“Just do it. Believe it.”
“I don’t think I’m ready.”
Liam tugged at the rock, and it rose above them, then shifted until it rested a few feet above his head. “I’m going to release my hold in ten seconds.”
“What? Don’t be stupid! That’ll give you a concussion.”
“Well then, let’s pray there’s an able-bodied poltergeist somewhere around who can keep it afloat!” He closed his eyes and straightened. “Ten seconds.”
“No. Stop. This is stupid.” Amber grabbed his hand and tried to pull him, but he stood his ground.
“Five.”
“Liam! I can’t!”
“Three,” he murmured.
Amber’s wild eyes shot to the stone. “Shit.”
“One.”
The stone dropped. Amber tensed, her will lashing out. Float, dammit. That’s the only thing you know!
The rock stopped. It trembled, an inch above his head, wavering as she strained. Liam cracked an eye open. “Well, my noggin’s not cracked like an eggshell, is it?”
“Would you move out of the way? Please?”
Liam stepped back. Amber exhaled, and the stone clattered to the cobblestones. Liam nudged the rock with his boot, nodding approvingly at Amber as it rolled into the grass. “I knew you could do it.”
“You really could’ve been hurt!”
“But I wasn’t. And now you know you can lift twenty pounds. If I were a betting man, I’d wager you could lift far more weight than that, although you won’t see me floating an angel statue over my head to prove it—yet.”
Amber smirked, gawking at her hands. “I freaking did it.”
She willed the stone to her, not by pulling it, but by simply understanding that she was the single law this stone obeyed. Nothing else in the universe mattered. Nothing else affected it. Her law was its law, and she was undeniable.
The clock rang its thunderous chime, and Liam sighed at the sound. He swallowed, stepping closer. “This is the best and worst part of my day, you know.”
“Why do you have to go?” The rock dropped to the ground and rolled into the grass. “Just stay a little longer tonight.”
“Would that I could, but duty calls.” He rocked on his heels and opened his mouth as if to say more, but no words came.
Amber clenched her teeth and stepped closer. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I … Dammit, why the hell not?”
Liam lurched forward, threading his arm around her waist and pulling her to his chest. He lifted her hat, slipping the veil from her face. His warm, soft lips pressed against hers, the heat of his breath washing from his nose down her cheeks.
Amber melted in their embrace. There was such warmth in his kiss, such strong passion. She clasped his jaw and closed her eyes, and the world drifted away.
They embraced in the dying light until the last chime sounded across Angel Park. Liam pulled her back then, stroking her ear with his knuckles. “I hope I didn’t overstep.”
“Not at all.” She pecked his cheek and grinned.
Liam placed the hat back over her and lowered the veil around her face. He bowed low and backed down the path. “Two days. Meet me at the fountain?”
“At the fountain.”
“Have a good evening, Amber. I’ll be thinking of you until then. Every hour. Every minute. Every second. You give me hope for a better Afterlife.”
She watched as he wove through the trees until he vanished behind a hill. Amber touched her lips and grinned, lingering in the deepening shadows.
The first bright stars began twinkling in the early evening sky. She lifted her gaze to them and spun around, dancing toward La Couronne and popping stones into the air along the way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Roll the Dice
Dino stood on the rooftop’s ledge, toes hanging over the fatal drop. Below, the steady thrum of Afterlife ebbed and flowed with souls milling through its streets. A train blew its horn as it chugged by, winding its way on the elevated tracks that spread throughout the city. Paperboys squatted on corners, calling out headlines while street performers sung and danced with makeshift instruments. Laborers trudged down the lane, hammers resting on their shoulders, their thick overalls covered in soot and sweaty dust.
He smiled and closed his eyes, letting the sounds sink into him on the cool wind. It was in these moments that his life in the Fool’s Errand faded into oblivion, no one knew or cared about the archduke, and Zoe wasn’t dust in the wind.
