Page 79 of The Grandest Game
Rohan wondered what kind of challenge they would have faced if they’d chosen door number one. A puzzle instead of a game? Something less…personal?
Out loud, he focused on a different question. “What’s to keep us from lying?”
“I’m so glad you asked,” Jameson replied. “The poker chips have a little something extra embedded in them. Place your thumb flat in the center of a truth chip as you answer or a dare chip immediately after fulfilling your dare. We’ll be monitoring your heart rate, among other things. Youcouldtry fooling us, of course, but if we flag one of your answers as false, the challenge fails.”
No hint, Rohan translated.
“What about the dares?” Savannah was using her high, clear society voice, but her body told a different story.
Her body was ready to fight.
Fight who?The labyrinth called.And why?Rohan resisted, staying in the moment.
“A proper dare,” Jameson said, “also has an effect on one’s heart rate. If you think you can trick our sensors, the two of you are most welcome to try and risk not getting your hint.Bonne chance.”
With that, the game’s masterminds went silent.
“Good luck,” Rohan translated flatly. “Jameson Hawthorne and I have a mutual acquaintance who is fond of the French version of that phrase.”
The duchess.Rohan recognized the move Jameson had just made for what it was: the blighter’s way of making it clear that he and Avery knew exactly what was at stake for Rohan in this game. It wouldn’t have taken much for them to figure it out, given their history with the Mercy.
You two know I’m not going to try to cheat, Rohan thought shrewdly. Compared to the Proprietorship of the Devil’s Mercy, what was one little game of Truth or Dare?
Chapter 59
ROHAN
Savannah flipped over the first chip. “Truth.” She reached for the pile of white and gold cards and withdrew one. Rohan expected her to discard the predetermined question and ask him for details about the Mercy, but she didn’t—an indication that she was off her game.
Instead, Savannah Grayson read the question on the card in an almost bored tone as she placed the chip on the table and slid it across to him. “What is your earliest memory?”
Rohan placed his thumb flat on the center of the chip. “My earliest memory.” Rohan’s voice was unexpectedly low in pitch, even to his own ears. He was a person who kept his memories locked away in a labyrinth for a reason. Already in this game, the past had clawed its way to the surface of his mind twice, and that was two times too many.
But needs must.“I’m in my mother’s arms,” Rohan said, detached.“She’s humming, and then I’m in the water. We’re outside. It’s pitch black. The water is deep. I can’t swim.”
There wasn’t an ounce of emotion in his tone. Detaching further, Rohan considered the origin of the phraseneeds must, the full proverb.Needs must when the devil drives.
“I knowcontrol,” Savannah said, “when I see it.”
Rohan met her eyes. “It wasn’t the first time.” For all hiscontrol, Rohan could feel his heart beating harder now. “That’s the most vivid part of the memory. I’m in the water. I can’t swim. I can’t see anything. And it’s not the first time.”
They’d done it to him on purpose. Rohan had no recollection of whotheywere, beyond the woman. The rest of his family, perhaps. Children didn’t come to the keeping of the Devil’s Mercy forgoodreasons.
The chip under Rohan’s thumb lit up. He cleared his mind and set it down.Five more to go.He reached for a chip of his own and turned it over.
“Dare.” Rohan drew a black card. The image of the hairbrush stared back at him. He looked up at Savannah, at her braid. “Take down your hair.”
That wasn’t strategy. Rohan could admit that, if only to himself.
He heard the breath catch in her throat. “Is that your dare?” Savannah asked.I knowcontrol, she’d told him,when I see it.
“I dare you…” Rohan banished the memory of the water and the dark. “To let me brush it.”
He let himself savor the way Savannah took down her hair, as her nimble fingers made quick work of the braids on either side of her head. She was efficient.
Rohan picked up the brush.
“There,” Savannah said, clipping the word. “Done. Brush away.” There those walls were. He wondered if any part of her was thinking, as he was, of their rather tantalizing fight.
