The searing heat of the sharp blade through my hand took a moment to register. The twisted look on Sonya's face is what cued me in to her malevolent betrayal.

She pulled the knife from my hand with minimal effort. "Now we're even." As she rapidly hobbled out the door and around the corner, Millie followed her out into the darkness.

"I'll kill you," Millie was heard growling through clenched teeth before her footsteps on dried grain grew distant.

"Millie!" I shouted, ordering her to stop with my pained pleas, but my calls went ignored. It was too late. "Goddamnit, Millie."

"She'll be okay." Jade immediately took my wounded hand into hers. "Now put pressure on it."

I did as she suggested, grunting in pain as I tried to slow the flow of blood that dribbled from my palm. "Millie's gonna get hurt. I gotta go after her."

"No, you don't." She gave me a firm glare. "You're her sister not her keeper. Give the girl some credit. She managed to make it this far unscathed. She's got this."

The nuisance in Jade's voice made me pause. "Babe?"

She huffed, signaling her frustration.

I didn't push it, not wanting to argue, but the fear of what horrors stood outside of the open door briefly took my attention. "We have to close the door."

She didn't hesitate, shutting and locking it before returning to my injury. "Millie's smart, strong, and capable of taking care of herself." She remained calm although her eyes grew wide from the shock of everything that just happened. "There's only so much you can do."

"You're mad at me for coming here, huh?" I finally asked, unable to ignore her attitude.

She avoided eye contact, examining the jagged opening on my palm. "Sometimes I think we put our activism ahead of common sense."

My heart nearly went still from the bite of her words. "Jade?"

"We have to find something to wrap your hand in." She looked around the room in search of an item. Her eyes lit up when they landed on a roll of toilet paper. She bundled a wad of the coarse two-ply into her grip. "Here, use this."

I appreciated her not directly saying I made a mistake or mentioning how naïve I've been in a game where no one's to be trusted, but I knew she was thinking it. I started to explain, "I thought I'd try the old 'you can trust me' trick, you know? Give Sonya a chance to come around."

She pressed another wad of tissue to the entry wound on the back of my hand and sighed. Her silence said it all.

"You're upset?" I bit my lip to suppress the pain and searched her diverted eyes, reading her body language for the words she dared not say.

"We've been social activists for so long, and even though we've made some progress and had some successes, we're not where we need to be." She continued to avoid eye contact and that act stung more than her words or lack thereof.

I crushed the toilet paper in my fist to slow the bleeding and protect the wound. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying there's a reason why our cause is struggling." She finally looked up. "We need to change our tactic."

"Okay..." I tried tuning out the searing pain to listen.

"There's a reason why Grimm Games is so successful and why so many participate," she went on. "Arcanum is making you and all of the competitors the enemy."

The pain radiated through my hand and up my arm, and I couldn't quite grasp what she was saying. "What does that mean?"

"The public's just placing bets on who they'd rather see bite the dust," she remarked dryly. "And they're lapping up the spectacle. But if they started to see you as human, as one of them, they might start sympathizing with you. So, Arcanum ensures they only highlight your least appealing qualities. It's diabolically clever."

I nodded, exhaling my pain out through a slow steady breath. "Like our monikers. Millie the Vagrant, highlighting her lack of a home. Or Dylan the Sick, turning his battle with mental health into a stigma."

She mimicked my nod. "Exactly. It's all about shaping perceptions to keep the audience engaged and invested in the narrative Arcanum wants to spin."

"How didn't I see that earlier?" I huffed.

"Kamila the Activist," she pointed out. "They slap you with a label that isn't exactly flattering to their supporters."

"Even though we're all cut from the same cloth?" I questioned, trying to wrap my mind around the hypocrisy. "We are just like those watching. Viewers have to see that."

"No," Jade reiterated "Your sister is labeled a criminal. Sonya's a baby killer. Her brother put his job over his own baby girl. You're trying to end the games that distract viewers from just how messed up the country really is." She grimaced while moving the tissue to check if the bleeding stopped. "And not to mention, either one of you might win a large sum of money and a ticket out of the shitty country everyone else is forced to live in. They hate us."

