111
“You’re worrying about nothing,” Thorun says for the third time this afternoon.
She’s sitting on an ornately carved chaise near the open French doors facing the balcony, twirling some beads she’d bought at the bazaar the night before.
Ignoring her, I stare into the mirror and fuss with my hair.
“He was a perfect gentleman. He’d never ask you to do anything you didn’t want to do,” she adds. “We went to the markets, then we ate cake and talked into the small hours of the morning.”
“I know, Thorun,” I snap. “I heard all about it. Not to mention Cherry’s incessant dribble about how they spent the entire night fucking.”
“It wasn’t fucking,” Cherry calls back from the balcony where she’s sitting, feet up, drinking wine and looking across the river at the sunset over the Taj Mahal, “it was making love. It was putting our feelings into action. It was beautiful.”
I gag loudly enough for her to hear and continue redoing my hair as she goes on.
“He told me he wanted to give me a night to remember,” she says dreamily, “which I’m sure I will for the rest of my life. I feel sorry for you girls, but you must have been blind not to see that he wanted me from Night One. I told you all along, you just wouldn’t listen.”
“You know, Cherry,” I snap, “you’re only still breathing because I used up my one house kill to stab Evelyn.”
‘And what a fuck-up to my strategy that had been. Going into this Game I’d planned right from the start to use it for the final three. Now I’m screwed.’
“Oh yes,” Cherry laughs, “that was a very clever move, Thorun. Very clever.”
“I didn’t do it deliberately,” Thorun says indignantly, “you rassgat.”
“Sure, sure,” Cherry laughs. “You know, at this late stage, you can drop the act. It’s clear you and I are going to be in the final two.
The fact that he didn’t sleep with you last night also shows that he’s already made his final decision.
And his friend helping me in the last challenge…
that told me everything I needed to know. ”
“Friend?” Thorun and I ask simultaneously.
“Oops,” Cherry giggles, “I forgot I wasn’t supposed to mention that.”
Thorun and I both walk out onto the balcony and stare down at her.
“What friend?”
“I don’t know,” Cherry pouts, “a lady vampire. She put me on her back and ran me the last hundred or so kilometres. She was fast. She wished me luck and told me not to tell anyone, but that I was perfect. She said there would be no other.”
I widen my eyes at Thorun, and she does the same, shaking her head as we turn and walk back inside.
“It has to be Asumpta,” I whisper.
“Why would she save Cherry?” Thorun hisses. “Is it some kind of joke?”
“Revenge more likely,” I whisper back. “I’ll speak to Jag about it tonight.”
“Will you two stop whispering in there like a pair of teenagers?” Cherry snipes. “It doesn’t make any difference that I was helped. I won because I was destined to win. I feel sorry for you, I really do, getting so close but never really having any chance.”
I turn back to the mirror, refusing to engage any more with her madness while I furiously try to figure out what Jag’s stalker might gain by helping Cherry come first.
‘She must know that he would never want to be with someone like Cherry.’
“We’ll see, Cherry,” Thorun shrugs, “you’ll see too when we visit his castle and his family loves us more than you.”
“You don’t get it, Thorun. You don’t get what she’s saying.” I frown and spin to her. “Traditionally, only two go to the family visit. If three make it past the final contest, one has to be eliminated during the Dreams and Desires Suites. He’s kept you, and he’s kept Cherry…”
She stops her bead twirling and gives me her full attention.
“And you think he’s going to eliminate you? Tonight?”
“I don’t know,” I mutter.
“He sure will,” Cherry giggles.
“That won’t happen,” Thorun says firmly. “We talked about you a lot during my date. He likes you, Cat. I think he more than likes you, just like you more than like him, although both of you won’t admit it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Thorun,” I sigh. “You know he only wants a trophy wife, and you know why I’m here.”
“Yes,” she nods, whispering, “and I know Cherry is the last person on Earth he’d want to marry.”
“You and I can at least agree on that,” I grimace, meeting her eye in the mirror.
“Then stop worrying,” she shrugs, resuming spinning her beads.
I turn back to the mirror and give myself a hard look.
I’m not going to worry. I’m going to act.
I’ve been considering what to do ever since Cherry came back from her date.
I was shocked she hadn’t been fed to Starlen, and I knew Thorun would return from hers too.
Once again, this meant my head was on the chopping block and I had to face the clear possibility that, having saved Thorun as I was asked, I might not need to be even taken to the final two.
He might dispense with me now.
Consequently, despite Thorun’s breezy take on things, I know tonight is do or die.
‘It’s just, I don’t know if I can do what I think I need to do.’