Ace of Shades (The Shadow Game #1)(24)

She opened her mouth to tell him the truth, but her chest constricted. It was a simple word, omerta, but when she tried to form it, no sound would come out. Enne realized that, whatever Vianca had done to her, Enne couldn’t talk about it. So she smiled to hide her panic, as she had always been taught to do.

Wasn’t that one of Lourdes’s sayings about being a lady? Smile widest when you are about to cry. Enne had already broken rule after rule, and she needed this one. She needed to do something right. She needed to feel in control.

More than anything, she needed to be alone.

“I got the job,” Enne managed, though she didn’t sound excited. Everything felt numb. Tonight she was going to...going to...

“You got the job?” Levi echoed, and Enne hated that he looked impressed. Hated that she’d wanted that minutes ago, when now she felt so shaken.

“I’ll walk you to your new room, then.” He opened the door to the hallway, and Enne avoided staring at the Mizer portraits, suddenly all too aware that these faces belonged to the dead. When she stared into their purple eyes, she felt Vianca’s green ones gazing back.

“How kind of you,” she muttered, wishing he would instead leave her to herself. As intent as she was on finding her mother, she didn’t know if she could do anything else today, with all the questions and stress of this morning and tonight’s assignment weighing on her shoulders.

“Ever the gentleman,” he said cheerily as they stepped inside the elevator.

The pulleys above them spun, and the platform jerked as they ascended. Enne held the railing in a steel grip.

“What did you say that impressed Vianca so much?” Levi asked. Everything about his tone was pleasant and friendly. It made her want to scream.

“She appreciated my etiquette skills,” Enne snapped. That was another broken rule—she couldn’t pinpoint which one. Not in this death trap. Not with the curse Vianca had cast on her. Not when she kept picturing Lourdes in a similar metal cage, only one that was descending and descending, never to reach a bottom.

She was still smiling, though. Her teachers would’ve been proud.

“Ah, there’s that attitude again,” Levi said.

“Are you quite finished?”

For some reason, that made him smile. He didn’t hear the panic in her voice. Didn’t realize he’d just introduced her to a monster.

“Why do I have the feeling I need to watch out for you?” he asked.

Goodness, he’s exhausting. “I’m not helpless, you know.”

“That’s not what I meant. I meant that maybe I should watch out for you, because you seem like the kind of person someone might underestimate.”

Enne blinked in surprise. “What gave you such an idea?”

“I don’t spend my mornings helping out just any pretty missy, you know.”

Was Levi Glaisyer flirting with her? The boys in Bellamy never flirted with her unless they hoped she’d introduce them to her richer classmates. Few people paid attention to someone as common as a Salta.

He must’ve been making fun of her again. She was emotionally wrung dry, and she didn’t have the patience to watch Levi fling one smirk after another. He’d sat unaware while, in the next room, Vianca had assaulted Enne in the most terrifying way. He’d mocked her at every opportunity. He might’ve been helping her find Lourdes, but only because Enne would pay him that night.

“I’m flattered,” she sneered, her voice vicious. “Truly.”

He stiffened, wilted. “Excellent,” he said drily. “Wouldn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with a new coworker.”

The word coworker sounded stranger the more Enne let it sink in. Her teachers—and probably Lourdes, for that matter—never would have let her within fifty feet of a casino, and probably not within one hundred feet of Levi and the collection of lost things in his closet.

But the Lourdes Enne knew and the Lourdes Levi remembered seemed to be completely different people. To think that Lourdes spent so much time in this wretched city boggled Enne—disturbed her, even. Maybe Lourdes knew how to survive in New Reynes. Maybe the reason Lourdes never told her the truth was in case Enne might have been foolish enough to believe that she could survive here, too.

Her mother had been right to keep her daughter in the dark, because each hour spent in New Reynes formed a new crack, and there was no way Enne was going to emerge from this city unbroken.





LEVI

Levi’s poker face didn’t waver as he studied his hand: a four-card straight and the kings of clubs and spades. Clearly luck was on his side. The player to his left eyed him warily and threw in five green chips. Two hundred and fifty volts.

From beside him, Sedric Torren also slapped five green ones in the pot.

Levi equaled their wagers on behalf of the house. Normally with the betting so high, he’d fold. But tonight was different. He hadn’t expected Sedric Torren himself to visit St. Morse. He could’ve been there for only one reason, and that was Levi.

Which meant that Levi couldn’t afford to look weak—not even for a moment.

When the hand ended, Levi had managed to earn a 27 percent profit. At this rate, he’d have thirty in the next hour, which was the highest he’d ever made in one shift. Unlike poker or blackjack, where the dealer was little more than a moderator in the game, Tropps treated the dealer like a player who represented the house. The game placed a heavy emphasis on strategy and bluffing, and it was so well-known across the city that the main street of the Casino District was named after it. Dealers like Levi were famous for their skill, and Levi was one of the best of them all.