A Game of Hearts and Heists: A Steamy Lesbian Fantasy Romance (Girl Games Book 1)

Once we’re through the next section of wall, we step out into the east wing, the most isolated. There’s nothing here save the observatory at the top of the building. I check my watch. We’ve used over an hour of time making our way through the palace. Every footstep feels like a ticking clock, a countdown to an inevitable end.

We reach the observatory and walk in. The room is as it always was. Star maps sprawled across the walls in navy blue and gold lines. Above us, the ceiling is made of glass, the sky stormy and grey. Always grey here, never high summer or spring, just the constant grind of in-between.

Remy paces around the room, her eyes narrow, glaring at the walls at the floor.

“It should be here, right?” Scarlett says.

“There’s a hidden room, yes, but I’m not sure where.”

Remy slams to a halt. “Everyone stop,” she says and runs a hand through her spiked hair.

“What’s wrong?” I say.

“It was too easy. We walked right in here. The Border Lord wouldn’t let his map be so poorly hidden.”

Her eyes darken, her hands move fast, twitching and bending knuckles and fingers as she pulls on invisible building threads. She buckles to her knees, sparks of electricity crawling across her skin.

“Er… Rem…?” I say, stepping forward.

“Don’t touch her, let her finish,” Morrigan says, grabbing my wrist and pulling me back.

Remy groans, an aching sound ripping from her throat. Her forehead furrowed with cavernous lines.

“We have to help her,” I growl.

“Hold on,” Morrigan says.

As I break out of Morrigan’s grip ready to yank Remy back, she snaps out of it, panting, sweat running down her temples, her eyes bloodshot, a drop of blood running from her nose.

“Shit,” she says.

“What happened?” Morrigan asks, clasping Remy’s face.

“I was right. This isn’t the room we need. Whoever created this observatory was intensely devious. They’ve melded another room into the fabric of the building, like a displacement. It mimics the look and feel of a hidden room.”

“But?” Scarlett says, giving Remy a hand up.

“It’s not actually here. It’s an observatory with some clever illusion magic.”

“So we have absolutely no idea where the map is?” Scarlett says. “FUCK.” She kicks her rucksack, and it skitters across the tiled floor.

I stare out the single observatory window, the other palace in my line of sight. A replica palace, one for each of the princesses. A memory surfaces. Father taking me to the observatory in the other palace. Trying to star gaze on the odd night when storm clouds didn’t rule the skies.

“Do you know why I love the stars?” he said.

“Because they’re beautiful?”

He laughed. “No, kid. Because they all look the same. If you’re untrained, you’ll see what you want to see, find patterns, illusions. But unless you understand what you’re looking for, you can’t use them as a map.”

“Does it matter? Can’t you just appreciate them?” I asked, staring into the telescope again.

“Perhaps. But part of being a leader is showing your people what they want. It gives them hope.”

I push the telescope away. “But isn’t that a lie? You’re not really giving them hope.”

“Aren’t I? Hope isn’t something you can hold, Quinn. It’s intangible. It’s what hope can make you do that’s important.”

“So it’s an illusion?”

“Perhaps.” He squeezed my shoulder.

“But aren’t you failing your people if all you give them is an illusion?”

He presses his lips together, his eyes downcast. “Not if the illusion is enough. Not if giving them hope makes them fight on, fight harder.”

The memory fades, the observatory window coming back into focus.

“It’s not here,” I say.

“I thought we’d established that,” Remy says, her jaw flexing.

“No. I mean, I know where it is. There’s another observatory like this one in the other palace. And that one the Border Lord uses as his personal residence. This is the working palace. He’d keep the map close to him.”

“How do you know so much? I thought it was your relative who works here?” Scarlett says, a note of hesitation in her voice.

“I… it…”

“Does it matter? We’ve got less than two hours to get out of this palace and into the other one. Let alone still finding a way into a hidden room,” Remy snaps.

But I’m out of suggestions. While I know where the map is, I don’t have a clue how to get us there from here.

“What about the sky bridges? Weren’t there bridges connecting the palaces?” Scarlett says.

I shake my head. “Collapsed during The Tearing.”

