Page 101 of Kings & Chaos

I’d thought I wouldn’t care, that it didn’t matter who won the game, but I kind of hated it.

Claire broke away from a group that included Erin and Quinn and gave me a hug.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I heard you were in the middle of your game. Was it awful?”

I took a deep breath. “It wasn’t great. I couldn’t do it.”

She hugged me again. “It’s okay. You can’t win them all.”

Except the Kings usually did win them all. I was their weak link.

No. You know what?Theywere the ones who kept putting me up for the games. They knew I didn’t want to play, but they put me up anyway, twice in a row now.

If anyone was to blame for our loss, it was them.

“You guys hadn’t started?” I asked her.

The Queens’ house seemed more focused on showing up for the game, just participating, rather than winning.

She rolled her eyes. “We hadn’t even agreed on a target. Alexa is pissed. She’s always pissed about the game, even though we haven’t won in ages.”

Alexa being pissed was an upside to what had been a monumentally harrowing day.

“Oh my god,” Claire suddenly said, leaning in to look at my neck. “Is that…”

My cheeks burned. There was no way around telling the truth when I was wearing the evidence around my neck. “Yep, I’ve been branded by the Kings. It was a birthday present.”

No reason to tell her I was being tracked 24/7.

Voluntarily.

She’d only think I was dick-whipped, and she would’t be wrong.

“It’s gorgeous,” she said. “And sometime soon I wantallthe details about what you did to deserve that,”

“Okay everybody, gather round!” Neo said, clapping from one side of the bonfire.

“Knights fuckingown!” someone shouted from the crowd.

A cheer went up from the partying Russians, and Neo nodded. “A win is a win, and the second game goes to the Knights.”

I had to hand it to him: he looked a lot calmer than he had when he’d told Oscar to get me out of the apartment where Connor had been tied up.

Everyone clapped and cheered for the Knights.

I sighed. “Now the Knights have five hundred points on us.”

“The next two games will be worth more,” Claire said. “You can still catch up.”

Not exactly comforting. The next two games were worth more points because they would be more dangerous, possibly more violent.

“That puts the Knights in the number one spot,” Neo said, “with a thousand points.” Another cheer rang out through the crowd until Neo held up a hand and continued. “The Kings are in spot number two with five hundred points. But that might change… and it might change right now.”

A gasp went through the crowd.

“Fuck,” Claire said.

“What?” I asked. “What’s happening?”

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