TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 467

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CHAPTER 390: ASKER AND DEFENDER

EMBER’S POV

The scale wakes up between us. Cold light spreads across the black table like living ice, and I feel it reaching for me.

I suddenly think of the man I saw earlier on my tour. His eyes had clouded completely white, and a sick feeling drops into my stomach as I finally understand.

He had wagered his memories, and the house had collected.

A sharp, insistent prick drills into my head, hungry invisible fingers clawing into the deepest part of my mind, scraping the corners before they find a thread and pull brutally.

The tug forces a gasp out of me, and nausea rolls up right behind it.

Knox is already moving. His hand catches my jaw and turns my face up to his, grey eyes blown wide.

“Ember. Is it too much?” He doesn’t wait for my answer. His glare snaps to Silas. “You didn’t say it would hurt her. What is that thing doing to her?”

“I’m fine.” I try to hand him a small reassuring smile, but his jaw stays set, his eyes hard with fury and pure

concern.

Silas leans back in his chair.

“The first time is always the hardest. Her mind will adapt to the prying in a few moments. This is how the house ensures the truth, King. It measures the weight of every wager.” His dark eyes move between me and my mother. “I will make the rules completely clear, so there are no misunderstandings. This is a bidding war of the soul. Ember and Knox, you are the Asker. Devika is the Defender.”

He taps one thick finger against the black wood.

“When you ask, niece, you name the memory you’re wagering out loud. The house hears it. Your opponent hears it. If your mother answers you willingly, the house takes your memory as payment, and it is erased from your mind forever.”

“And if she refuses?” Knox says.

“Then she wagers a memory of her own to block you, and the scale weighs the two.” Silas spreads his hands, level. “If hers is the heavier, she keeps her secret, and the house eats your memory for nothing. But if yours outweighs hers-” a grim smile crosses his lips “-the scale rips her wager out of her skull, leaves yours where it sits, and physically forces the truth up her throat regardless.”

I make myself swallow.

“How do we know who won?”

“You’ll know. The scale’s pans drop. And you’ll catch the exact second the loser’s eyes go empty as the memory’s cut out at the root.” He leans in, and the humour drains off him “But hear this, both of you Don’t try to cheat the scale. If you try to buy a massive truth or block one with a cheap, worthless memory, the scale will reject your bid. And when the house is insulted, it reaches into your mind and takes whatever

CHAPTER 39 ASKER AND DEFENDER

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devastating memory it deems a fair penalty.” He sits back. “Wager honest, and you lose only what you laid down. Now. The floor’s yours, niece. Ask your question again, and state your wager.”

My mother has been quiet all this while, her eyes darting between the glowing scale and my face.

Now that I understand the rules, my pulse kicks into a frantic rhythm. I have to play this perfectly.

I know exactly who is sitting across from me. My mother isn’t going to hand me a single truth willingly.

She will dodge, block, and evade with half–truths, if only for the sadistic pleasure of watching me suffer for

1. it.

Which means I have to become the embodiment of a poker face.

For every memory I stake, she cannot be allowed to see what it actually costs me.

The less emotion I show, the more casually I state my wager, the higher the chance she underestimates

its true emotional cost.

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