She looks across the field. “It’s…fresher. As if you’ve been letting it out more. Now, do you want to win or just ask self-absorbed questions?”
I exhale. “I want Benji to win.”
“Dominik will only tease him.”
“I know,” I mutter. “What’s in it for the High Fae? If we get to keep the coin, what do you get?”
Kassandra frowns. “We take side bets each round with the biggest bet being the winner.”
“How? I see no exchange of coin.”
My mistress shifts. “It’s complicated.”
“One minute left!” the executioner shouts.
“I’m still blood sworn to you,” I say. “I cannot tell a soul.”
She looks away. “We buy and sell faerie debts.”
“What?”
“Sometimes we trade debt. Other times, it’s a one-way purchase.”
“What are you saying?” I hiss. “Why jest with me like this?”
“I’m not jesting.”
“But why own debt willingly?”
“Because then I become the creditor, and the creditor makes the coin. Say I buy one hundred Healing rings—birth debts—across different faeries. The House of Healing receives a full payment for those balances up front. But all future payments faeries make toward that debt and its interest go to me now. It’s the interest that is key. It’s about who owns whom, and for how long.”
Nausea rolls through me.They trade our debts like cards.
“And what have you bet on?” I seethe.
“Just that you would win the first round. I haven’t made the big bet yet. The winner obtains one hundred thousand rings of Reign debt across the most consistent-paying faeries.”
I gasp. “You—”
“Don’t step out of the square.”
“Time’s up!” the executioner shouts. “High Fae, back to the tent.”
“I’ll see you next round,” she says, nodding. “You will win this. I will make sure.”
“Don’t you mean ‘we’?” I cry.
Kassandra returns to the tent without responding. Panic builds in my throat, the urge to scream so strong I ache.
How are they able to purchase thousands of faeries’ payments in one afternoon? I would never see that kind of money even after many lifetimes of working.
King Maxian takes his turn. Lila lands on the silver square behind me.
“The next time Illusion rolls their dice, they will reverse their steps!” Maxian calls out.
I glance at Lila. “I’m normally not violent.”
“You had to be,” she says. Her skin seems to glow in the sun, while mine has begun to turn from tan to red. “You have almost twenty rings, and I have never had more than thirteen. So I have not felt certain struggles.”
