Morgan’s voice slices through the air like a whip, sharp and furious. The whole room goes still. Even Valkyrie, usually unbothered by shouting, lifts her head from where she’s sprawled on the rug, ears perking up at the tension in the room.

I glance between Morgan and Orion, her face darkens with fury, his jaw clenched tight. He folds his arms, unimpressed, but there’s a heat in his eyes that says he’s just as fired up.

“You think you can just pull that crap and get away with it?” Morgan seethes, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

Orion scoffs. “Why Firefly, you’re acting like I did something illegal.”

“You might as well have!” she shoots back. “I trusted you, Orion! I thought we had an understanding.”

“An understanding?” Orion repeats incredulously. “You were cheating! I was evening the playing field!”

Morgan gasps, scandalized. “Evening the—oh, you are such a sore loser.”

Theo clears his throat beside me, and I can’t hold it in anymore. Celeste’s face is red and tears are shining in her eyes from holding back her laughter. I press a hand over my mouth, trying to stifle my laugh.

It started off as a normal game night—a way to pretend to be normal after last week’s revelations—if anything in this town could be considered normal. Celeste, Morgan, and I had spent the last half hour quietly passing cards beneath the table with our feet, orchestrating a slow and calculated takedown of the men. It had been flawless. An elegant strategy. A masterclass in deception.

Until Theo figured it out.

He must have seen one of us sneaking a card under the table because one second, he was staring at his hand in mild frustration, and the next, he was leaning back in his chair with a slow, dawning realization.

“Wait a second,” he murmured, eyes narrowing. Then, louder, “Are you—are you passing cards under the table?”

Dead silence.

Celeste froze mid-pass, a bright red draw-two Uno card pinched between her toes like she was a deranged card-dealing monkey. Morgan and I exchanged panicked glances, our entire strategy crumbling around us.

It was over. The jig was up.

Orion, always ready to launch himself into a battle he thought he could win, slammed his cards onto the table. “You little traitors! That’s why we’ve been getting obliterated this whole time!”

“You’re just mad we outplayed you,” Celeste replied smoothly, finally dropping the card onto my foot like nothing had happened.

Theo, however, wasn’t buying it. He tilted his head, glancing between us with narrowed eyes before lifting his hand for emphasis. “I have seventeen cards.”

Bennett made an exasperated noise and spread his own hand like he was displaying evidence at a crime scene. “I have fifteen.”

Orion gritted his teeth. “I have nineteen. Nineteen, Selene.”

I shrugged, feigning innocence. “Maybe you guys just have bad luck.”