A subconscious part of me knew that was part of Arcanum's tactic, but to hear it from another's lips made it more malicious and real.

"So, what should we do?" I flinched when she replaced the tissue.

"What we need to do is shut up and play the game." She looked up at me with a sad realization on her blemish-free face.

"That would mean I'd have to play by their rules." I looked into her pretty brown eyes hoping to see a hint of understanding reflected, but instead her plump lips stole my attention and gave me a brief reprieve from my radiating pain.

"It's all or nothing, babe." Jade's eyes moved from mine to my lips. "We either win and win big or continue like we've been doing and die. Those are our only choices."

"We?"

"We're in this together."

My heart warmed even though I hated that I got her involved in this. The possibility of seeing my sister die was nothing compared to being forced to witness the loss of a sister and my beloved.

"There's a reason I dedicated my life to activism," I said, impulsively licking my lips. "To bring awareness to injustice. To inspire change. To make life a little better for the average Joe. I have faith we can get this country back on track."

"You're preaching to the choir, babe." She caressed my chin with the pad of her thumb, showcasing her nurturing instinct. "But people don't want to be preached to. What everyone wants is entertainment, escapism, to witness someone inferior to them in a position worse than they're in. And like that Holle woman said, we can use this platform to get our message across."

"She was screwing with me."

"But it's true. We just have to be strategic."

"How in the world are we supposed to make a difference when all we're served on TV is a constant diet of sex, violence, and death?"

"That's what they've tuned into, so we give them what they want." Jade's slender finger traveled ever so slowly down my chin to stop just above the collar of my jumpsuit. "If the current's flowing in that direction, why bother paddling against it? We'll make a bigger splash, grab everyone's attention, and make a statement by mastering the game and playing it like pros."

I paused long enough to grasp the meaning behind her words. I grit my teeth as a wave of pain traveled from my hand and pleasure from her touch washed over me, causing beads of sweat to bloom at my temples. "I see."

"We always rally, protest, and lift our posters like fists," she went on. "But showing your fists don't win fights. We need to put the act in activism." Her finger continued down the fabric of my jumpsuit between my breasts and stopped below my navel. "You with me?"

A master of communication, she didn't need words to convey her tactics. I could read her intentions loud and clear in the subtle language of her body. "Yes."

"Good." She pressed her voluptuous figure to mine. "Now let me get your mind off of the pain."

Her plump bottom lip brushed against my own, sending an electric shiver down my spine. Before I knew it, the rough surface of the wall pressed against my shoulders.

I leaned in, tilting my head to allow our mouths to meet. Each lingering kiss transported me to a realm where time stood still, where every touch was a blissful escape from reality. The electrifying sensation surged from our joined lips, igniting every nerve ending and setting my senses ablaze with pure, unadulterated pleasure.

For a split second, I wondered how much of this was for me and how much was for the optics. But as her heated breath hit the exposed skin on my neck, all those questions went out the window along with any lingering pain.

Knowing we were being observed, it was a brilliant strategy. Meet people at their own level rather than expecting them to rise to mine. The initial step was to demonstrate that I was no different from them. And by openly displaying my love and desire for Jade, it was a way of giving the viewers precisely what they craved.

Lost in the intoxicating haze of our embrace, I found myself ensnared in a whirlwind of passion as our lips locked in a fervent dance of desire. The world around me faded into obscurity, replaced by the electric current that pulsed between us, igniting a fire that threatened to consume us both.

Instinctively I pulled the straps of her overalls from her shoulders, ignoring the pain in my hand. The still damp denim dropped to collect in a bundle at her ankles. I didn't allow a second to pass as and I explored the fabric of her panties with my good hand.

The thought of my fingers finding her warm, moist center took my mind from any lingering discomfort.

But just before the flames of our passion could build to their peak, a haunting sound shattered the silence—a canine howl that echoed through the night like a harbinger of doom.