Ace of Shades (The Shadow Game Series)

by Amanda Foody

  She picked the revolver up from the ground. She only had three bullets. From the way the music carried, she assumed the House of Shadows was far from empty. Could she burst into the room, gun raised, and force Semper to let Levi escape? Would that be enough? Or would she be shot down herself before she had a chance?

  She loaded the revolver and tucked it into her pocket. Her fingers brushed against the cool ribbon of the black satin mask Lola had given her. She pulled it out and tied it around her eyes, same as she’d done at Scrap Market. The mask covered very little of her face, but it offered at least a small amount of protection. If she and Levi managed to make it out of this alive, then no one could know who she was—otherwise, the Phoenix Club would easily discover it was she who’d slain Sedric Torren.

  With her lipstick reapplied and her blood-stained heel back on, Enne knocked on the front door of the House of Shadows.

  A huge man opened the door, and the loud music from inside blasted through her ears.

  He blinked at her for a few moments, and then his jaw dropped. “It’s you,” Shark said, his golden tooth glinting.

  Enne tensed as she recognized him—one of the whiteboots from her first day in New Reynes. He knew that she had a connection to Lourdes, the woman they’d killed here only the week before. He’d seen her without her mask.

  Her mind blanked except for one, desperate idea.

  She took out the revolver, aimed it between his eyes and pulled the trigger.

  The noise and force of it startled her so much she yelped. His body thudded to the floor, and she stood there for a few moments, her pulse a violent current, ready for someone to come running. No one did. She wondered if anyone had even heard over all the music, which pulsed loud enough to drown out everything.

  She stepped over his body and the pooling blood to enter the House. The cold shell inside of her hardened with each step. Apparently she’d left her soul back at Luckluster—probably back in Bellamy.

  The air smelled strongly of several kinds of smoke, and she scrunched her nose and tried to blow away the odor with the envelope. A light shone in the next room, but the hallway was otherwise cast in darkness. She shoved the revolver in her dress as she made her way through the House.

  A few men lying on the carpet glanced up blankly as she entered, but their attention was quickly recaptured by a giant pipe shaped like a candlestick on the table before them. Enne eyed a stairwell in the far corner of the room. A sinister force pulled her in that direction, guiding her toward her demise. She began to climb, her hand sliding up the smooth ebony railing.

  There was a single door at the top of the stairs. Behind it, she heard a rhythmic ticking, like a clock or a heartbeat. She hitched her breath and turned the knob, opening the door cautiously.

  Over a dozen lifeless faces peered at her as she stepped inside, but her gaze immediately fell on Levi. All the color drained from his face as he met her eyes. He was hunched in his chair as if it hurt him to straighten up, and an ugly red mark glared at the side of his neck. Enne’s heart skipped in alarm—he’d been hurt again.

  Enne closed the door behind her, and the music from downstairs disappeared, as if nothing existed outside this room. The ticking, too, was gone—maybe she hadn’t really heard it at all.

  “The other player, at last,” one man said. Enne recognized him immediately: Chancellor Malcolm Semper, the Father of the Revolution—and her mother’s killer. Her heart clenched, all the anger and grief and adrenaline seizing her at once. “Please take a seat, my dear.”

  She tried to reach for the revolver. This was it—she’d made it to the Game in time to stop it. But her hand was frozen at her side—not from the omerta, but some other power in the room. The same sinister force that had led her upstairs. She swallowed down a scream of panic.

  “I believe you have Mr. Torren’s letter, don’t you?” Semper asked.

  Enne froze. She didn’t have any choices left. She was weaponless, powerless, and she had walked directly into their hands. She’d made a fatal error for the second time that night, and now it was too late.

  After a few moments of horror, she regained her composure enough to hand him Sedric’s envelope. Semper tore it open and scanned the contents, then cleared his throat. “It seems... What is your name?”

  “Séance,” she said, the name Lola had given her. The name her mother had once used, long ago.

  Semper blinked, as if startled for a moment. Maybe he, too, glimpsed the ghost of Lourdes at the edges of his vision.

  He returned to Sedric’s letter. “Mr. Torren has recommended that Séance be the one to play.”

  “What?” Levi hissed. Enne froze. What did that mean? Weren’t they both supposed to play?

  “Well, with your background in cards, Mr. Glaisyer, you don’t need to prove your prowess. Perhaps this newcomer should be given a chance to impress.”

  Levi shook his head. He looked utterly defeated.

  “Take a seat,” Semper urged her, and Enne carefully claimed the only empty one at table. Every few moments, she tried again to reach into her pocket for the revolver, but to no avail. If she ran—if she could run—that would mean leaving Levi here, and she’d already come this far. No matter how panicked she felt, she couldn’t abandon him in his final moments. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself afterward.

  “Don’t bother eyeing the door, dear,” Semper said. Every monster in this city always found a pet name for her. “The Game began the moment you stepped into the House. The rules are binding. There is no escaping. No cheating.”

  That explained why Enne couldn’t reach for her gun. There was a magic to the Game, like there was in oaths. A magic she couldn’t explain.

