Page 31 of Death Game: Supernatural Battle

“You’re happier when she’s in your life. You were lonely and very suddenly happy. I then discovered she’d re-entered your life. Friendships like the one you share don’t tolerate lies. Therefore, you’d figured out some way around my fucking excellent compulsion.”

Eek.

I couldn’t take the credit for that. Angelica gave me Tommy back. My hands twisted on my lap.

“Don’t ask what you’re about to ask,” he said quietly. “I told you I wouldn’t harm your friend and I meant it.”

My exhale shook, and I felt his frustration swell at my mistrust.

It wasTommythough.

Kyros slid me a look. “Will you tell me how you were able to get around the compulsion?”

“Hmm, what?”

The vampire rolled his eyes. “I’ll figure it out.”

The light turned green and he guided the car—an identical vehicle to the one I’d driven over the cliff from what I could tell—through Blue.

“You told Tommy the truth about Theodore and she didn’t take it well,” he murmured as the tidy apartments and community gardens whizzed by. “I felt your pain yesterday morning. She left?”

“She loved him and couldn’t accept he was dead, that I did it, or that he was Vissimo. Any of it. She won’t be back.”

I hadn’t dared to let myself feel anything but numbness about that yet.

“She’ll return.”

“No,” I replied, hugging myself. “Last time, there was a spark of friendship remaining. I watched it die yesterday. I know her. That was it for good. I sent ten Vissimo with her, but that’s the extent of things.”

Kyros was silent for a long time. “Then she has lost a great treasure.”

“Pretty sure it’s the other way around,” I said in a hollow voice.

He didn’t speak for the rest of the ride, dropping me in the garage and waiting until I was in the elevator to leave again. What a fucking joke. I wished I could wrap my hands around King Mikael’s neck. Kyros wanted to pretend this didn’t affect him, fine. I knew otherwise.

The current dissipated to bearable levels as the lift shot up. Thank Zeus. A day in his company had me aching in the worst possible way. I took a steadying breath, recalling the way I came undone in my wardrobe.

There was another hour until the dice were rolled. I’d spend the time catching up on the last few weeks with Conrad, Ilion, and Danielle—three of Kyros’s seconds. They’d be eating their lunch on Level 50.

“Miss Le Spyre.” Ilion greeted me when I entered the cafeteria. He was my favourite of the seconds—reminded me of Fred with his watchful ways.

I shrugged out of my jacket and swung it over the back of the chair. I tended to sit at the front of the room closest to the elevators to avoid Vissimo overload, but the seconds sat right in the middle of the hundreds of round tables and being around bulk vampires bothered me less and less.

“Hey, Ilion. Thanks for meeting with me. Probably best I catch up before tonight.”

“Danielle and Conrad will be along presently,” he replied. “Can I extend my sincerest relief that you are recovered from your ordeal?”

He made it sound like I’d bounced back from a sprained ankle. “Thank you. I appreciate that.” I opened a notepad. “Okay, what properties has Fyrlia acquired in the last week?”

Ilion tapped on his tablet. “It isn’t good.”

My face fell. “How bad are we talking?”

He glanced around the level and lifted his tablet, reciting the list. The list went on and on. In comparison, Sundulus’s acquisitions were pitiful. He moved through changes in each of the industries. Though the results weren’t as drastic as in the realty sector, Fyrlia had increased across the board.

“The thing is their purchase prices,” he muttered. “They’re throwing money at these properties. Everywhere, really.”

I knew why. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

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