound unwelcoming.

“I don’t know,” he says in a cheerful voice, making my muscles relax. “Strangely, I guess I’m even more nervous about the Games now. Now that I’ve experienced being the one to score the first point.”

For a second, I just look at him. Then I let out a low scoff and I find myself saying, “That’s how it goes. Makes you startwanting. And before you know it, you want even more, a lot more than you could ever get. And that’s when real trouble starts.”

Now, that makes him frown. “You sure you’re okay, Boss?”

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