Page 95 of House of Lilith

I let out a rough laugh, running my hand through my hair. “I guess I’m getting my old self back.”

He breathes a sigh of relief. “That’s a load off,” he says and gives me a nervous chuckle. “At one point last night, you disappeared and I thought that maybe, you know… I’d failed my mission.”

Blood rushes to my skin. Fuck. “Oh, that,” I blurt out. I shake my head vigorously. “No, no, you hadn’t. Actually,” I find myself saying, “I think I’m over it.”

He frowns. “You are?”

“Yeah,” I say with a wave of my hand, determined to cut this conversation short, “so feel free to forget about what I asked you.”

“Well, that was fast,” he comments.

I just give him a smile, not wanting to tell any more lies.

“But did you hear?” Ricky insists as he leans a little closer, dropping his voice. “Everyone’s saying they’ve broken up.”

And now he’s looking at me suspiciously again.

Fucking hell, I curse myself as my mind scrambles for a way out. “Yeah, I did hear. But you know what?” I shake my head. “Romanov, she’s a terrific girl, but she’s really not my type. I think it was the adrenaline from the fights that was messing with my brain,” I say with as much determination as I can muster.

My friend just looks at me for a second. “Gotcha,” he finally concludes, making me breathe a sigh of relief. “Well, in my opinion, you’ve dodged a bullet there. As a match for someone who doesn’t do serious, she seems a little too complicated.”

Now, that makes me want to pick his brain, make him talk about his impressions. But I bite my tongue. “Look at you,” I choose to say, teasingly, “with the player talk.”

“Exactly,” he replies, quickly turning serious. “Right now, you have the honor of talking to Eryndor, the biggest player the world has ever seen.” It makes me smile and shake my head, but he just keeps going. “Need any advice? I can tell you what makes the ladies tick, how to make them love you, hate you and everything in between.”

I blow a laugh through my nose. “Stop it, you’re scaring me.”

“Why?” he asks, feigning confusion. “I know how to read people, it’s actually one of my strongest suits. For example,” he says with a somber nod, “I can tell you have a best friend you’re very jealous of.” He pauses for a second. “Because of him being the biggest player the world has ever seen.”

Now, that gets us both laughing.

But it’s at the very next moment that we both throw looks over our shoulders, hearing heavy footfalls on the dock behind us.

It’s O’Malley Senior, approaching us with a serious look on his face.

I frown. Before he even reaches us, I demand, “What’s going on?”

He walks around our chairs and comes into a crouch before us. “The dungeon they moved the Box to last night…”

“Spit it out.”

He hesitates for a second. “They just found traces of someone having broken in and tried to tamper with it.”

There’s a moment of silence, during which Ricky and I exchange a glance. “O’Malley,” I say as I turn back to him and see him nod, “I want you to schedule a chat for me with the Archon as soon as we get back home.”

“Will do, Boss.”

“Go,” I tell him. As he gets up, I remember to add, “And once you’re done, don’t go around spreading panic, got it? I’ll take care of this.”

He gives a somber nod and walks away.

My mind buzzing, I turn to stare at the lake.

I can feel Ricky’s eyes on me. “What do you think’s going to happen?” he asks in a tentative voice. “Will we be allowed back here for the second term?”

“Of course we will,” I rush to say, turning to throw him a grin. “We have to be. Now go pack.” I give him another smile. “Everything’s going to be alright.”

Of course, he doesn’t look too happy, but he nods, slowly gets out of his chair and walks away.

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