Page 87 of Glorious Rivals

Their captor came to a stop in front of Slate and lifted a red gloved hand to the side of his face.Slate didn’t flinch, didn’t even blink as she trailed gloved fingers over his skin.

Without warning, Slate slumped.

“Slate!”Eve lunged toward him, putting herself in front of him, cupping his head and feeling for a pulse on his neck.

Gigi just stood there, frozen.Taking in the details.Silent footsteps—but before, they were audible.And her voice…

“Who are you?”Gigi asked.Not the same voice as before.Not the same woman.

“I am no one,” came the reply, “by design.”

Gigi finally got her legs to work.She scurried to stand next to Eve.“She’s not the one who brought us here,” Gigi whispered.

“No,” Eve said, not bothering to mute her tone.“She’s not.”

She’s the one who took the bait.Gigi’s eyes darted toward Slate.“Is he—”

“Unharmed.”That came from the woman in red—but this time, Gigi couldn’t help thinking of her differently.The Woman in Red.Not just a descriptor.A title.A name.No one by design.

“Who are you?”Eve turned Gigi’s question into an accusation.

“So demanding.So sure of yourself.”There was a frightful neutrality to the Woman in Red’s voice, and Gigi thought about the way she’d rendered Slate unconscious with a single touch.

“And who are you again?”Gigi was perfectly capable of being a broken record.

“I am the one who has the right to wear this cloak,” the Woman in Red said.“Unlike the impostor who took you, I am not playacting.I am not a pretender.Iam the Lily.Iam the Watcher.”She lifted a hand to the red veil over her face, and with a single movement, she peeled back the fabric over her eyes—and only her eyes.“And I have questions for the two of you.”

Chapter 63

LYRA

Lyra and Grayson ran the island, side by side.They were missing something.That couldn’t have been clearer.The ledger, for one, Lyra thought.As she and Grayson ran, their bodies fell into a steady, rhythmic pace, and even when their feet didn’t hit the ground at the exact same time, Lyra could feel Grayson’s body like an extension of her own—and his thoughts as an extension of that.

His conversation with Savannah had not gone well.We need to win the game—for his sake as much as mine.As they hit the Eastern shore and began to loop back, Lyra let the words of their latest riddle rise to the surface of her mind once more.

Often

Never

Little late

You

And two

Too much, too great…

“Three twos,” she noted out loud.Two, too, too…

“Technically…” Grayson’s gaze stayed locked on the path they were running.“There are four.”

Lyra worked her way through the rest of the riddle, looking for the fourth.

Never, ever

I trap you not

Go now