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And I didn’t want to. If I had any shot of the Freaks letting me go, I needed a clean win.

“Deal,” I conceded.

I don’t know what I expected next: gloating, teasing, any sort of acknowledgement from Cyrus? But instead, Blade grabbed the switch from her own pocket, starting up creepy carnival music over the park intercoms as the sun disappeared behind the mountains behind Feverpoint.

The three Freaks stood silent and waiting. Blade and Nash were noticeably separate from Cyrus. Something was wrong — the tension I’d sensed between them in the alleyway clearly hadn’t subsided.

But as Feverpoint fell under the pulsing green glow that marked the start of my five minutes, I shook the thought, sprinting down the cobblestone path as fast as I could.

There was no time to waste debating the discontent of my hunters. I needed to hide — $80k and my freedom were riding on this.

11

BLADE

Watching Tess run off into the night was a dagger through my chest. I hated seeing her go, seeing the distance between us grow. My mind knew that she was running right into our trap, but my body ached with the memory of the last time we’d done this. Watching her disappear down this very same path and out of my life had nearly killed me.

That won’t happen again.

Because with every ounce of fear that coursed through my veins, there was hunger too. Something was thrumming to life in my chest that I hadn’t felt since Tess left us. Stronger than desire: need.

I needed to capture her and make sure that she could never leave again. I wasn’t sure that I would survive losing her.

Which also meant that Cyrus couldn’t be the one to catch her ever again. She’d proven she couldn’t be trusted.

“Cards?” Cyrus murmured, voice placid behind her stitched-up mask.

It was hard to hear her voice without wanting to punch her again. There was plenty about Cyrus that was abrasive: she was rude, aggressive, and headstrong as all fuck. But the one thing I’d always admired about her was how principled she was.

It was the only reason I agreed to play along with her stupid rituals, letting the cards dictate our Fright Nights and just about every other part of our lives. Even if I thought the rules were stupid, I respected how much she cared about them, and I respected the order she brought to our lives.

But going rogue from her own directives, breaking our pact the second that she saw something that she wanted?

It wasn’t just uncool. It was a violation of every promise we’d made to each other.

And it cost me the only person I’d ever wanted to bring into our fold.

Nash pulled the deck from her pocket, shuffling it before holding the first choice out to Cyrus. She grabbed the Ace of Cups from the middle of the deck: back to Rapid Rush, the place she was meant to search last time we played.

I rolled my eyes. “Think you can find your way there this time without getting lost?”

But rather than snapping back, she took the deck from Nash, holding it out to me.

Lip curling beneath my mask, I snagged the first card off the top of the deck: the Knight of Swords. It pictured a dude in a heavy suit of armor, charging into battle on his white stallion with his sword raised high.

Great. The northernmost edge of the park.

There was no fucking way Tess was running all the way over to Medieval Mayhem from the main gate. Which meant six of my hours were going completely down the drain.

I grabbed the deck impatiently, waiting for Nash to make her choice. I loved her, but she could be so picky about the whole thing, hovering her hand over the deck until she felt the right energy.

Doesn’t seem to be helping her win, though.

I swallowed down the snark with a twinge of guilt. It wasn’t fair to take it out on her when it was Cyrus I was annoyed with.

Eventually, she made her selection, pulling the card between her thumb and inked middle finger. Death: a skeleton on a horse trampling over a bunch of dead bodies. “Haunted Acres it is.”

Good.