Ace of Shades (The Shadow Game #1)(43)

Levi’s buzz was growing, his mood lightening, his pocket four hundred volts heavier—he was quickly forgetting why they’d come to the Sauterelle. Then he spotted Enne speaking with someone in the corner by the stage, her fur coat swallowing her small frame. He couldn’t see who was talking to her—their back was facing Levi—but it definitely wasn’t Reymond.

As he craned his neck to get a better look, Dice slid into the seat beside him.

“She’s pretty,” he commented matter-of-factly. It took Levi a moment to realize he was referring to the woman singing on the stage, not to Enne.

Levi shrugged.

Dice picked up Levi’s glass and shook it. The ice cubes rattled. “You need another drink.” He didn’t wait for Levi’s response before walking over to the bar.

Levi waited for his internal logic to remind him that mysterious boys met in cabarets were a terrible idea, and that he was here for an entirely different purpose tonight. But his logic remained quiet, subdued by the whiskey. He pocketed his chips and followed the young man to the bar.

“Do you often gamble where the other Irons work?” Dice asked Levi as he sat in the barstool beside him.

“Not usually, no,” Levi replied. He unrolled the cuffs of his shirtsleeves to conceal his tattoos, though he was secretly pleased he’d finally been recognized—even if it was in the den of one of his own clients.

“It’s your hair,” Dice said. “Orb-maker hair. Gives you away.” Levi smiled and shrugged ruefully. He’d often considered dyeing it—it wasn’t as if he used his orb-maker talent—but he couldn’t picture himself without it.

The bartender handed Levi his new drink. Levi immediately went for the cherry.

“I didn’t expect to win,” Dice said. He’d ordered a Snake Eyes for himself. It was a drink you ordered if you were stuck in a losing streak, a drink meant to bring luck. “I’d heard you were good. But I don’t usually believe what they say about people like you.”

“People like me?”

“The players. They say the city is a game, one only the reckless play.”

Levi preferred to think of himself as ambitious rather than reckless. “Hmm, who are these ‘they’?” Levi asked, thinking of Enne’s ridiculous guidebook.

“The spectators.” Dice scooted closer to Levi—awfully close—and kept his voice low. “So why are you really here, then, if not to gamble or to watch?”

The alcohol warmed him from inside out. It made everything louder and quieter at the same time. The music, the taste of the bourbon and coffee liqueur, the smell of cigarettes, the touch of Dice’s hand against his—louder. The lights, the burn of the liquor, Sedric’s voice in his mind as he delivered the Shadow Card, Levi’s own caution—quieter.

“I’m looking for someone,” he said. Up close, Dice smelled like honey and designer cologne.

“A woman?” Dice asked.

“Sometimes, but not always,” he answered. “She goes by ‘she.’ Here, they’d probably call her Séance.”

Dice nodded, tracing his thumb against Levi’s wrist in a way that made everything else fade into the background.

“Another player,” Dice mused. “Why are you looking for her?”

Nine days, whispered Sedric’s voice.

“Do you know her?” Levi asked, his voice high and hopeful. He twisted the cherry stem between his teeth.

Dice moved his hand away so he could take a sip of his drink. “What do you think about, when you’re trying to bluff?” he murmured, deftly changing the subject.

“What do you mean?” Levi asked, playing along.

“When you have the winning hand, and you know it. How do you keep your face so still?” He tapped Levi’s forehead, just above his brow bone. His finger lingered a moment too long. “And don’t say ‘nothing.’”

Levi hadn’t been going to. “I think about the beach.”

“Not many nice beaches in New Reynes, but I hear that boardwalk they’re building will be something else.”

Levi took another sip as his memories washed over him. They were too loud, enhanced by the whiskey. “There was a beach near where I grew up. I think of the sound of the gulls, the feeling of the wind on my neck, the smell of the salt.” It was a trick he’d learned, living in that house. How to be somewhere else. How to be anywhere else.

“I just kept thinking, looking at you, that you had a winning hand. You play like you’ve already won.”

“That’s the only real way to play.”

“Until you need to show your cards.”

The ragtime grew louder behind them. Dice’s honey smell: louder. Levi’s heartbeat: louder. “Do you know the person I was talking about?”

Dice inched closer, though there wasn’t much space left between them. “Don’t fold so soon.” Levi could feel the words against his skin as easily as he heard them.

“You know, spectators wouldn’t get tattoos of dice,” Levi murmured. He brushed his fingers against it on Dice’s jawline, tracing the ink. Dice leaned his head back and exposed his neck to Levi’s touch. After several moments, Levi pulled away so he could reach for a napkin and a pen. “Write it down for me.”