Page 84 of Glorious Rivals (The Grandest Game #2)

GIGI

F our miles, due north. Gigi wasn’t sure she was going to make it.

Here lies Gigi Grayson , her tombstone would read, done in by cardio in the end .

When the bar finally came into view in the distance, Gigi tried—and failed—to breathe a sigh of relief. This night was ending. This brief, absolutely bonkers chapter in her life was coming to a close.

“This is as far as we go,” Eve told Slate. “We need to be long gone before anyone Hawthorne-adjacent comes for her.”

That stung more than it probably should have.

“Stay out of trouble, sunshine.”

A ball of emotion rose in Gigi’s throat, but she chose to smile. Because she could. Because even after everything, she still had to believe that happiness was a choice.

“ Trouble is my second middle name,” she told Slate. “Juliet Aurelia Trouble Grayson.” Her smile wavered, but Gigi persevered, nodding toward the bar, which looked, even from a distance, every bit as seedy as advertised. “Think they sell mimosas?”

“No,” Slate said. “I don’t.”

“True or false.” Gigi met his eyes through the dark. “You’ll miss me.”

“Slate.” Eve’s patience was clearly evaporating.

Gigi decided not to wait for an answer that probably wasn’t going to come. She set her sights on the building in the distance and made it all of three steps before Mattias Slater spoke behind her.

“Let’s play a game,” he said. “It’s called You Don’t Need to Prove a Damn Thing. To anyone. It’s called You’re Already Strong.”

Gigi stopped walking, but she didn’t look back. She didn’t let herself look back. Still, she had to ask: “Were you ever out there?”

How many times in the past year-and-a-half had she hedged her bets, calling out into the night? I know you’re out there. He’d been a figment of her imagination on so many nights—and maybe that was all.

Maybe if she turned around, she’d discover that he was already gone.

And then came a reply. “More than once.”

Gigi nodded, and then she swallowed. It wasn’t all in my head. She took the deepest breath of her life. “Good-bye, Mattias.”

She started walking toward the bar again.

The first two steps were the hardest. After five, Gigi forced herself to pick up the pace, as much as she could—for Savannah.

Even if Zella had been right and the Grandest Game was ending, even if it was already over and Gigi was too late, she had to get to her sister.

And now, thanks to Eve and her big mouth, Gigi needed to get to Grayson and Lyra, too.

At the very least, she needed to tell someone about Calla— the Watcher, the Lily, the Woman in Red .

Because whatever came after the time for watching ? Even Gigi wasn’t optimistic enough to think that it was good.