The table jolted as Semper’s body hit it.
“That was for Lourdes,” Levi whispered, and she loved him for it.
With her cheek pressed against the black felt of the table, Enne stared at two things: the lifeless eyes of the man who’d killed her family, and the Devil card soaking in the devil’s blood.
LEVI
“Don’t. Mucking. Move,” Levi shouted, pointing the gun around the room. The Phoenix Club watched him with wide, dead eyes and remained motionless. You couldn’t kill them with time, but you could kill anything with a bullet.
“Put the gun down,” Josephine Fenice said calmly. Too calmly. He’d just shot theChancellor of the whole Republicright in front of her, and he would happily shoot her next. He certainly wasn’t calm.
“Let her go,” Levi ordered the man pinning Enne against the table. The man raised his arms, and Enne hurriedly straightened. Her eyes, once brown, were now blazingly violet. Her aura, too, had shifted from swirls of dark blue to a violent storm of purple and silver, deepening the original smells of coffee and bourbon with hints of gunpowder.
Auras weren’t supposed to change.
It was dark enough in the room that he doubted anyone else had noticed her eyes during the Game, but now...now the two of them held their full attention. He needed to get Enne out of here before anyone figured out who—and what—she was.
“Séance,” Levi said, even if the name sounded shatz, “go stand by the door.” Enne did as instructed, and Levi’s shoulder relaxed once she was safely tucked into the corner, far enough away that the Phoenix Club wouldn’t see her Mizer eyes.
Levi reached for the remaining black orbs and returned their energy to his body. He didn’t feel any different afterward than he had before: exhausted, the blood pumping so slowly inside him that his gears felt stuck together. Most of his life energy—whatever that was—was gone. He wondered how long it would take to regenerate.
Ifit everdid.
Levi backed toward the door. Every part of him ached, but muck—it felt good to move. He didn’t think he’d walk again.
“We’ll only find you again,” Josephine said matter-of-factly. “You can’t run from us.”
From the moment Levi left this room, he would be a real criminal. He’d always been a cheat, but he’d never caused enough trouble that he’d needed to hide. Starting tonight, he would be a wanted man. Wherever he ran, the Phoenix Club would follow.
Gabrielle Dondelair had lasted only a few hours.
Enne grabbed his arm reassuringly. “We’re leaving.”
She opened the door, pulled Levi into the stairwell and slammed it closed. They raced downstairs—a feat nearly impossible for Levi in his current state. Besides his multiple injuries, his body was three-quarters of the way to death. Enne had to prop his arm around her shoulder just to keep him upright.
“Enne,” he hissed frantically in her ear as she helped him down the steps. “If we see anyone at all, you need to close your eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re purple.”
She tensed, but didn’t look as shocked as she should have. What had happened to her during the Game? “Did they see?”
“I don’t think so. We’ll talk about it when we’re alone.” Once they made it out of here.
This had been the room with the dancing girls, but now it was empty. Behind them, laughter and music echoed, coming from somewhere deeper in the house.
Enne pulled him through an archway. The next room smelled strongly of Mistress’s signature sweet smoke, and a few men slept on the floor. They didn’t stir as Levi and Enne dashed toward the exit.
This was too easy. They had simply let them escape. Did the Phoenix Club believe the House of Shadows to be that well protected? Or that they’d meet their fates by the end of tonight?
Enne swung open the front door, and Levi took a deep breath of fresh air and tried to push his anxieties away.
Then he tripped over the body.
He crashed down, knocking his head on the man’s shoulder with an agonizingwhack. Enne landed face-first on Levi’s back. Her knee jammed painfully into his wounded leg, and he let out a long, stifled curse.
“Sorry. Sorry,” she said, scrambling up.
