Ace of Shades (The Shadow Game #1)(50)

“A friend.” Levi hadn’t actually caught Dice’s real name.

“That sounds very legitimate.”

“You have quite the attitude today.” And everyday, he added to himself.

He prepared himself for one of her classic, ladies-don’t-have-attitudes retorts, but instead she murmured, “I was promoted today.” She looked down at her shoes. There was no pride in her voice, as he would’ve expected. Only uncertainty.

“What do you mean?”

“The Glaisyers are considered a top-tier orb-maker family, aren’t they?” Enne asked quietly.

He furrowed his eyebrows. “Yes. Why does that matter?”

“The Saltas aren’t. We’re common. We’re for the background of a performance or for cheap cabarets.” Levi could nearly hear the chip on her shoulder as she spoke. “Every day at school, every single day, I’ve stayed late after rehearsal. I’ve worked until my feet ached. I’ve fought just to be noticed, just to be included. And—”

“Where are you going with this?”

She handed him a business card. It was black with gold cursive typeface. “I’d like to go here, if your address on a whiskey-stained napkin turns out to be nothing.” Her tone was unsure. It sounded more like a request than a demand.

Harvey Gabbiano.

Salesman.

Levi’s blood chilled. “I know who this is. He works for the Orphan Guild. No way are we going to see him. He’s bad news.”

“I know that. But we’re not going to see Harvey—we’d be visiting the address written on the back.” She cleared her throat. “To see a blood gazer.”

Levi puzzled this. Blood gazers were typically hired to determine paternity, by wealthy families embarrassed by illegitimate offspring or by sex workers seeking to determine the talents of their children. He always associated them with the opening of a joke—“A father walks into a blood gazer’s office...”—but Levi had never actually met one. They weren’t common.

“There are professional blood gazers, you know,” he said. “No need to sneak off to some Orphan Guildworker who lives in—” he studied the address on the card “—Dove Land.” All the more reason not to visit.

“If Lourdes lied to me about my talents, I’m sure she did so for a reason,” Enne retorted. “There must be something to hide.”

Levi handed her back the card. “Let me get this straight. You learn how to do a cartwheel, and now you think you might have an acrobatics talent.”

Acrobatics talents weren’t common. In fact, Levi knew of only one family—the Dondelairs. Everyone on the North Side knew their story. The daughter who’d found friends in criminals, who’d set fire to the capitol building and laughed as she bled to death. The son who’d left rubble and ruin in his wake. The family who’d obsessed over the inexplicable and the unnatural, right until the moment of their deaths. One by one, they’d hanged.

Legends of the North Side typically ended in blood.

“I’ve managed more than a cartwheel,” she murmured.

“You don’t sound convinced yourself.”

She lifted up her chin defiantly. Levi tried to decide if it was cute or snobbish. “I want to go.”

“Then convince me. You sound like you’re asking for permission.”

“I don’t need your permission.”

“But you want it. And I think it’s a terrible idea.”

“Don’t I look like I could have an acrobatics talent?”

“I’m not arguing that you’re not short enough.”

Her nostrils flared. “You’re intolerable.”

“I’d rather not see the headlines tomorrow. ‘Murdered girl’s body found washed up in the Brint.’ Intolerable, I know.”

They didn’t speak until they reached the border between Iron and Scar Lands. Levi turned them right, in the direction of the river and the Factory District. Within a few blocks, the bustling and lights of Tropps Street faded away, and they roamed through residential roads and warehouse lots.

“What’s that smell?” Enne asked.

“The Brint.” The river water was roughly the color of ham stew. “We’re close.”

She covered her nose. “How close?”

Levi looked at the street signs around them. He’d heard of the road before. Probably passed it once or twice. It was somewhere around here.

“A few blocks,” he said, though he was no longer sure.

Levi had only just begun to enjoy the peace and quiet when Enne spoke up again. “I want to go, whether you go with me or not,” she said. Levi grimaced. He was more than done with this conversation. “If nothing turns up at this place, then I’ll find the blood gazer myself.”

It’d barely been three whole days, and she seemed to have already forgotten how she’d first arrived in New Reynes. Chased by whiteboots. Belongings gone. Frightened. Na?ve.

“Don’t be thick. You’d be walking straight into Dove Land alone. Maybe listen to your guidebook for once on this one and don’t go.”

“The guidebook practically says the entire city is off-limits,” Enne snapped. “But I’ll go anywhere to find Lourdes.”