Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington

Author:Joelle Wellington
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2023-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

I NEVER QUITE MANAGE A deep sleep, but I do get some, I realize as sunlight wakes me up, unkind in how bright it is. Sinking into the overplushness of the bed, I stretch, my spine cracking and relieving pressure. I twist, looking over at Saint. She’s sitting on top of her bed, cross-legged, staring down at a book. She doesn’t look fragile anymore, even with the brace on her wrist.

“We need to talk,” I groan into my pillow, pushing myself up halfway.

“I agree,” Saint says. She closes her book with an audible thud. “I’m not going to win. I’ve always been aware of this.”

“What?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s never been about winning this. It was about gaining leverage. I’m the leverage. And what I’ve experienced and what I know. I just have to make it out of here,” Saint says firmly. She sounds so blasé about it, using her trauma as a linchpin in her plan. But her word won’t be enough.

“It’ll only work if you have someone who would corroborate. You want me to win,” I say as I catch on. Saint nods once. I lean in. “Good, because I want to win too. I’m going to win.”

It’s something I’ve gone over—my exchanges with both Aunt Leighton and Hawthorne. Their pretty words turn over in my head even now, and for all their euphemisms and half answers, there is a simple truth to it all. Only one of us is meant to survive. And I meant what I said, I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I do want. I want what was stolen from me. I want to make this worth something, before it’s too late.

“We’ll be the last two standing. I’ll forfeit at the last possible moment,” Saint says simply.

“Will they let you forfeit?” I ask.

“If not, I have the distinct feeling all you need to do is ask. Ask for them to let me live, and Pierce will let me. Then you’ll get your future back, and I close a deal that will help make my family even more powerful than the Remingtons,” Saint says, and there’s a revitalization to her now. She looks brand-new after just a night, and I can’t tell whether this confidence is felt or manufactured.

“Agreed,” I say. There are things we’ll need to do to get there. Things I might not be able to, but in this moment I feel bigger than I have since the Ride.

“You should go shower,” Saint says coolly. “It’s nearly ten. You have brunch with Pierce at ten.”

“Excuse me?”

“Pierce doesn’t have anything to offer me. But he has everything to offer you,” Saint says. “You’re never going to get his father to like you. He’s a bigot. But you have Leighton and Graham. Now you have to keep Pierce on your side. All that time he spent with Penthesilea last night? You have to undo the work she might have put in.”

Her words and the truth of them start to take shape in my mind.

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