“Why do you look like that?” Harvey asked Bryce.
Bryce cocked his head to the side. “Like what?”
Like a monster, Harvey wanted to say but couldn’t bring himself to. “You just don’t look like yourself.”
“I can hear her, through the phone. My ears are much better now. ’Lo, Lola. We’ve missed having you around,” Bryce purred. He perched on the edge of the desk beside him, and Harvey froze. “I can do a lot of things better now.”
“Where’s Rebecca?” Harvey asked.
“Rebecca is here. We’re celebrating. But I was waiting for you.”
“For me?”
“Did you think I’d celebrate without you?” Bryce let out a light laugh, almost enough to make Harvey’s shoulders relax. “You’re my best friend. Now that she’s better, we can have the empire we always talked about. Why did you think I spent months buying all those properties on the boardwalk? The Bargainer might’ve caught on, but she should’ve known that burning a few wouldn’t intimidate me. I’m—”
“Wait, Rebecca is better?” Harvey croaked, struggling to follow it all. “How?”
Bryce grinned. “I thought you would’ve figured it out by now. It was strange coming up with the plan without you. But I wasn’t sure if you’d go along with it, at first.” Bryce reached forward and placed his hand on Harvey’s, the one holding the phone’s speaker. Harvey gradually, shakily, lowered it, but the receiver still trembled against his ear. “But now I know you will.”
Bryce’s hand rested on his seconds too long to be normal. It was heavy, suggestive. And with every moment that passed, more of Harvey’s world began to unravel.
He’s tricking you,Harvey warned himself.
“Harris... The om...” Harvey started but choked on the words.
“Just ask me, and it’ll be gone,” Bryce said. His hand traveled higher, to Harvey’s chin. He cupped him gently.
“I—I don’t understand. The Bargainer is dead. I thought you’d be... How did Rebecca...?”
“I cured her myself weeks ago, before she told me she saw you. Don’t you see? Everything happenedexactlyas I planned.”
Bryce brushed his thumb over Harvey’s lip, and the touch that had made him melt only days ago now made him flinch away.
Bryce frowned. When he blinked, Harvey noticed marks on the backs of his eyes—faint, but there. Zula’s talent. He hadn’t seen them before. He hadn’t looked for his tricks before.
“There’s someone else now,” Bryce said. “I can see it. Someone else you care about.”
He can’t know that, Harvey thought deliriously. But he did. Somehow, Bryce had Zula’s talent. He had...
“What have you done?” Harvey asked, aghast.
“I am the Gamemaster,” Bryce said. “When someone dies in the game, their talents transfer to me. When the shade-maker died at the House of Shadows, I became what the Bargainer already was. A malison and a shade-maker. I cured Rebecca.”
“Then why didn’t you stop this?” Harvey growled. “You got what you wanted! You could’ve—”
“But I didn’t just want that. The woman known as the Bargainer is dead. I am the Bargainer now.”
Harvey grabbed his Creed. He’d never liked Bryce’s talent, but now the thought of his power truly sent a chill up his spine. This was wrong. Harvey had thought Bryce was a romantic, who had done everything for Rebecca. And maybe part of him was. But this kind of greed, this pride, was something more toxic. Something Harvey couldn’t see past, no matter how much he tried.
“You’re a monster,” Harvey murmured.
Bryce’s face fell. He looked actually hurt. “You don’t mean that.”
“Get out of there,” Lola said again into the receiver. Harvey agreed with her—he wasn’t safe. He should leave. But he’d come to be honest with Bryce, and so he needed to know the answers. All of them.
“If the Bargainer is dead, why isn’t the game over?” Harvey asked. “You tied the game to—”
“To a person, yes,” Bryce said carefully. “To the player I cared the most about.”
