Page 359 of End Game

“You said hot.”

“She can be hot and appropriately protected, Ronan,” Cami argues.

“Thank you.”

Ronan looks between them. “I regret inviting guests.”

“No, you don’t,” I say.

His eyes land on me.

He’s trying not to smile.

Ronan’s explanation for why Shawn and Alexis are here in-game is stupid, but also kind of perfect.

Our contact has disappeared.

The last people to see him were Edrin and Vera, who were hired by the same man to retrieve a stolen magical object before it can be sold.

The object is a small silver box.

Nobody knows what’s inside.

The only instruction is that under absolutely no circumstances are we supposed to open it.

Which means we are definitely opening it.

Even Griffin knows that.

“We should not open it,” he says.

Cami looks at him. “But?”

He sighs. “But someone is going to.”

The answer forms in my head in Dex’s voice before I can stop it.

Already opened it.

Something tight catches beneath my ribs.

My hand moves toward my phone on instinct, but I stop halfway there and reach for my drink instead.

Cami notices.

She doesn’t say anything. Just squeezes my thigh once under the table before Ronan moves us into the actual encounter.

We’re supposed to locate a black-market dealer operating out of the cellar beneath the tavern.

Shawn immediately starts asking questions.

“How old is the building?”

Ronan pauses. “Approximately two hundred years.”

“Original construction?”

“Most of it.”