Laugher tinkles around Conference Hall A. Lila’s in her signature scuffed Dr Martens, high-waist torn jeans and has a blue check (orflannel, as they say on the show) shirt tied at her tiny waist. She twirls her blond waves into a bun then secures it with the tiny hatpin Juliana gave her in the episode “Quiet Now”. I love her hair in a bun; she has the most immaculate hairline in the world.
“There it is.”
Lila points at a chest tucked under a white metal bed frame. My heart is beating so hard I can hardly hear what they’re saying.
“No sign of the Maksakas.”
Lila pulls the chest from its hiding place. Orion sticks his hands out like he’s trying to stop traffic.
“Don’t open it!”
“Well,youcan’t open it.”She looks at her watch.“It’s not sundown yet so no touchy-touchy for you.”
“You always rub that in my face.”
“Can’t rub anything in your face until sundown.”
“Ha ha.”
(Orion’s incorporeal but in season two a warlock owed him a favour and made him corporeal from sunset to sunrise. OK, IpromiseI’ll stop now.)
“Fine, just open it. But be careful.”
“I was planning on not being careful actually.”
More laughter from us. Classic Lila and Orion banter.
Lila pulls the splintered chest towards her, its open padlock dangling from a cast iron link on the top. Everyone around me is frozen as she reaches inside and pulls out a torn scroll, wrapped with a leather cord. She glances at Orion,who nods at her, and she unties it.
“What’s it say?”
Lila’s eyebrows pinch together as she scans the scroll. She looks up at Orion, her eyes wide with shock. Roxy looks round at me, but I can’t look away; there’s somethingimportantwritten on that scroll.
“Lila? Come on, you’re killing me here. I mean, if I wasn’t already dead.”
No laughter this time. The audience is invested as Lila swallows a lump then reads from the scroll.
“It says . . . it says . . . attendees at theVampire Fallsconvention in London, England are invited to enter the first ever Fall Games. Three contestants will be chosen to battle it out for the ultimate Faller prize.”
Roxy and I are holding hands and nearly breaking each other’s fingers, but it’s fine; bones can be fixed.
“What prize, Lila?”
Lila suddenly breaks the fourth wall and looks out at us.I gasp, as her perma-frown melts from her face and she breaks into a wide smile.
“The prize is courtesy of my boy Damon’s production company, Karma Kaleidoscope. Love you, Damon.”
She blows a kiss out towards the camera and Damon Van Schwartz, on stage in London, reciprocates. Lila (or Megan? I’m so overexcited and giddy right now, I have no idea) does a heart sign with her hands then smiles at us again.
“The winner of the Fall Games, along with a friend, will be my personal guest at next year’s San Diego Comic Con.”
CHAPTER TEN
ORION FENIMORE
Breathe, Lila! Just breathe!
LILA MURPHY
