Harvey wasn’t surprised. But hewassorry.
He knew Bryce would be here, though. It wasn’t the Orphan Guild’s original location, but the Guild itself was still where it had all started. Not the story Harvey wanted, the story of Bryce and him. But this was where Bryce had met Rebecca. This was where the story had changed into something else entirely. Something romantic. Something cursed.
The hallway phone rang. Harvey wondered what client would be calling at this hour, then he remembered that it was nearly sunrise.
He ignored the ringing and followed his feet, which guided him, subconsciously, toward Bryce’s office.Theiroffice. He passed the inner courtyard, aching so painfully he’d gone numb.
He’s been manipulating you, Narinder had told him at South Side General, when he’d urged Harvey to leave.His game didn’t go as planned, and now he’s using you. He’s always been using you.
Harvey did feel used. He felt angry, but almost entirely at himself. He’d let Bryce make a tool out of him. He’d let him trick him and kiss him and touch him and all any of it had done was make him feel worse, make people who could’ve been his friends hate him.
A second phone rang, this one in the common room. Harvey yelped and tripped over his own boots. He was already too on edge. He planned to confront Bryce, but he didn’t know how to stop him. As the Gamemaster, Bryce was protected.
But the game would be over soon. Once Levi and Enne killed the Bargainer.IfLevi and Enne killed the Bargainer.
Harvey tried not to consider the alternative. That he was walking in here, into his place of misery, and that he might never walk out. Even if Harvey’s lowest point still felt so close—dangerously close—he didn’t want to die. He’d betrayed Narinder once. He’d betrayed himself countless times. And he would start down the path to being well by first being good.
Harvey halted once he reached the office, the memory from the other day haunting him like a chilling caress against his cheek. He saw it on each piece of furniture, illuminated by the pink light of sunrise. Shameful. Embarrassed.
Used.
He tried to push his thoughts away, and it actually helped that Harvey was in this place, standing where he’d let Bryce have him. He looked at the open ledgers on the desk, at the lopsided bookshelves, the bars along the windows.
Harvey deserved better than this.
The desk phone rang.
Whoever it was clearly wasn’t giving up, so Harvey picked up the receiver, if only to tell the person to stop calling. “’Lo?” he whispered.
“Harvey. Thank mucking goodness it’s you.”
“Lola,” he said, frowning. His throat seized up, knowing what she must be thinking to hear his voice through the Orphan Guild’s phone. “I’m not here because I... It’s not what it seems—”
“I know. Look, you can’t stay. You need to leave. Now.”
Harvey heard footsteps approaching from down the hall. Finally. Bryce had come to him, just like Harvey had hoped he would.
“Are you listening to me?” Lola demanded.
“Yeah, I—”
“Arabella—the Bargainer, I mean—is dead.” Her voice was hitched. She was upset, but there was something graver in her voice than grief: fear, and Harvey couldn’t guess why. “She’s gone. And—”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Harvey choked. He reached into his pocket and held Narinder’s Shadow Card. If the game had broken, the card would’ve disappeared.
“You’re here,” came a voice at the door. Harvey looked up and met eyes with Bryce, who leaned against the entrance, a smile playing at his lips, completely at ease. “I’m glad you’re back.”
“Is that Bryce?” Lola asked sharply through the receiver.
Harvey’s hand shook. He didn’t dare answer.
“Who are you talking to?” Bryce asked.
Harvey didn’t have a response, couldn’t think of a lie fast enough.
Bryce walked closer. Harvey’s pulse sped up, and not because Bryce looked good, but because he didn’t. The red of his eyes had never looked so dark. The veins along his face had also deepened, the purple and blue more vibrant, as though his skin was translucent. And there was a gray cast to him, as though he, too, was coated in the dust of this place.
“Listen, Harvey. You need to leave,” Lola repeated. “Something isn’t right. You can’t be—”
