Page 24 of Enchantra (Wicked Games #2)

23

LOOPHOLES

Genevieve entered the dining room to much fanfare.

“Ah, she lives,” Sevin declared when he spotted her hovering in the archway, giving her an obnoxious slow clap.

“You lost a lot of people a lot of money, bunny rabbit,” Covin said with a grin.

Genevieve shot him a dirty look as she walked over to the spread on the table. She was ravenous after sleeping through so many meals.

Covin, Sevin, and Remi were all sitting together at one end of the table, scarfing down their own dinners. Rowin watched everyone from where he was leaning against the wall, sipping that same purple drink she’d seen the others pull out from the bar before the wedding. On the opposite end of the table was Ellin, who was pushing around a pile of berries with her fork, a solemn expression on her face that Genevieve could only guess had something to do with her eliminated twin. Grave was nowhere to be seen.

“Heard you were quite the team last night,” Covin said as he stroked his Familiar’s scaly head. “Grave is not happy.”

“He’s having a meltdown as we speak,” Sevin chimed.

Even Ellin cracked a smile at that.

Genevieve ignored them as they continued to jostle each other about the events of the past twenty-four hours. The highlights of which included: Covin taking on six simultaneous lovers at the party, Sevin almost getting impaled in one of the enchanted rooms, and Remi receiving multiple propositions to begin salacious affairs when others mistook him for Rowin.

Genevieve brought her dinner over to where Ellin was sitting, ignoring Rowin’s stare as he tracked her movements. Ellin gave her a wary look.

“Rowin told me that you healed me,” Genevieve murmured quietly, not wanting to attract the others’ attention to this fact in case they didn’t already know. “I just wanted to say?—”

“I healed you because he offered to spare me if the two of you get chosen as the Hunter and we aren’t the only ones left— not out of the goodness of my heart,” Ellin explained, her words firm but not necessarily harsh.

Ellin scraped her chair back from the table and strode from the room then, leaving her untouched plate behind.

Sevin rolled his eyes at his sister’s exit before glancing over at Genevieve. “She’s just pissy that Wells already lost. He’s the only one who gives her a break during the game.”

“Lay off Ellin,” Rowin warned his brother as he walked over to steal a few blackberries off his sister’s abandoned plate. “Wells might give her a break from time to time, but that’s because the rest of you are pricks.”

“Leave me out of that,” Remi muttered as he slouched back in his seat.

“Hey, I’m just as nice to our baby sister as I am to all of you,” Covin claimed around a bite of food.

“A shining defense,” Sevin scoffed.

A moment later Umbra came trotting into the room, making a high-pitched chirping sound until Rowin gave her his attention. The two of them seemed to have some sort of silent conversation, Rowin narrowing his eyes at the fox for a long moment before setting his crystal goblet down on the table and heading for the exit.

“I’ll be right back,” was all he offered as he and Umbra strutted from the room.

The others exchanged curious looks, and Genevieve decided it would probably be a good time to excuse herself and go back to the bedroom to update her diary.

“Genevieve,” someone called just as she stepped into the foyer.

She spun to find Sevin strutting toward her.

“You can call me Vivi, by the way,” she told him as he approached.

He gave her a dazzling smile. “Does this mean I’m your favorite?”

She snorted. “I think Ellin probably deserves to be my favorite. She’s been the most helpful.”

“She did single-handedly keep your heart from stopping last night,” he allowed.

“You were there?” Genevieve wondered, her cheeks heating at the prospect.

“Only because I was hiding in the library,” he said. “And what a show it was. Ellin almost didn’t get to you in time.”

“Rowin said the rest of you aren’t able to heal like her,” Genevieve recalled.

“Rowin, Wells, and Remi can control—and become—darkness itself, but their healing skills are pretty limited to things like absorbing poison or helping someone sleep. Covin and I are Blood Wraiths—our magic isn’t a particularly savory subject to discuss right after dinner—but we do have a bit more capability than the rest of my brothers. Nowhere close to Ellin’s abilities, though.”

“And Grave? Or is he only capable of destruction?”

“Something like that,” Sevin revealed. “He’s a Void Wraith. Extremely rare. Extremely powerful.”

“ How powerful?”

“Just be thankful he doesn’t have access to his magic during the Hunt,” Sevin said.

“Good to know it could be even worse,” she muttered.

“You have no idea,” he told her, sincerely. “I’ve never seen my brother so volatile.”

“Really?” she scoffed. “Because Grave seems like volatile is his middle name.”

“Close, his middle name is Blade.” His gaze turned pointed now. “But I wasn’t talking about Grave.”

Does he mean … Rowin?

“Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that you may have been underestimated in that first round, but no one is going to make that mistake again. No matter how this year’s Hunt plays out, I have a feeling things are going to be irreparable at the end. So be sure you want to win.”

And with that, he left her there. Staring after him, utterly vexed about what the Hell that meant.

When Rowin didn’t make any sort of reappearance, Genevieve became antsy. Pacing his room for the last hour while she tried to untangle her thoughts.

What had Sevin meant by be sure you want to win ?

Of course she wanted to win. It was the only way she could live , after all.

Despite the fact that she didn’t even know if what she’d been doing this past year was really living . More that it had felt like drowning in the sorrow of her past with Farrow and feeling suffocated by her small life in New Orleans…

She felt her chest tighten now as she finally faced the questions she’d been too afraid to ask herself before. What was she really winning this game for? Living for?