  “During the Game, the player typically bets their own life,” Semper explained, “but since there are two guests, it will be Mr. Glaisyer’s life on the line, and Séance the player.”

  Enne’s heart sank. It should’ve been the other way around. She didn’t know anything about cards.

  “Last time we did this—” a younger woman started.

  “That was a mistake,” Semper snapped. “Besides, these two don’t even know each other. Isn’t that right?”

  They were referencing the Game of Gabrielle Dondelair, when it had been Enne’s life on the line. They had no idea that same child sat in front of them now, prepared to play the Game a second time.

  “I’ve never heard of him,” she answered. Levi shot her an annoyed look, as if he could honestly be worrying about his ego at a time like this.

  “Players don’t just walk through our door,” the woman from earlier snapped. “If you don’t know him, then why are you here?”

  The words came easily. “To win,” Séance answered.

  Semper smiled. “People do not play this Game to win, my dear. They play this game not to lose.”

  DAY TEN

  “Some say the City of Sin is a game, so before you arrive—ask yourself, dear reader, how much are you prepared to lose?”

  —The City of Sin, a Guidebook: Where To Go and Where Not To

  ENNE

  “The rules are not that complicated,” Semper started. The room was so dark that he was merely a shadow across the table. “Eleven players and twenty-two kinds of Shadow Cards. In the beginning, every player will start off with two.” He dealt out the silver cards and slid them to the players at the table. “Best not to look until you understand the rules,” he said, just as Enne was reaching for hers. She drew her hand back, heart pounding. The nine other players stared at her with such detachment that she wondered if they were sleeping with their eyes open. If they were even interested in this Game, where Levi’s life was the prize.

  Semper continued his explanation as a man behind him placed a massive stack of silver-backed cards on the table. There were ten decks of the Shadow Cards within the large one, which meant there were ten o
f each kind of card. Each round, the players wishing to compete for that round’s card would place one orb in the center. The objective was to collect all twenty-two Shadow Cards.

  The men standing around the table gave each of the players a silk pouch. When Enne opened the bag, she ran her fingers over tiny orbs made of black glass, identical to the one she kept within her nightstand at St. Morse.

  “These are unique orbs,” Semper said. “They’re filled with your life force, not volts.”

  “How is that possible?” she asked, as though she’d never seen one before.

  “There are many mysteries in the House of Shadows. Why don’t you hand the orbs to Levi?”

  How it works doesn’t matter, Enne thought. All that matters is us making it out of here alive.

  But only one person had ever won the Game, and she’d died that night, anyway.

  Enne slid Levi the bag. His face rigid, he placed an orb on the inside of his elbow and filled it with volt-like lightning that was gold instead of white, in the same way one might fill an orb if they’d carried volts in their skin. One. Ten. Thirty. Fifty orbs, all filled. He handed her back the bag, looking as gray as the members of the Phoenix Club.

  She literally held his life in her hands.

  “The orbs empty after they’re bet, so if you bet all of the orbs, Levi will die,” Semper told her. “The Game will last three hours. If you have failed to collect the twenty-two Shadow Cards by that time, the orbs will deactivate, and he will also die.” Enne tried to catch Levi’s eye, but his gaze was fixed on the stack of Shadow Cards.

  Semper set a metal timer the size of a mousetrap on the table, its clockwork and wires visible, as if inside out. Each round, he would deal the players as many regular cards as there were bets. Eight cards for eight players betting, for example. From there, those players competed for the card up for grabs that round. Everyone played one card per trick until they ran out, and the highest card of the trick collected the others. Whoever ended with the smallest number of spades won the round and the Shadow Card. Ties were decided by dice.

  Semper shuffled the normal deck. It thump-thumped on the table.

  “There’s one other catch,” he said. Of course there was. “The Shadow Cards, once the Game begins, develop divination properties. When they touch your skin, you’ll see a flash of your life according to the card. What has already happened, or perhaps what could have happened, had you made different choices.”

  Levi finally looked at her. She held his gaze, her heart lodged in her throat, and silently told him that she could handle this, that it would be okay, that he had more than three hours left. But the fear on his face remained. She wouldn’t have believed herself, either.

  “What’s the point of the divination?” she asked Semper.

  “To remind the players of the stakes.”

  As if they needed reminding that they were about to die. It didn’t matter that Levi’s life was the one at play—the Phoenix Club would certainly never let her leave the House alive when this was over.

  “You may pick up your cards,” Semper instructed. He slapped his hand on the timer, which jolted to life.

  Tick, tick, tick.

  Enne grabbed her two Shadow Cards. As soon as she touched the top one, an image filled her mind, momentarily ripping her away from the room. She was in the dining room of her Bellamy house, and she stared up the stairwell at the first door. Lourdes’s office, always locked. The house felt crowded with secrets.

  The vision changed. She was slightly older, wearing a deep burgundy gown and waiting in a queue. Someone announced the name of the girl in front of her. When he called Enne’s name next, Enne glided down the white-carpeted steps and entered a glittering ballroom, finally Lady Erienne Abacus Salta.

