Taste a Thousand Deaths (Marionettes of Myth #3)

Chapter Eight

Yuuhi had been planning the cliché date for the past month. Jason was only glad that he would finally stop gushing about it. But, come tomorrow, the gleam of 'What may be' would be replaced with 'What happened'. And Jason really didn't want to see the post-sex afterglow.

Instead of the thought filling him with the typical seething jealousy, however, he found himself...sagging with the visual of Kali's face now having the gleam of finality that it hadn't had when he left.

He hid behind his hand of cards, nursing a bottle of beer, as Carmi and Raven discussed what pieces to add to the Qatan 'conquer the land' board game. The kitchen was much too small for the party of eleven, and probably a middle finger to every fire code. Despite how the kitchen window was always cracked just a sliver, the cold air did little to help the lingering ocean smell of Yuuhi's leftover sushi. At least it didn't smell like low tide.

But the trickle of cold breeze also did little to help the thick, stifling air of competition.

Carmi and Raven, the happy pair, exchanged smug couple telepathy—well, Jason recognized the little nuances that were beyond the typical smug coupleness. The way Carmi shifted when she did, the way they put their heads together and whispered little words that meant more to the two of them than everyone else hunkered around the game board. The way they didn't notice how crowded the table was with glistening beer bottles and sweating glasses of hard liquor.

Carmi and Raven huffed and puffed at each other before finally settling on building a single road, which blocked Toivo's advancement. Then it came turn for Emperor Shi Huangdi, also known as Tian.

Jason zoned out. Toivo had already pulled Ave aside during the initial hubbub of their arrival and explained to her the arrest warrants. Elliot already looked like the morgue, and no one had even told him about the warrants yet. Elliot seemed to anticipate something would happen for some reason. Whatever Cassius had done to him, the impression of his vice grip remained, and Elliot knew to expect something bad.

He must have done something to piss Cassius off.

The game progressed with the non-participants of Ave and Leon and Zia antagonizing all the players aside from Rosette, who spent ample time antagonizing herself with Nekane appraising her every decision. Jason emptied a bottle and retrieved another. Sometimes being a lightweight paid off. He could already feel the faithful numbing buzz of his skull, dulling the ever screaming thoughts that never let him sleep.

He had named himself 'Mercury' to combat Tian's Emperor, and when it came time for his turn, he was still able to block Toivo's other road, place a town where Team Carven had intended to build, and closed in on the corner that Elliot had been gunning for. The Morgue, as Jason had mentally labeled Elliot, wasn't much competition in this pathetic state.

After an hour of conniving and vicious strategizing and ending friendships in twenty-foot bonfires while everyone danced around the ashes, Rosette lifted her dangerous amount of cards, transformed a town into a city, built a road—and then claimed all the special points for herself to make it to the winning number of ten.

Wide eyes turned to her. Jason's, Elliot's, Toivo's, and Carmi's, counting and recounting all the points. Nekane and Tian and Raven were the only others who congratulated her through Leon and Ave's chorus of laughter. Zia might have scowled, or it might have simply been the way her face looked.