Page 71 of House of Lilith

“This? I don’t understand what the problem is, Max,” I urge him as I take a step closer, reaching out my hand to touch him.

He slaps my hand away. “You don’t see a problem with you letting yourself be seen barging out of the kitchen entrance with the likes of him, grinning like some half-wit?”

“The likes of him? What’re you on about? His friend was set free,” I protest, thinking Max is referring to Professor Onas’ murder. “And he himself never did anything wrong, so—”

Max waves a hand in impatient dismissal, stopping to angrily stare into my eyes. “You know what people are saying about him and women?”

The question makes blood rush to my cheeks.

But Max doesn’t wait for an answer. “He’s not the type of guy a future princess should be seen being anything more than polite with. Do you really need that explained to you?”

I just blink at him, feeling so stupid all of a sudden. “I guess you’re right.”

He just looks at me for a second, exhaling slowly. Then he laughs, wraps his arm around my waist and says, “I’m sorry for snapping like that, cupcake. I was just worried.”

I let out a pent-up breath and snuggle up tighter against him.

“It’ll be fine,” he urges as he gives me a little squeeze. “From now on,I’llbe the one making sure Nikolay is doing his duty, and you won’t even have to see the guy except at the Games.”

It makes me frown, but he doesn’t wait for a reaction. He just pulls away and starts leading me onto the platform, my eyes sweeping over the players in an attempt to spot Howe, feeling this resistance in me to never seeing him again.

And all of a sudden, I realize we have a problem, Max and I. I have a fiance I’ll be marrying in less than half a year and, despite all my attempts at denying it, I’m finding myself attracted to someone else.

But it’s not Howe that’s the problem, I think as I fix my eyes on Max walking in front of me. I guess I’m not as happy with things as I thought I was. And the only course of action I’ll be able to live with is confronting my fiance about it right after the Game.

But as soon as we step onto the platform and I stand on the tips of my toes to try to look over the other players, I see Uncle getting out of his chair and I hear his voice boom from everywhere around me.

“It seems that we finally have all our players,” he says, almost instantly making the noise from the crowd die down. “So it’s time to let our Second Game begin.”

I watch the Pied Pier and the Archon shake hands, making the Box glow. Then Uncle opens it, takes Hourglass out and flings it into the air.

The crowd cheers just as a row of three huge stone circles appears between us and the spot where Uncle is standing. I feel my focus sharpen and my muscles start to itch with the need to blow off steam.

Chapter 14 - Dahrian

Almostassoonasthat bony, pompous Schwarz takes his seat again, a set of stairs appears, leading from the platform and straight onto the first of the three stone circles. I let the crowd of sixty three other players swallow and start carrying me down, but my hands are balled into fists and my mind is somewhere else entirely.

It’s still onhim. The asshole prince. I can’t seem to shake it off, the urge to bash his head in with just my fists.

Here’s your chance,my fox sounds from the depths of my consciousness.Kill him in the Ring and be done with it.

“Sure,” I drawl as I follow the other players onto the circle. “Seems like an appropriate response.”

It’s notmewho wants it. I couldn’t care less about that excuse for a man,he protests. Then he turns pensive.Though, if you killed him, itwouldclear the way to the girl.

Coming to stand near the center of the circle, I tell him in a threatening voice, “Stop it with the girl. I’m not letting you anywhere near her.”

He lets out a low, menacing chuckle.You’re about to start fighting. I think you’llletme anywhere I want.

“Then I guess I’ll have to do this without shifting,” I snarl at him.

I don’t catch his reaction. The moment I tell him is the moment Hourglass flips and the sand starts running. The rest of the players get off the stairs, the ground underneath us starts cracking, and the stone circles shoot up into the sky, making the crowd let out an audible gasp, and me and the others around me struggle to keep our balance.

Then everything goes still and quiet again.

Planting my feet firmly, I glance around, only to realize we’re so high up in the air, I can’t see the ground from where I’m standing. There’s only the top of Graf Hill to my right and the Lycan Forest to my left, the bleachers set up along them.

I hear a murmur from the audience as the circle on which we’re standing gets enveloped in a mist that makes it hard to see even the player standing right in front of me.

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