  The room returned. Enne gasped and, after a few moments, shakily lifted the Shadow Cards. The first was the Moon, which had given her the memory of her home. The second was the Chariot, which had shown her entrance into society after graduation. That wouldn’t ever happen now. Lady Erienne Abacus Salta. She couldn’t even truthfully claim that name anymore.

  My life will literally flash before my eyes, she realized. The all-encompassing nature of the visions reminded her of the black-and-white hallway from her dreams. Maybe whatever mysterious forces that enveloped the House of Shadows were also responsible for how Levi and Enne shared that place.

  She didn’t think she’d learn the answer now.

  Semper flipped over the first Shadow Card up for grabs. It was the Empress. Eight people put in an orb, including her. The hand Semper dealt her was almost all high cards, and from what she remembered about the rules, that wasn’t a good sign. But she hadn’t understood much from his explanation.

  Semper played his first card, the three of spades. She used her lowest spade, the jack. Of course, that turned out to be the highest card and she took all of the cards, including five spades. That was five strikes.

  At the end of the round, she had more spades than anyone, which eliminated any chance she might have of collecting the Empress. She could almost feel Levi’s anguish from across the table. Three people had collected zero spades, and they rolled the dice to determine who won the round’s Shadow Card.

  One orb missing. Forty-nine left.

  Five rounds went by. She played four and lost them all.

  Tick. Tick. Tick.

  Semper flipped the Lovers card. Enne placed her bet, and to her luck and surprise, received almost all low cards. She managed not to collect any spades and won the prize.

  As soon as she took it, an image appeared. She was in Levi’s bed lying on her back, the top buttons of her blouse scandalously undone, her hair draped over his pillow. He was on all fours over top of her, his lips pressed against her chest. She sighed and breathed in the smell of his cologne, playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck. His hand traced from her shoulder down her arm until his fingers interlaced with hers. He lifted her arm above her head. Pressed his stomach against hers. Breathed her name into her ear.

  It was a very sweet surrender.

  With her free hand, she tilted his face to meet hers, raised her head to meet his lips—

  It was over. Her cheeks must’ve been furiously red, since Semper smirked as he flipped the next card. Levi gave her a faint, congratulatory smile for winning the round, but his expression also seemed to ask, What did you see? She was obviously flustered. She looked away, sure he could read the embarrassment and truth in her eyes. They’d been pushing the boundaries of their relationship since she’d arrived.

  Her body still burned at the thought of what might have been, but she forced the lingering thoughts of the illusion from her mind. She needed to focus.

  Five more rounds passed. She bet only once—during a round when not many others did, since her chances of winning would be highest—and lost.

  Tick. Tick. Tick.

  An hour went by. Two more remained to collect nineteen cards.

  She bet on the next five hands and won two: the Wheel of Fortune and Death. First she saw herself, stabbing the syringe into Sedric’s leg, every moment of the scene as real and bloody as it had been earlier than night. When the image changed, she was collapsed in Vianca’s office, the donna watching apathetically as the omerta drew out her last breath.

  Tick. Tick. Tick.

  By the end of the second hour, she’d won four more Shadow Cards, which meant she had one hour left to win thirteen.

  Before, Levi wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Now he looked nowhere else. He crossed and uncrossed his arms, tapped the table, shifted in his seat, cracked his neck, all while keeping his gaze locked on hers. She knew she was losing. He knew she was losing. She couldn’t say anything because she’d told Semper that she didn’t know him, but she wanted to scream I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. His eyes told her he wanted to say the same.

  She bet on th
e next card. Semper seemed to take an eternity to deal their hands, and she wondered if he was moving slowly on purpose. With over two dozen of her orbs already played, Levi looked much less himself. His dark skin was growing increasingly transparent, and a whiteness was seeping the color out of his brown eyes.

  Enne was going to have to sit here for fifty-five minutes and watch him die. The thought made her shake with panic.

  She tied with another woman for the next Shadow Card. The woman rolled first. An eleven.

  Enne watched Levi as she tossed the dice, refusing to look at the number. He smiled slightly, and she knew she’d won.

  Then she looked at the dice. A nine. She’d lost. His smile had been for comfort.

  Soon she’d lose the entire Game, and it would be her fault both of them would die. Had she not been here, Levi could’ve played himself, and then he would have stood a fighting chance. All that bravado about trying to save him the way she should’ve saved Lourdes...she’d only made everything worse.

  Tick. Tick. Tick.

  Fifty minutes left.

  She refused to let them die because the timer ran out. If this was their end, it would be only after she took a chance and bet everything she had and never stopped trying.

  Semper turned over the next card.

  The World.

  She was the first to place in her orb. Semper was second. She looked around and realized that there were three people already out of orbs, and the rest were observing indifferently. Their lives weren’t on the line. They already knew that she’d lose.

  Only two players remained in the round. Semper played a four of hearts, and she played her three. All she had was the ace of spades, which meant if he played any spade, she’d lose because she’d have the highest card and would be forced to take them both.

  He played the six of diamonds. Then he took her ace of spades, and she took the World.