Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #3) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,64

of his Freens and to deserve being there.

I’d betrayed him, all of them. I’d stalled while scrambling to figure out a solution.

Maybe I knew, even back then, that I couldn’t handle the look on Kyros’s face.

I dipped my head and turned to leave.

“Back out,” Kyros hissed.

Tears welled in my eyes. I blinked, forcing them down. I couldn’t leave things like this. Desperation clawed at my throat.

“The threat to Tommy’s life was immediate,” I said, my chest tightening as the stinging behind my eyes swelled. “The threat to the life of your siblings and father was not.”

His voice dripped with ice. “I said get the fuck out.”

Facing him again, I dropped my head.

So I wouldn’t need to witness the decay of whatever messed up and beautiful bond we’d shared.

So the sight of his disgust couldn’t haunt my every waking moment for the rest of time.

Stooped, I shuffled backward from the chamber.

“I’m out,” I told the table surrounded by my grandmother’s friends.

They stared back at me.

It took two days to work up the courage to arrange this meeting. Since Kyros washed his hands of me, I’d thrown myself into estate work in a frenzy even Tommy couldn’t contain.

I’d failed my grandmother.

I’d failed these people who had fought the Vissimo every day for nearly three decades.

I’d failed Kyros and his family.

I’d failed the Indebted.

In another fifteen days, Kyros’s hatred of me would be sealed with the triggering of the end cascade.

“You’re out of what exactly?” Lady Treena asked.

“Level 66?” Dame Burke said, eyes sharp on me.

My mind never left my misery these days, so talking was nearly easy. “And their group.”

Mr Hothen swore.

“How?” Mrs Syrre whispered.

Sir Olythieu’s eyes narrowed. “They know?”

I shook my head. “Not about this group. I went about Sandra. It was past time.”

Turning to Mr Hothen, I closed my eyes. “F got to her first. I’m so sorry.”

Shock blanketed his features.

Without a word, he left the room.

“Poor woman,” Mrs Syrre said, dashing away a few tears.

Sandra Hoyt was just another person I’d failed. I’d promised she would be okay. I was so determined to do right by her, but the rug was pulled from beneath me. The remaining triplets would have worked on her.

Her last moments would have been filled with horror and pain.

I’d been sick too many times to count in the last couple of days.

Mr Dithis leaned back. “The state of Ingenium is the same?”

That right there was why the world should fear the people around this table. Death and fear surrounded them at every turn, and here they were, fighting with cold calculation.

I nodded. “Fifteen days.”

“The end is in fifteen days,” Dame Burke asked, blinking.

Sir Olythieu chimed. “Just over two weeks to establish equilibrium again then.”

Equilibrium.

That was all well and good. My plan had centred on completing six exchanges with Kyros so I could free the Indebted and employ them for protection.

“What I don’t understand,” Lady Treena said, “is if you betrayed them badly enough to get kicked out entirely, why you aren’t dead.”

Because I was his true mate.

My grandmother’s friends had forgiven me for a few sympathising comments toward the Vissimo. If they knew what happened with Kyros. If they knew how I felt for a vampire, they’d never look at me again. They might not join forces against me, but they’d damn-well slam the door in my face. If I was in their shoes, I’d do the same. It was too risky to discuss matters with me openly, never knowing when Kyros may take a dip into my mind. Or when I’d confess everything.

Maybe I deserved that door to slam shut.

If my grandmother was here, I wouldn’t be able to look her in the face. Guilt and self-loathing were my constant companions since her death. Only Kyros had balanced those feelings, and I hadn’t realised until too late.

Decision made, I dug around in my bag. I drew out the Vissimo book on mating rituals. Riffling through the contents, I stopped at the fifth exchange and placed it in the middle of the table.

“Me and Kyros,” I said.

Chairs scraped back as they craned to look at the book. Dame Burke studied the title and snatched the book up, gaze darting over the first few pages.

Her eyes widened.

She glanced up at me, her mouth ajar. “You’re mated to him?”

The others gasped and crowded around her, reaching for the book in turn.

I watched as they skimmed through, reading a bit from each exchange. The location thing, the feelings, the changes to my senses, and the increases in my