Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #3) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,74
the signatures of those interested. As soon as I enter the sixth thrall, you can begin dispersing them. No sooner.” I waited for her murmured agreement.
Leaning across the desk, I tapped a clause in the middle. “This is a non-disclosure clause. It will last until I personally reveal our deal. For the sake of full clarity between us, I need you to ensure that anyone who doesn’t take the deal is kept quiet until that time. Can I depend on that?”
Her face firmed as she lifted her gaze from the papers. The freedom of more than two thousand slaves sat before her.
“Yes,” she said.
I didn’t doubt her for a second. “Good. The sixth exchange will likely be in the next two or three days.”
Laurel sat down, drawing the papers closer as if they may be snatched away at any moment. “You keep your own counsel, Basilia. I know that’s because of the fine line you walk between the human world and ours, and between loyalty to your mating bond and those you love. I don’t know if I can be part of your plans yet, or even if this is going the way you intended. But when you’re ready—”
“I fucked up,” I blurted.
She stilled and glanced at the contracts again before relaxing. “Tell me.”
The vampire sat with her eyes closed as I poured out everything that had happened since my grandmother’s death.
Fuck, it felt good. I could almost feel some of the weight on my shoulders lessening as the word tumbled from my lips.
Maybe this should be heard by Tommy, but I couldn’t just blab everything out in a rush like this, and Tommy—as much as I loved her—wasn’t a vampire. I’d betrayed just about every Vissimo I knew. The royal ones anyway.
I needed reassurance from a vampire I respected.
When I trailed off, Laurel opened her blue eyes.
“Is that all?” she said drily.
I blew out a breath. “Yeah, I know.”
She pursed her lips. “Would you like to know what I think based on what you’ve told me?”
Did I?
Laurel wasn’t the kind to spear-tackle Harriet Gregorian because she’d humiliated me. She was the kind to assess the options and decide whether letting me finish the catwalk or stabbing Gregorian on the walk home was the best course of action.
“Yes,” I said, meeting her gaze.
“You have a complex about Jessica Alba wearing black leather because you secretly wish you could wear it all the time.”
“Oh my god,” I exploded. “I just handed you my bleeding heart, and you come back with that.” Despite how crappy I felt after a sleepless and emotionally draining night, my lips lifted at the corners.
My friends were terrible at pep talks.
Laurel’s eyes brightened. “I knew there was a smile left in you somewhere. We’ve all been worried about you.”
I leaned back in the chair, crossing my arms.
“Ingenium has spanned more than one hundred and fifty years, Basilia. You’ve played the game for a speck of that time, and yet you blame yourself for the outcome.”
Because I brought the end cascade about. Kind of.
“You’re vocal about your hatred for games, and so I imagine the real reason you’re so conflicted is because of your betrayal to Kyros himself.”
Ouch. I knew she wouldn’t pull punches. “Yeah.”
“He has come to the property each night except the first,” she told me.
I glared. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
She shrugged a shoulder. “Until you exit the sixth thrall, the Indebted have a pretence to keep up. You both needed space after what happened with King Julius.”
I sighed. “Maybe. Kyros more than me.”
Laurel shook her head. “Do you remember when I asked you what would happen to your loyalties when Kyros claimed you for the sixth time?”
The thought of him biting me nearly elicited a groan.
She quirked a brow. “You assured me that you’d do what needed to be done because you loved your grandmother.”
I stilled.
“It can’t have been easy to find yourself between that love and a new love. Not when both loves are immortal. When I say you both needed time, I mean it. There has been a change in you since the theme park. Am I to take it that you decided on a side?”
My grandmother.
Or Kyros.
That’s what she was asking me.
I tipped my head back, interlacing my fingers. “No sides. Just what’s right.”
“And what’s right, Basi?”
Right was freeing two thousand slaves.
Right was ending a battle over a child that never should have started.
Right was doing what made me and those I loved happy.