Flowers surrounded us on all sides. The smell of smoke from the maze was strong, mixing with the heady scent of roses and lily and orchid. In autumn the flowers above us would fall and their leaves would change to brilliant ambers.

My foot caught and I jerked, lurching forward, the ground rushing to me. I threw my hands out to brace my fall, but seconds before impact, I was yanked back up with twice as much force.

Grayson held me by the collar, lips twisted in annoyance.

“Thank—you!” I finished on a yelp as Gray tugged me by the collar down the flower tunnel, all but dragging me on my heels. I still didn’t know where we were going. Part of me wondered if he was going to murder me.

Then we stopped.

I rubbed my neck, staring at…a shack? It looked like an old gardener’s shack.

I eyed Grayson, wondering if he really was going to murder me.

“What are—” I broke off, stopping myself from asking, What are you going to do to me? Because how many times in the past twenty-four hours had I wondered what this boy was going to do to me, let alone asked? I stared at this shack, determination steeling my spine.

“I don’t care. Make me kneel. Make me tie your shoes. You can’t hurt me.” I swallowed. “I know my place.”

Intrigue flickered in his eyes; then he smiled.

He pushed the door open.

Outside was a shack.

Inside…inside was insane.

Music thrummed low. The walls were dark and glittered like diamonds. The ceiling dripped crystals. I tilted my head back. There must have been thousands of crystals, because you couldn’t see anything but them.

“You sure about that, Snitch?” Gray’s low voice heated my ear, his hand ghosting my lower back. Before my goose bumps had even left my skin, he was standing tall and walking across the room, already talking to some guy.

This was somewhere I couldn’t blend in.

I stuck out like a sore fucking thumb.

All eyes were on me. Each step I took was a scratch on the record. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their lips moved with their eyes. Everywhere I looked, I found a new set of glowing orbs.

I had no clue where I was. I knew by the outside it was small, only fitting maybe fifteen people, but because it was dark inside, it seemed big. Vast.

Alarm rushed and pounded with the blood in my ears when I realized I was the only servant here.

They didn’t even have a bartender.

“Surprised to see you here, Sis,” Gray said.

In the center of the room, Gemma Crowne and a few others were seated around a softly glowing circular table. She pulled cards and chips from a metal box, but the chips were unmarked.

What were they playing for?