“Shoot him!” somebody shouted from the other side of the room. Enne whipped her head toward the crowd, at the terror in their faces. Several men had tried to climb the stage, but an invisible barrier stopped them. They cursed and pounded on what looked like air.
Enne avoided their stares, her hand quivering. It’d been easier to kill the two whiteboots, to kill Sedric Torren. She’d hated Sedric, and she hadn’t known the whiteboots. But Bryce, as cruel and twisted as he might’ve been, had once felt close to being her friend. And worse, she understood his anger. She and Levi understood it better than anyone.
Bryce ignored the crowd, just like he ignored the aim of Enne’s gun. “Jonas was right to wonder how the whiteboots ever got the rifles in time,” he continued. “But the Families have them, don’t they? Just like he said. You see, it was never the whiteboots who ambushed the Orphan Guild. It wasme. Vianca gave me the weapons and told me to start a war.”
His gaze darted wildly between them. “But she never asked you to kill your friends, did she? Not her favorite. Not her girl.”
Enne’s heart clenched. What Bryce and Levi didn’t know was that she already had.
“She was going to kill me tonight. She told me over tea. I would be forced to attend this party, and Worner’s victory would be announced, and then my use to her would be finished.” Bryce’s shoulders heaved. “If Harrison hadn’t stopped her, I’d already be dead.”
Harrison stiffened. “I didn’t save you forthis.” He gestured at the anguish around the room. So many people shouted that Enne could no longer make out their words.
“Even so, it’s thanks to you that I’m alive,” Bryce told him. “And that I now get to save someone else.”
Bryce spun the roulette wheel again before Enne could decide what to do.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
“It won’t work,” Harrison warned her, but she didn’t listen. She could break rules, too. She could shoot the wheel, just like she’d shot the timer.
She pulled the trigger.
The bullet whizzed through it as though it were made of smoke. It blew a hole in the wooden stage floor, and still the wheel spun.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The peg stopped on the two.
A dozen more people in the room dropped—one moment standing, the next dead. Those remaining resumed pounding on the ballroom doors, screaming at anyone outside to help them escape.
“That’s impossible,” Enne murmured, staring at the splintered floor.
“The Shadow Game wasn’t,” Levi said, and Harrison gave him a weary nod.
But Enne wasn’t convinced. She’d cheated the Shadow Game, and so she could cheat this, too. She would save these people, like she couldn’t save Jac.
She trained her gun on Bryce.
“I’ll shoot you,” she threatened.
“Just like you shot Owain at the debate?” Bryce said, cocking an eyebrow. “I was there, too. Vianca told me about what you planned, of course. She loved to talk to me about you two. But I knew there was more on your mind than just the riot. And I knew you wouldn’t go through with it.”
Enne winced. She hadn’t been weak. She’d been right to back down.
Then Levi’s eyes widened. “You’rethe one who fired the shots that day.”
“Yes, Vianca was furious with me about that. Furious enough to kill me, so it seems.” Bryce gave her body a smug look. “She’d hoped for something more organized, but I don’t know... I think I preferred the chaos.”
Something about the way he said that last word made Enne shiver.
Bryce took a menacing stride closer to her and Levi. “You think the whole city revolves around the two of you, but this isn’t your story—it has always beenmine. Who do you think sent you that letter?”
Enne reached for the empty envelope Harvey had given her with confusion. Bryce smiled wickedly, stalked away, and spun the wheel a third time.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Enne fired, her gun aimed at Bryce’s heart.