What the fuck do I even want ?

She’d been running away from her problems in New Orleans, her feelings of never being enough for anyone there, and now here she was, an important piece of this family’s legacy. So if she couldn’t think of a single thing from her life before Enchantra to fight for, why not fight for the ones here, who clearly had a million reasons they’d like to live free of this cursed game?

Sevin was right, no matter how this played out, whether she survived or not, the next game was going to be very different from this one. Why stop at only trying to free herself and Rowin from this game?

She’d long given up the hope that someone with a white horse would ever come to save her. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t be the knight in shining armor for herself. For them.

As soon as the idea sank its teeth into Genevieve’s mind, a rush of adrenaline speared through her, and before she knew it, she was heading toward the library.

Genevieve scoured the indexes of at least fifty different books before she found one that mentioned Crimson Rot. And just as she’d really started to sink into reading—something that had never been easy for her—the ring on her finger began to warm. Naturally.

She hurried to shove the book into the pocket of her frothy green skirts as she waited for whoever it was to show themselves. When they didn’t, however, she stood and glared at the empty room.

“Don’t be a coward, come out,” she told them.

“I must say, I do enjoy how cheeky you are, Mrs. Silver,” Knox’s voice rang out as he winked into view in the center of the library’s seating area. “Some Devils might consider it a challenge to be called a coward.”

“Not any of the Devils I know,” she said with a shrug. “Perhaps you’re just insecure?”

In a single blink Knox was looming over her, making her jump as his violet eyes narrowed just inches from hers. “The rules of the game do not allow me to rip you to shreds myself. And my patrons might find you entertaining thus far. But if you keep pushing my buttons, Mrs. Silver, I will not hesitate to show you that every deal has a loophole.”

She swallowed but didn’t cower, and his hostile expression melted into one of faux charm.

“Now, I’ve come here to offer a proposition,” he told her as he took a step away.

“I told you, I don’t make deals with?—”

He held up a hand to cut off the rest of her sentence. “This isn’t a bargain. I simply wanted to inform you that your audience is hoping for something a bit more titillating from you and Rowington. And I must say that I find it very interesting that you two lovebirds have been able to keep your hands off each other.”

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that Rowin is not as ostentatious as some of his siblings,” she told him, sticking as close to truths as possible. “Have you considered we’re simply private?”

“I’ve considered a lot of things,” he told her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “So, I suggest you make entertaining my patrons your highest priority. And soon.”

Before she could really decipher the threat hidden beneath that suggestion, he was gone.

“One problem at a time,” Genevieve murmured to herself.

First, getting back to reading about the Crimson Rot?—

Squeak.

Genevieve blinked at the high-pitched sound.

If there’s a rat in here, I’m never visiting this library again.

Squeak. Squeak.

Genevieve turned toward the direction of the noise just as a fluffy white head poked over the back of the armchair that sat at the head of the seating area. It was some sort of weasel—or perhaps a mink. A very large mink.

Squeak.

The critter tilted its head at her, its round ears twitching as it clawed its way over the fabric and pulled itself up onto the headrest.

“You are so cute ,” she cooed as she stepped toward it. But the closer she got, the more she realized how aware its gaze was as it watched her. Like a certain fox she knew.

And that was when she realized that the signet on her finger had never gone cold.

The light in the room began to flicker, and the air around her thinned, making her breathing labored. A swirling cloud of darkness formed a few feet away, stretching and stretching until a large muscular silhouette stepped out of it.

Grave.

“Just how I’d hoped to find you. Alone,” he declared as the shadows evaporated around them like smoke. “You’re dismissed, Lilith.”

The white mink immediately skittered away.

Genevieve lifted a brow as she folded her arms over her chest. “And why would you want to get me alone? Don’t tell me you’ve decided to confess your love. I’m not into the whole ‘choose between two brothers’ thing.”

There was no hint of amusement in his expression. “This is your final chance to allow me to make this quick and painless.”

She fought to keep her expression neutral, but fear sank into her belly like a stone.

I can use my magic during these hours , she reminded herself.

“Your vendetta is ridiculously misplaced,” she stated. “I don’t get why you can’t sacrifice one more year in Hell to let him be free and help you all?”

“No, you really don’t get it,” Grave agreed. “This marriage loophole that Knox offered has never sat right with me. And I have no doubt that if Rowin manages to get out of this game, Knox will find a way to turn it against the rest of us. He won’t just give up one of his pawns. Someone will have to pay. The others think I’m paranoid, but I won’t take the risk.”

“Trying to kill me during the safe hours because you’ve let Knox get into your head is rather dishonorable, don’t you think?” Genevieve reasoned.

His smile was grim. “I’ve never particularly aspired to be honorable.”

Genevieve mustered up every bit of bravado she had and shrugged. “Take your best shot, then.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Has anyone told you what I am?”

“Sevin said you were a Void Wraith.”

“And do you know what that means?” he pressed.

But before she had the chance to answer, Grave unsheathed a knife from his belt and whipped it right toward her heart. Genevieve waited for her Specter abilities to take over, to turn her invisible so the knife would pass right through her. But her magic never came.

The knife never came either. The blade had stopped in mid-air. She tried to blink, breathe, scream , but she couldn’t move.

Time around her had halted to a standstill.