Chapter 11: The Tea

Mirelle burst into Elora's room before breakfast with her hair down and her gown half laced.

"I need to tell you something," she said. "Don't be mad."

"I'm already worried."

"I slept with Dacian."

Elora put down her hairbrush.

"In the wine cellar," Mirelle said. "Twice."

Elora stared at her.

"He said the word novel, Elora. In bed. Like he'd read it."

Elora sat down hard on the stool.

"Then he's not a character who walked out of a page," she said. "He's something that knows about the page."

"He wouldn't say more."

"Then we make him."

The pale letters appeared in the air between them, red and sharp.

VIOLATION: Pact Rule Three has been broken by Host MIRELLE. PENALTY: Host MIRELLE's countdown reduced by 45 days. NEW COUNTDOWN: 26 DAYS.

Mirelle went white.

"Forty-five days?" she whispered. "Yesterday I had seventy-one."

"That's not allowed," Elora said. "The System never said there was a penalty."

"It never said there wasn't."

Elora opened her own menu with a thought.

Her countdown still read 71.

"Only you," she said. "It only penalized you."

"Because I slept with the wrong person?"

"Because you slept with my target." Elora's voice shook. "Rule Three. Nobody sleeps with the target, and Dacian is mine."

"That's insane. He's my husband."

"He's still my mission. The System doesn't care whose bed he's in."

Mirelle sat on the bed and put her face in her hands.

"I don't regret it," she said, muffled. "That's the worst part."

A light knock sounded at the door.