Unstoppable (Their Shifter Academy #6) - May Dawson Page 0,6

and murmured a word, and blood poured down his hand, dripping from his fingertips and pooling in the bowl. I glanced away. I hated seeing him hurt himself.

The four magicians at the table waited, absently tossing their dice in their hands as they waited for him to join. His bowl only filled halfway, and I noticed then that the bowls had various levels of blood—the one in front of the woman was brimming, as if it might run over onto the tablecloth, and the one in front of a man at the end of the table was almost dry. Sweat clung to his forehead beneath high widow’s peaks, and the look he gave Silas was sly and greedy.

Silas wiped his hands together, a sheen of magic between his palms, and they were instantly clean and healed. He scooped the dice from the velvet tablecloth. “Shall we?”

They began to roll at the same time. They counted out loud. The game seemed simple enough; they were racing to break one thousand. Silas rolled three sixes each time, obviously manipulating the game with magic, and so did the woman across from him. She smiled at him, as if she was curious which of the two of them would slip first.

I thought about how I’d play the game, how I’d manipulate the dice while they were still rolling to make sure they turned up on the six’s edge, and I realized it wasn’t as simple a spell as I’d thought at first. It would take intense concentration and subtle power to control three dice simultaneously and win round after round.

“One thousand and two,” Silas said, and she was just a beat behind him, already saying the same words.

She raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you counted correctly?”

“I’d stake my life on it,” Silas said cheekily, and suddenly I knew he had. Anxiety tightened around my chest like a vice; the stress was worse because I couldn’t do anything. He leaned back, slinging his elbow over the seatback. “Funny how that’s the only kind of cheating that isn’t allowed.”

The man at the end gripped the table suddenly. The old man scrubbed his hand across his face, looking away, but a small smile slithered across her lips.

Suddenly this didn’t seem funny at all.

Then the man tumbled out of his seat and sprawled onto the floor.

I took a step forward before I realized what I’d just done. Jensen grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back beside him. My heart was pounding in my chest. Silas’s face betrayed no emotion.

The robot creaked into the room. His vest and shirt rode up when he bent to pick the old man up, revealing cheap-looking gray skin. His maker hadn’t bothered to make him look so human.

He slung the man over his shoulders and carried him back out.

I had a feeling his magic, his power, had stayed in the room, in those bowls. Silas had implied that was what they were really playing for—power.

“He should have folded,” the woman said. She ran her fingernail absently around the rim of the bowl, fixing Silas with a seductive look that made me uncomfortable. A second before, she had looked as if she might begin to lap up that blood. “He thought you’d be an easy mark.”

“Maybe I am,” Silas said easily. He had already picked up the dice.

“I’ve lost enough so far today,” the old man said. He left the bowl on the table and headed out of the room, moving slowly.

His bowl slowly drained, and the levels in Silas’s bowl and hers rose evenly.

Rafe pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he couldn’t stand to watch, as she and Silas began to roll again.

Rapidly, their two bowls evened out, and then they were fighting neck and neck. She beat Silas to the draw, and he nodded his head, smiling blankly.

She started to smile, but he won the next two rounds, and an unpleasant expression crossed her face.

“Again?” Silas asked, cupping the dice in one long-fingered, agile hand.

She suddenly leaned forward, cupping her chin in her hand again, and I didn’t like the sudden change in her posture or attitude.

“Not you,” she said very softly. “There aren’t supposed to be spectators. Only players.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “That’s not one of the posted rules.”

“This is my place. I think I’m entitled--I’m adding a rule.”

“I don’t think so,” he told her, rising from the table. “I’ll take my funds and be gone, then.”

“Not so fast, Silas Zip,” she said, and my heart stopped in my