Page 153 of House of Lilith

The Game is about to start,my fox’s voice booms inside my head just as Brogan comes to the center of the ring with us and motions for the Pied Piper and Gleason to shake hands to activate the Box.You should calm the fuck down,he warns.

“This is the best I can do,” I tell him, my teeth gritting with effort.

Do better,he snarls at me.Or riskmegoing off the rails as well.

That shuts me up, making me realize what a reckless asshole I’ve been since the night before last, when she invited me to her room.

And I can’t fucking believe it, that I allowed it to come this far.

I allowed seeing her walking with that asshole — not even touching, for crying out loud — send me into a fucking spiral, failing to stop myself from going to show her she’smineandno oneelse’s, not even adayafter I said I wouldn’t be seeing her again.

I allowed her to wrap me around her fucking finger, making me follow one thousand six hundred and forty two goddamn rules, while tricking me into abandoning theonlyfucking rule thatIhave.

And let’s not forget, I allowed myself to stop paying attention to anything other thanher,I curse as I force myself to get my head back in the game.

Because the Archon is already flinging Hourglass up in the air and taking a seat in the chair with the Box in her hands.

I fix my eyes on Hourglass, working on steadying my breathing, my muscles tensing up in anticipation.

It flips and the sand starts running.

The next thing I know, I have this urge to look down, only to see there’s a grid flashing on the floor beneath my feet.

Chapter 27 - Nyx

It’snotassoonas the sand starts running and the grid appears that I look away from the Archon. I do it only after I see her close her eyes. I don’t like the menacing glance she threw Nikolay, just now, as she was passing him in the audience, making him squirm in his seat. And there’s someone else here that my eyes keep getting drawn to.

But the Game’s started and it’s clear we each have to step inside one of the rectangles, so I take one, and so does everyone else, in silence.

And the next thing I know, there are walls snapping up from the floors, four dark stone walls enclosing me in a room twice as long as it is wide, no windows and only three closed doors on the other side.

For a second, it makes me wonder how the audience will be able to watch this, but then a stone pillar springs right in front of me, another hourglass on top, and the middle of the floor stretching between me and the doors starts weirdly shaking. And all of a sudden, at least the third of its length is no longer the floor, it’s a punji trap, seemingly no bottom but lots and lots of metal spikes shooting up.

I frown, waiting for more stuff to appear, but then my ears prick up and my eyes dart to the hourglass only to see the grains of sand start trickling through its neck.

For a second, that downright confuses me. I’ll be playing this game alone? There’ll be no unwelcome distractions in the form of men who try to fuck me one minute and completely ignore me the other?

And I move to explore the room a little, to start trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do here, when I sense something behind my back and all my muscles stiffen again.

But when I turn around, it almost makes me stumble back into the punji trap, finding myself staring back.

My frown growing deeper, I just walk a slow circle around the body identical to mine, from the mane of black hair to the combat boots on her feet.

She, or it, or whatever, lets me, not moving a muscle. And I don’t know if I’m supposed to touch her, so I don’t.

But I do whisper, “What are you?”

To my surprise, she gives me a little smile, a somewhat scared one, lifts her finger at me and says, “Only one.”

It makes my eyebrows pull down. “Onewhat?”

“Only one,” comes the same answer.

“Fine,” I snap, “but what does that mean?”

“Only one.”

Feeling myself start to get angry, I take a deep breath and I turn to the three doors. I guess she’s telling me only one of those is right.

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