Authors: Bella Forrest
The Gender Game (30 page)
Lee was a madman.
What was he doing carrying them in his aircraft? He must have murdered them shortly before the banquet, and stored them in the boxes out of convenience. Maybe he'd been planning to dump them in The Green. Clearly, I'd never known the real Lee. The flat, Matrian-male persona he'd put forward throughout my stay with him had been an act.
Unable to focus on the egg any longer, I closed and locked it up before replacing it in the seat compartment with more care than I'd previously handled it. There was a life in that thing.
After zipping up the key in the backpack, I sat down and faced forward. I gripped the handles for support. I felt like throwing up.
Lee's letter replayed in my mind.
Desmond
.
Why was it addressed to Desmond? That was one of the strangest things about the letter.
Desmond was Lee's middle name. Perhaps the letter was some kind of journal entry, an upheaval of guilt before the night. But still, it didn't make any sense to me that he would use his middle name. Why not address it to Lee? He'd called himself only Lee around me, and I hadn't heard a single person address him as Desmond either.
As I recalled the explanation Lee had given me for the name, the very first night I had arrived in Patrus, a thought struck me.
"My full name is Lee Desmond Bertrand. Named Lee by my father, Desmond by my mother… I'm native to neither Matrus nor Patrus. In fact, I was born in the middle."
It drew my mind back to a question I had mulled over and posed to Viggo the evening we’d sat atop the roof in his backyard.
What happens to someone who doesn't feel they belong in either nation?
Lee's father was a Patrian. His mother a Matrian.
Lee of Patrus.
Desmond of Matrus.
A chill ran down my spine as I wondered if Lee truly was insane.
Maybe he had some kind of split-personality disorder. Maybe his childhood had messed him up.
Maybe I finally had an answer to my question and Lee was an extreme case of what could happen to a person who felt they belonged in neither nation. They rebelled against both.
Suddenly, the night seemed to grow much colder. I shivered.
I was beginning to near The Green.
Ms. Dale had been right. She'd told me, not far away from where I soared now, that once I reached the other side of the river I should trust no one. I just hadn't considered Lee to be a member of the other side.
Now, whether I liked it or not, I didn't belong to either side, either. I was a fugitive from both nations.
And I was sitting exactly where Lee would be sitting right now. On an illegal aircraft, accompanied by the egg, some meager supplies, and a few pieces of survival equipment.
My eyes fell to the compass I'd placed in the holder.
Lee had intended to head north. But my heart felt torn in two directions. North and west. My brother and Viggo. They were the only two people who mattered to me anymore. It felt like the world could implode (which it might do anyway after tonight's events), but if I could find those two alive, I would be content.
But now I feared that both of them were already dead. Although Lee had decided not to kill Viggo earlier, for all I knew, he could have gotten caught up in the blast. Maybe Lee had set off more bombs on the ground floor than I was aware of. He'd seemed keen to destroy the building as much as possible.
And my brother. After Viggo's suspicion and now Lee's words, I feared that Queen Rina had lied to me all along about a reunion. I had only a sliver of hope left in my heart that Tim was still alive.
But, somehow, I had to find out. My soul would not rest until I had.
However many days or hours I had left to live after tonight's disaster, I had to make them count. I had nothing left to lose.
I didn't know how I would pull any of this off, or in what order. I still barely knew how to navigate this darn aircraft. I didn't know how to change its direction, and I sure didn't know how to land.
But whatever I ended up doing, and however I ended up doing it, there was one thing I knew for certain:
From this moment on, like Lee Desmond Bertrand, I had to be a player of my own rules.
No longer a pawn in someone's game.
* * *
Ready for the next part of Violet’s story?
D
ear Reader
,
First of all, I’d like to thank you for taking a chance on
The Gender Game
. This genre is a new experience for me—one that I’m very excited about!— and I truly appreciate you joining me on this journey.
If you enjoyed the book, I would be very grateful if you could write
a review
on Amazon — even if it’s just a sentence or two. Every review makes a difference and helps other readers discover the book.
As for Book 2 of the series:
The Gender Secret
, I’ve been hard at work! It will release
November 21st, 2016
!
You can pre-order it now for your convenience, and it will be delivered automatically to your reading device on release day:
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Until we meet again between the pages,
Bella x
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T
HE GENDER GAME
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story
Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story
Series 3: The Shade continues with a new hero…
A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)
Series 4: A Clan of Novaks
Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians
A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY
A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY
BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY
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