Page 96 of Death Game: Supernatural Battle

“I wouldn’t approve Mr Ringly’s DA. Agricultural land is of greater need to Bluff City than more residential land. What’s the point of building more houses if our ability to feed the population doesn’t also increase? The people threatening my family, myself, and my career wanted me to approve the rezoning plan. I’m certain of that.”

The video ended.

“You found her one week ago,” King Julius said, resting back.

“Yes, King Julius.” I kept my gaze on the armrest of his throne.

He held the picture out to me.

Hands shaking, I took it, bracing myself before looking again. There was a date on the picture.Yesterday.

“The recording of her testimony is useless,” he said, blue eyes never colder. “Now she is dead.”

The feeling of falling overcame everything else. It swamped my horror over Sandra’s fate. Because I couldfeelKyros’s fear and his struggle not to join me on the stairs.

He was trusting me to handle this, and that was so hard for him to give.

His siblings were barely breathing.

The king’s hand curled. “Arroganthuman,” he spat.

My gaze dropped further.

“Why was this note addressed to you?” Queen Titania asked in a steady voice.

She wasn’t any easier to look at than the king. Not when she was the mother who would survive, minus a husband and with only one of her nine children. Even if she hadn’t given birth to all of them herself—which is something I’d never insult her by asking—she would die for any one of them.

My heart thudded pathetically. We all heard it.

And still Kyros hoped…hopedthis was part of my plan.

I’d betrayed him and the only people he cared about.

Taking a breath, I said, “Because when the Tonyi triplets took me hostage, I made a deal with King Mikael.”

Even the king hadn’t expected that.

I continued. “I told him about the bluff you played with the Mr Ringly deal so Tommy would live.”

Lalitta gasped, and yet I couldn’t turn to face her because Kyros’s pain froze me to the core.

Disbelief. Anguish.

“Acceptance,” I whispered as Kyros’s disbelief dissipated to be replaced with bitter betrayal.

My insidesshookas hardness overcame him. I was left reaching for his emotions, fingernails scratching at a rock wall.

Queen Titania closed her eyes.

“You couldn’t be compelled though,” Kyros whispered. “You offered the informationfreely.”

I swallowed three times before recovering my ability to speak through the emptiness of his absence in me. “Yes. I honoured the deal once Tommy was delivered to a hospital.”

The king’s blue eyes bored into me, but the pain bursting from the vampire at my back was of greater importance. I had the presence of mind to back down the stairs before facing Kyros.

I flinched at the hatred on his face.

“You sacrificed the lives of my entire family for one human,” he spat.

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