Page 79 of Drop His Mask

I heard approaching steps and did my best to keep my expression neutral.

“This is her?” the newcomer asked. “This is the one everyone is betting all their money on? Fucking idiots if you ask me. But take her inside. Her Sponsor is ready and he requested she have her vision returned. He also advised she will need to be secured to the chair inside. All cameras and audio to be shut off. He paid for complete discretion.”

My Sponsor. The person that had put me in this game. The one that had twisted and tumbled my life into an entirely new path.

But it wasn’t the first time he had.

“Yes, sir.” Felix offered one comforting squeeze of my shoulder before guiding us to my final destination.

I could almost hear him saysorryas he pushed me down onto a chair. As he strapped me to it.

I heard his retreating feet as, simultaneously, my vision returned.

And I was face to face with my Sponsor.

I glared at the masked man. “How could you? How could you do this to me? You made me the Shadow and for what? To turn me into a fighting machine? To prepare me for this? Why?”

He tilted his head, salt and pepper tendrils of hair fluttering around him. “Yes. Exactly that. And it worked, didn’t it? The little Shadow has made it this far. It’s good to see you, Raven.”

“I can’t say the same”–I paused before spitting out his name–“Geoff.”

Chapter 42

I…Promise?

The Host

Four Months Ago

“Excellent job! They loved you! Calling the players lovelies? Acting unhinged and chaotic? It was the showmanship your predecessor was missing,” Harold exclaimed as The Host entered his office.

The Host had just, well…Hosted his very first game.

It was one for the rest of the world.

He inclined his head, the collar still weighing heavily around his neck. It hadn’t been removed since he had put it on all those months ago, and the skin beneath it was chafed and raw. In the beginning it had bothered him, but now he accepted it as a reminder of who he was.

“Thank you,” he replied before his attention fell to the woman in the chair across from Harold.

“Our dear Ana has finally made it back here. She even found the champion that I will be Sponsoring this year. I am quite excited to have him.” Harold dropped four files onto the desk.

The Host could only make out the top man’s name.

Levi.

He recognized it. Nightingale had spoken her piece on how the man had betrayed someone in the Factions.

“That man isn’t in a Government prison.”

Harold beamed up at The Host. “That’s correct. Here, take these files, read up on these contestants. We just got word the last one we needed has been spotted so we should have them just in time. Ana, go ahead and join him, he’s going to have questions. He always does.”

“Yes sir,” Nightingale spoke softly, demurely.

It was at odds with her usual cockiness.

Nightingale stood to join The Host, but Harold clicked his teeth. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Nightingale giggled. “Not at all.” She walked around the desk before placing a chaste kiss to the man’s lips.

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