Raphael collected the dice in his palm and extended them toward me. But when I reached for them, he pulled his arm back.
“Scared I’m going to take the rest of your silver?”
He grinned. “Silver is just silver. What do you say we make this more interesting?”
I glanced at the table. Silver was nothing to sneeze at, but, well, I wasn’t a king with centuries to build up my coffers. “What did you have in mind?”
He held the handful of dice over our respective stacks of coins. “Whoever wins by taking the rest of the other’s silver gets to claim a small boon from the other.”
“What do you want?”
Raphael grinned wide. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I snorted. “I’m pretty sure I’ve heard children give that response. Yes, of course I’d like to know. There’s a number of things I won’t gamble on.”
He arched a brow. “What are your conditions?”
I considered. Whatcouldhe ask of me? I didn’t have much to offer Raphael, but I didn’t relish being in his debt either. “Nothing involving blood.” Whether it was me biting him or him biting me or anything else. “What are your terms?” I asked once he nodded.
He grinned with all the arrogance I was used to seeing. “Unnecessary. I don’t intend to lose.”
I looked between our respective piles. “It hardly seems fair to you.” I had four times what he did. With the winning streak I’d been on, I’d be collecting this boon in a few rounds. “You’re practically forfeiting with these odds, so why even offer a boon?”
Raphael leaned closer. His voice dropped to a low, seductive note. “Can’t think of anything you want from me, viper?”
Just like that, visions of everything I did want from Raphael flashed in my mind. Everything I wanted and could never have, not with the king of vampires. The dead blood in my veins warmed with memories of what he’d said the last time we’d been alone together, about having him on his knees. I prayed my mental shields were strong, but even if they were, enough showed on my face that Raphael’s eyes sparkled with humor.
“Fine, fine, I accept the terms. It’s your own folly. Let’s play.”
I pushed a stack of ten coins forward. Raphael put ten to match. Best to get this over with. He held out the stone dice to me and transferred them in a smooth movement, fingers grazing my palm.
I shook them once, twice, thrice for luck. High numbers to start would be good. Even just a five or six on the large die would do.
But that’s not what I got. I stared at the dice in disbelief. It was my worst roll all night—a full set of carved eyes staring up at me accusingly.
Raphael pulled my stack of coins toward himself. “It seems Lixa has left the table.”
I glared at him. “I was feeling charitable. Don’t worry, the next round will be different.”
Chapter Twenty
Samara
The next roundwasdifferent.
It was worse.
The one after? Not much better. I didn’t lose every round, but my winning streak came to a stark end. Silver dwindled in front of me, while Raphael barely bothered stacking his new piles as he cast another throw.
And it was the final throw, because he had enough to win the round.
“I guess no one’s lucky forever,” I groused, pushing the final silver piece I’d held on to away.
“No one likes a sore loser,” Raphael chided.
“Sore?” I huffed. “That’s hardly beingsore. Sore would be if I tried to renege because I swear you did something to those dice.” Seriously, how could it go so badly? Granted, I didn’t have a ton of experience playing games—Greymere wasn’t exactly the place for it. But it seemed odd.
Demos quickly plucked the dice from between the silver and set them in their velvet pouch. “There’s nothing wrong with the dice.” He sounded a touch defensive.