His fingers found the simple gold ring hanging around his neck. So many days came and went since that night, since that awful, violent night. He still remembered the gaming house, the pungent cigar smoke that sunk into every fiber of his clothes and strand of hair, the bite of whiskey rolling down his throat, the door swinging open as he stumbled into the starry night and inhaled the fresh air, and Zoe, eyes wide and wet with tears, her scream bringing his joy crashing down.
She ran for him, she reached for him. A pale mask shaped like a skull melted from the shadows behind her, and steel glinted in the misty night.
“I thought I’d find you up here,” Faye said.
Dino started at the sound of her voice. His eyes opened, and his hand dropped from the ring. “Faye. I assume you read my report on the Census Hall mission.”
“Your mission was to learn about the curse on her and make her my loyal soldier, not to gift wrap the girl for the archduke. Who in the hell waltzes in to a Census Hall and Record Repository and asks the Census Master of all people for information?”
“Abel and I go back years before the Revolution. I knew I could get us in and out before the archduke’s blackjackets got us, and I did, didn’t I? Everything was under control.”
“No, you lucked out. You might be the strongest phantom in Afterlife, Dino, but you’re not a god. What if there was a spirit there to trick you? Maybe another phantom to chase you down? It was an unnecessary risk, and I don’t like those. The Iron Council’s putting their heel down on the inner districts. As many as three thousand souls have been dusted. Today. Anyone who looks crossways at a blackjacket is liable to get dusted by one. We survived so long because we could blend. We’re losing that advantage, and we’re losing it fast.”
“Well, you have half a key and so do I. We could raid the Black Palace tonight and end it.”
Faye laughed and licked her plump lips. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? No, the archduke’s doubled his patrols and tripled the scouts posted around its perimeter. He had to take forces from the expansion to do it, but his paranoia’s working to his advantage now. He’d rather there be riots in the outer slums than assassins in the palace’s shadows.”
“Then what do we do, Faye?” he asked.
“We have a weapon, and we need to know how to pull her trigger. Tell me you’ve made some progress on her.”
“She’s getting closer. I think … I think she used the spirit curse on the Census Master. Went into his mind and yanked the memories right out of his head. She fought his poltergeist curse too. If you ask me, coming here has only made her more powerful.”
Faye stepped onto the ledge. Her black coat fluttered around her as she peered into the city. “Poltergeist, wraith, and spirit. It’s reasonable to conclude she can use the phantom and doppelganger curses as well. Damn, I wish I’d gotten to that relic before this stupid girl did.”
“I can start teaching her phantom, see how good she is.”
“And give her the means to slip from our grasp? I think not. Keep your phantom tactics to yourself until she’s loyal to me. Otherwise, our little bird will fly the coop and straight into the archduke’s arms.”
“You’re the boss. Handicapping her like this, though, is it right? Keeping her stuffed in La Couronne, putting fancy hats on her instead of teaching her how to truly disguise herself—it’s not right. She might trust us more if we actually honed her more useful skills. Lying to her, hiding the truth of what she can do, it just feels dirty to m
e.”
“A lecture on morality from Dino Cardona?” Faye chuckled and tucked her hands in her coat pockets. “Now I’ve heard everything.”
Dino took a seat on the ledge, dangling his legs over the busy street. “Maybe I’m just tired of always being the bad guy.”
“You’re not bad, you’re a special kind of fool, and you’re Faye’s fool for as long as I say.” Faye joined him, smoothing her dress over her crossed legs. “This girl, she’s got power, and you and I both know what kind of power it’s starting to look like.”
“Bone Man.” Dino squeezed the ledge, his jaw tightening.
“We make this girl ours and we might finally have our own Bone Man. I’d love to see the archduke cower when Amber dusts his precious dog.”
“Look what the curse did to Bone Man, Faye. He’s not even human anymore.”
“If he ever was,” she quipped.
“And we know Amber is. She’s more human than anyone else in the city. You’d risk warping her mind, tearing it into shreds, making her some vile, vicious nightmare, just to hurt the archduke?”
