Unable to watch, Enne looked to Levi. He studied Rebecca’s last moments with terror. Because the same corrupted shade would one day come for him—and probably soon.
But seconds later, when Levi met Enne’s eyes, he was grinning.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked him, her own voice shaken.
“Because...” He reached into his pocket and turned it inside out. “The cards are gone. The game is over.”
Enne wanted to feel victorious—she really did. Now that all of the Bargainer’s shades had broken, they had plenty of reason to celebrate.
But even though the game was over, this didn’t feel like winning.
She squeezed his hand tighter.I don’t care if all the bargains are done, if I have nothing left to give up, Enne thought.He will not die.
And even if the game was over, they stayed until the story finally finished. Until Bryce held Rebecca’s body and wept.
XXII
THE EMPRESS
“I am tired of calling the histories of New Reynes ‘legends’ when they are only gruesome truths.”
Lola Sanguick. “The Story of New Reynes.”
The Crimes & the Times.
22 Feb YOR 26
LEVI
Levi groaned as their motorcar skidded to a halt in front of the House of Shadows. The building that had haunted his memories and dreams for months now looked plain and unassuming in the morning daylight.
His consciousness teetered, exhaustion dragging him down like a ball and chain, and he still tasted blood and Brint water on his lips. But he knew better than to sleep when there was a chance he might never wake up. When the same curse that had claimed Rebecca only an hour before might claim him, too.
“Come on,” Delaney muttered, hoisting him up. He blinked deliriously as he stumbled out onto the lawn, leaning heavily into her side.
“Thanks,” Levi told her.
“Don’t thank me yet. Thank me when someone figures out how to fix you.”
Enne, unwilling to waste another second, marched ahead to the door. She pounded on it as Delaney and Levi lagged behind her.
“You need a key,” Delaney told her. “Or an invitation.”
“Why didn’t you mention that earlier?” Enne asked, her voice cracking.
Delaney rolled her eyes, pushed ahead of her, and turned the knob. “BecauseIhave one,” she said. The door creaked open, revealing an empty foyer and sitting room.
“Where’s the party?” Levi asked, feigning disappointment.
“No party. We’re going downstairs,” Delaney explained.
“To the hallway?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to go back there. He certainly didn’t want to die there.
“That’s where the apartments are. Distant cousins of mine.” Delaney’s expression softened, seeming to sense his hesitance. “I know it means something different to you, but I’m not surprised Bryce cast his shade on that hallway. Bryce lived there, at one point. I think all people, some way or another, are marked by the place they come from.”
Levi wished he disagreed. He’d once believed that coming to New Reynes would put distance between him and his parents’ home, that he could fashion himself a new story and be reborn from it. But in the end, Bryce had chosen Levi as a pawn in his game not because Levi was a street lord, but because he was an orb-maker. Vianca had singled him out for the same reason. History had left a mark on him long before he could leave a mark on history.
They crept down the stairs, and Levi was surprised to find many of the apartment doors ajar, revealing ordinary living rooms. At the sound of their approach, a figure appeared at the edge of one door, a middle-aged woman with perfectly coiffed blond hair. Levi felt Delaney stiffen beside him.