“And the garden is teeming with staff, so we can’t walk out the front door,” Remy adds.

“I know a way,” Morrigan says. “When I li—studied here, I… that is so—”

“Spit it out Morrigan, we haven’t got time,” Scarlett says.

“Sorry, basically someone created short cuts to each palace. There were lectures in both. And we were lazy and didn’t always want to walk between the two. One of the fabric weavers teamed up with an engineer, and they created these portals by bending the fabric of space, weaving it with a form of engineered subatomic cellular travel. A sprinkle of magic and poof. It’s kind of ingenious, really. When you look at the dynamics of the t—”

“Morrigan, darling, I have exactly no idea what you said. But what would be delightful is if you could tell us where they are?” Remy says, kneading her temples.

“Right, yes. There’s one at the end of the corridor.”

“Well, let’s go!” I say. “Lead the way.”

Scarlett enters the corridor first, blades tight in her hands. She makes sure it’s all clear, and then we follow her out.

“Remy, you have to be the one to open it. It’s locked with a runic system. It’s not hard, you should be able to see it once you touch the door. You’ll need to align the lock this end with the lock that end. Once you do, you can open the door. Otherwise, you’ll open it into whatever room is behind the door.”

Even as we’re walking down, Remy’s eyes are deepening to grey, her hands glowing silvery-white. They vibrate fast, her fingers moving too quick to discern the movements. We reach the door and she has her palms out. Sweat runs down her forehead and cheeks.

“Bingo, motherfucker.” Her eyes flash back to brown, and she grins, places her hand on the door and opens it.

“Ladies,” she beams and holds her arm out for us to enter.

We run down this corridor and straight to the observatory door. I glance out the window, looking at the palace we were in seconds ago, wishing I’d known about these doors when I lived here.

Finally, we reach the observatory door. “Remy?”

A sheet of slate drops over her eyes, the familiar pearlescent whip of magic vibrating at her hands. She snaps out of it almost immediately and turns to Scarlett, her face the same ashen colour her eyes are when she uses magic.

“We have a problem.”

“Another one?” Scarlett says, her fist balling.

“I can open the room, but it’s going to trip the security.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Scarlett growls. “There’s definitely no way to get in without it tripping it? No fancy hack?”

“Not unless you’re the Border Lord himself or a relative.”

My blood freezes. My back rigid.

“Wh—what do you mean, a relative?” I ask.

Scarlett cocks her head at me, her face a picture of lines and furrowed thoughts. I can feel my grasp on my secret slipping. Tiny fragments tearing off and drifting away and into Scarlett’s orbit. She’s piecing the scraps and shreds of information together. I know it. I can feel her tumbling away from me. All this time, our universes were pulled together, our galaxies crashing into each other, fighting, exploding. And now they’re drifting apart, the strands connecting us ripping under the taught tension.

“There’s a failsafe. I can’t prevent it from tripping security… unless we have a blood key. And that means the Border Lord himself, or a close relative.”

“He has a son,” Scarlett says.

“No,” I bark, too harsh, too fast. Scarlett’s eyes land on me. They’re hot, and more of the puzzle pieces are slotting into place.

I can’t let her go after my brother. But what alternative do I have? Tell her, tell the team, risk them all hating me for the rest of time, but get us into the room, retrieve the map and get the hell out of here.

Or don’t. Trip the security, risk my father coming and finding us and them still finding out. Either way, this is the end of the road.

If father arrives, Scarlett will try to kill him.

Thoughts swirl. I’m paralyzed by the indecision of it all when Scarlett pushes her finger to her ear and says, “Jacob. Do you read?”

Her voice echoes in my ear a millisecond after I hear her in the room.

“Roger that, Scarlett. It’s Jacob here. We’re having a few technical difficulties on the vehicles.”

“Technical difficulties? You want to explain exactly what the hell that means?”

“Scar. Chill.” This is Stirling’s voice. “We’ve got the situation handled, but you’re going to have to meet us at a different location. Ask Morrigan if she knows where the disused rail track is. There’s one near the back of the second palace.”

Scarlett glances at Morrigan, who nods. If she doesn’t know where it is, I do. But explaining that will be tricky.

“Second palace? For once, a bit of good news,” Scarlett says.

