Page 93 of Glorious Rivals

Savannah stared at him like she was Helen of Troy, staring out at a battlefield her beauty had sown.“So this is done, then?”she said, her voice going dangerously neutral.“This?Us?”

Us.“I didn’t say that.”Rohan told himself that he was still playing with her, that no part of him was trying to hold on—not when she wasgoingto betray him.

“You’re not saying anything.”Savannah’s neutrality began to slip away, like water dripping off a razor-sharp icicle in the sun.“A picture is worth a thousand words, Rohan, and you are nothing but smooth talk and double entendres, meaningless nicknames and never telling me anything real.”

“That isn’t true.”Rohan felt, as much as heard, his own voice go brutally low.“I told you from the start, love:I want it more.”

He’d told Savannah Grayson about the Devil’s Mercy.He’d told her about dark water and drowning.About the child he’d once been.

No more.

“This really is it, isn’t it?”Savannah was far too calm.

“The end of the line,” Rohan agreed.“Do your worst, love.”

“Believe me,” Savannah told him.“I will.”Her expression like glass, she turned and walked away.

And just like that, Rohan flipped the switch.

Chapter 67

GIGI

Gigi stared at the Woman in Red—at her eyes.One blue eye.One brown.Gigi knew those eyes.She’d seen those eyes before—in a picture belonging to Brady Daniels.

As the cloaked woman interrogated them about the Grandest Game, about the players, about the game makers, all Gigi could think about was the triangular scar at the base of Knox Landry’s neck, the one the girl he’d loved had given him when sheleft.

He’d called ita Calla Thorp good-bye.

“You must know something else about her.”

Gigi blinked.She’d lost track of the present for a moment.“Who?”

Eve shot Gigi an incredulous look.“Lyra Kane.”Apparently, Eve did not believe this was an appropriate time to be zoning out, but Gigi’s brain was a mess of memories and what-ifs and revelations.

Calla Thorp.Not missing.Here.Alive.

“Or we could return to discussing your brother,” Calla—the Woman in Red, the Lily, the Watcher—told Gigi.“Orhisbrother.”

Gigi swallowed.“Grayson has three brothers.”

“Three,” Calla repeated.“That is a number of some significance.Tell me why that is the case, and I will let you go—all of you.”

Gigi glanced at Slate.Still out.If he’d been awake, he probably would have told her to just answer the question, but the number three didn’t mean anything to Gigi—and those eyes did.

“You’re…her,” Gigi said.Some people loomed larger than life, even if you didn’t know them, even if you’d only ever heard their name.“Calla.”Gigi’s heart twisted in her chest.“Brady thinks he’s playing for your life.He thinks you weretaken.”

“I am not Calla.”The voice that spoke those words was eerily detached.“Calla is no more, and I am no one, by design.”

“You left.”Gigi’s mind was reeling.“That’s what Knox said.You ran away, and you warned him not to follow.”Gigi brought her right hand to the base of her own neck, just above her collarbone.“He has a scar right here.And Brady… Bradylovesyou.”

For Brady, there had never been anyone butCalla.

“Brady Daniels loves a memory.He loves a dream.”Calla-not-Calla reached a gloved hand out for Gigi’s chin.“I assure you, Juliet Grayson, I am quite real.And I amno one.”

No one, by design.Gigi swallowed again.“You’re the Watcher.You’re the Lily.Calla.”Gigi’s eyes widened.“You left that flower for me.”

The Woman in Red did not deny it.“There is an order to things.There are rules.Warnings must sometimes be delivered when a person of a certain sort is being watched.”