“She’s just some stupid girl,” Faye said. “Who cares what happens to her? She dies, she ends up in the city just like everybody else.”
“You don’t know that!” Dino pounded his fist on the ledge. “Dammit, Faye, if her curse comes from the Deep, it carries a price and you know it. The Deep always asks for payment for the gifts it gives.”
“Why, Dino, you actually sound concerned for this girl,” Faye said, her voice dripping poison. “You’re not actually feeling for this mortal, are you?”
Dino folded his arms over his chest and glared into the city. “Of course not. She’s annoying, argumentative, and always thinks she knows what’s best. She lies to me constantly. She’d bolt the second she thought she had somewhere better to go. I think she might even turn me over to the blackjackets if she thought she could get away with it.”
“Sounds very much like Zoe,” Faye mused.
Dino’s chest tightened, and he shot an angry glare at Faye. “How dare you—”
And there she was, Zoe, with that same silly smile that split ear to ear, those dark, round eyes that drank the world but never ceased to shine in wonder of it. “Calm down, sweetie. You’ve always had the shortest temper!”
Dino shivered. Facing her, all the joy, the love, the laughter, the warmth that spread through him each time he saw her—it all came roaring back. He sucked in a breath and clenched his shirt. “You’re not real.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “You’re not real!”
“My love,” Zoe said, “I’ve missed you so much.”
She started snickering, and it rolled into a full-throated laugh. Dino let go of his shirt and opened his eyes. Zoe’s form swirled and melted like wax. In the blink of an eye, the apparition became Faye LaBelle.
“You’re a monster,” Dino murmured.
“We both are. Never forget that.” Faye stood, backing from the edge and heading for the door. She paused there and gazed into the sky. “I will see the archduke fall, and I will make him suffer before he does. He will pay for the crimes he committed, for the balance he destroyed. You’ll get your revenge too, as long as you remember your place, and remember I could destroy you at any moment should you forget, and if you so much as try and kill me, I’ll make sure it’s Zoe you’ll be killing. Again.”
“I know my place,” he grumbled.
“Good.” Faye swung the door open and slipped inside. “We’re running out of time, and I need Amber on my side. If she doesn’t commit to me soon, I’ll destroy her. If I can’t have her, then no one will.”
The door swung shut. Dino turned to the city and closed his eyes. He needed a drink.
In such a huge city, finding a gaming house was never a problem. They dotted the landscape from the slums of Little Persia to the palatial townhomes and hotels of the Ruby Ring. They were a staple of Afterlife, more numerous than any other establishment, no matter which district a soul might wander through.
And each and every one of the casinos were controlled by the Scarlet Sinners. The sinners were the one faction practically untouched by the Ardent Revolution. They allied with the archduke long before the first sword was drawn or rifle fired, and through their casinos, they controlled vast sums of wealth. With it, they funded the archduke’s reign, and for that, he let them linger.
They also provided a unique function in that the casinos were neutral ground for all souls. No violence by any faction was tolerated in the gaming houses, and those unfortunates who broke the rule often found themselves in one of the infamous squeal rooms dug deep in the basements of the sinners’ lairs.
Dino licked his lips and pinched his leather hood over his brow. Ahead, the blinking neon sign of the Deep Diamond glowed against the grumbling clouds of a twilight sky. Light drizzle tickled his knuckles and kissed his cheeks as he made his way through the quiet street.
While the gaming houses were supposedly neutral, someone of Dino’s stature couldn’t just waltz into a grandiose palace like the Royal Opal and roll the dice. The underboss who managed the establishment would jot his name on a note and slip it to the nearest blackjacket, who would summon a good number of companions to wait patiently outside for their mark.
So instead, Dino picked the houses on the edges, the dirty dens managed by underbosses too unimportant to care who walked through their doors or otherwise easily bribed to keep quiet about their customers.
Of all those filthy pits of smoke and sin, Dino loved the Deep Diamond the most. Tucked at the base of a slum that piled against the brick and mortar monstrosities of factories in the Iron Neck, it was little more than an overgrown shanty for the line workers to blow their pay on dancers and rigged games.