“What do you mean?” Jacob asks.

“We’re in the old palace now,” Scarlett says.

“What, why?” Stirling says.

“Long story. We’ll meet you there.” With that, Jacob and Stirling’s voices vanish from my head.

“How long do you need to get the vehicles running?” Remy asks, interrupting.

There’s a loud thudding in the distance, a sharp, screeching grind, like metal clawing over metal.

“Half hour. Maybe forty minutes,” Jacob says, huffing and puffing.

“You have fifteen,” Scarlett says. “I’m done with this bullshit. Let’s get the map and get out of here.”

She removes her finger from her ear. “Get it done, Remy. Trip the security.”

Remy nods, her eyes darkening before her hands even go up. “Morrigan, lend me your power.”

Morrigan steps up and slips her hand into Remy’s, and the two of them go still. Their hands vibrate, power pulsing between them.

The walls shudder, the floor beneath my feet ripples and shivers until it’s not wooden any more, but marble and white. The walls meld and shift, the navy giving way to creamy marble striated with strings of black. Even the air changes, warming and tingling with cinnamon and herbs.

Then, in the middle of the room, the map appears.

Scarlett sucks in a breath. “I fucking knew it,” she says, marching toward the box.

My eyes widen as I take in the sight because inside, there isn’t one piece of map, but two.

No. No, no, no.

If both pieces of the map are here. Then…

“He set you up,” I breathe. I glance at Scarlett. “The Border Lord really did set you up.”

The realisation hits me so hard my knees buckle. If father set her up, what else did he do? What don’t I know? I can’t breathe. My chest clamps down, my breathing is rapid.

“Woah,” Scarlett says, pulling me up. “What’s going on in there?” She brushes my hair away from my face.

“Guys, we don’t have time to play happy fucking families. I tripped security. We need to secure the map and get the fuck out,” Remy says.

Morrigan grabs a hammer out of Scarlett’s bag and slams it into the glass box.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” Remy cries, her eyes still dark. “It’s the same fucking system. Failsafe. We need the Border Lord’s blood to open it.”

“Or a relative?” I say, my voice quiet.

Scarlett’s hands pull away, pieces slotting together, her eyes growing distant as the puzzle gets clearer.

“We’re fucked,” Remy says, punching the glass. “Security is on the way. Now what the hell are we going to do?”

A line of sweat runs down the back of my neck. We’re not fucked because I can open the fucking box, but if I do, it all breaks. I’ll destroy everything.

Open it.

Don’t

Open it.

Don’t.

But what other choice do I have?

In the distance, the first thud of soldier’s boots slams against the corridor floor. Everyone’s eyes glance down the corridor.

“Draw weapons,” Scarlett says.

I lock eyes with Scarlett, try to burn her expression into my mind. It’s the last time she’ll ever look at me with respect, with lust, with love.

I walk over to her, put my hand around her neck, and pull her lips to mine.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

And kiss her.

I kiss her like she’s oxygen.

I kiss her like she’s the sun and the moon, and the missing piece of my soul. Because she is, I see that now.

And now it’s too late.

When I pull away, I take my blade out of my waistband and draw it over my palm. Scarlett’s eyebrows draw together, a fleeting moment of confusion before realisation dawns on her.

“No,” she whispers, her face crumpling.

My heart thuds in my ears, a rushing static of blood pounding in my head. I place my hand on the glass. It hums beneath me, the blood dissolving into the glass, and then the box clicks open and I pull the map pieces out.

Scarlett’s eyes are wide as she stares at me. Remy and Morrigan wear similar expressions.

“You…” Morrigan breathes. “You’re related?”

“She is,” a booming voice appears behind me. Loud, commanding, deep.

And then father steps into the room.

Blades are drawn, and Morrigan raises her hands, her fists coated in fire. Scarlett holds two katanas, one in each hand. She glances rapidly from me to father.

Soldiers stream into the room surrounding us. Father steps forward, his colossal figure towering above me. It’s been so long, I’d forgotten how big of a man he is. His dark curls and shaved undercut. I look more like him now than ever. And everyone in the room can see it.

He looks down at me and smiles.

“Hello, daughter.”