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 screamI’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. His eyes told her he wanted to say the same.
She bet on the 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.
Upon touching the card, the sensation came suddenly, inexplicably, and all at once. A pain radiated across her chest, starting at her heart and seeping through her veins. She felt feverish, hyperaware of ever pulse of her blood, every churn of her insides. When she closed her eyes and tried to determine the pain’s source, she had the eerie feeling that there was another presence inside her. A silhouette lurking inside the edges of her mind. Something that hadn’t been there before.
As the pain gradually faded, she became aware of a change in the room. Nearly everyone present was still and lifeless, yet she felt a cold energy in the air. There were threads everywhere. They weren’t something she could feel or see in a literal sense, but something she still understood was there. They hummed against the Shadow Cards, against the black orbs, against the timer. They circled around each of the players’ wrists, binding them—all of them but her. Even though the threads weren’t connected, they all felt as though they were part of the same fabric: different strings of the same piano. And the Game, she realized, was the song.
She nervously placed the World with the other Shadow Cards she’d won. Whatever had happened, whatever she’d thought she could sense—she must have been imagining it. She was at a breaking point of fear and nerves. For a moment, she’d cracked.