Dino nodded at the twin bouncers guarding the entrance. Only one of them was a wraith, the other, cursed with spirit. It made the men effective catching cheats and tossing them out—or dusting them, as happened more often than not in a place like the Deep Diamond.
Inside the casino, the great room was awash in cigar smoke, laughter, and the rough, raspy melody of a woman inked neck to toe and draped in a cheap silk dress. Dino eyed the crowded card tables but passed them by. He didn’t feel like pushing his luck tonight.
Instead, he slid into a table in the corner and waved for a drink. Melanie, his regular server, met his eye and winked, swishing to the bar. He saved her husband once not long after the Revolution, and while the poor fellow was dusted in a locomotive accident a few years ago, Dino and Mel’s friendship remained intact.
She slid a whiskey onto the table, neat and in a lowball glass. He toyed with the drink, watched the amber liquor swish around the glittering rim. The candle on his table flickered within its cloudy glass hurricane, seemingly dancing to the rhythm of the singer’s song. “Thanks,” he murmured.
“Rough day?” Melanie asked, tray tucked under an arm and hand on her hip.
“Not any rougher than yours, Mel. At least I hope not?”
“It’s not too bad tonight. How do you like Jana? She’s got a nice voice, right?”
“Soulful.”
Melanie shifted to smoke, reforming with her back facing him. “Keep your hood up, buddy,” she whispered, strolling away.
Dino frowned. He pinched his hood over his head and slapped a hand over the hurricane, snuffing out the candle within it. He kicked his seat into the corner and leaned the back against the wall. He watched. He waited.
The cheering, rowdy crowd of gamblers quieted. While the performer continued her song, her eyes focused down the long room, and her notes warbled.
A woman wandered to a table at the edge of the stage, gripping a gold clutch in nails painted in a slick red polish. She wore a dress so red it could have been woven from threads of blood. The fabric swirled around her thin frame like a rippling wave and pooled at her feet as Melanie appeared in a rush of mist and pulled the chair out for her.
The woman’s blond hair tumbled in waves down her back and curtained
one eye, leaving the other piercing hazel orb wide to the world. If she ever smiled, her skin refused to show the lines, and she gazed upon the singer onstage with the curious disdain of a queen watching peasants play in the mud.
Dino’s heartbeat pounded in his temples. Sweat moistened his collar as he took a swig of whiskey.
The woman slid into her seat and placed the clutch atop the table, and like that, the boisterous crowd resumed. The singer’s notes strengthened, and the hum and thrum of a busy gaming house continued.
Dino downed the rest of the whiskey in one smooth gulp and prayed the shadows hid him well from this woman. He had seen the Scarlet Spider before, even had some dealings with her in the early days of the Revolution, but years had passed since those days. Still, she looked as lethally radiant as ever and carried herself as confidently as any general on the Iron Council.
Why one of the most powerful souls in the city would slip into a shithole like the Deep Diamond eluded Dino, but he couldn’t leave without being noticed, and he never missed an opportunity to learn something new. So he stayed, tapping the rim of his glass as he watched her from the relative darkness.
Melanie reappeared beside Wilhelmina, placing a martini with a lemon twist onto the table. The waitress smiled and dispersed into fine grey smoke, swirling to the floor and twisting toward the bar.
A whooshing whirlwind formed in the chair beside Wilhelmina. It congealed into a man wearing the uniform of a high-ranking soldier in the archduke’s army. Dino counted the studs on the man’s epaulets. Four. A general, and only one general on the Iron Council was a phantom.
“Oscar Kelly,” Dino whispered. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“You look like you could use another drink,” Melanie murmured, reappearing beside him.
“I could use a bottle, actually. What the hell, Mel? No warning?”
“Considering the news coming from the Black Palace I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to go wandering around your usual haunts. Next time I’ll go toss a couple coins to a fortuneteller and ask them what I should do to make your life easier.”
Afterlife (Second Eden #1) Page 20