“Run, you thickhead!” Tock shouted at him from across the lot.
The woman wrapped her arm around Tommy’s neck and turned her back to Levi to shoot at Tock. The lot echoed with gunfire, and Levi seized his chance. He lunged for the man’s fallen gun.
No sooner had he grabbed it that the man tackled him. The man was nearly twice Levi’s size, and the weight of him sent Levi slamming chest-first onto the pavement. With his good arm, the man pinned down Levi’s right shoulder, but Levi managed to grab the gun with his left hand. He pointed it directly behind him, and fired.
The noise was deafening. Blood splattered on the back of Levi’s neck and across the ground. His ears rang, so loud and overpowering he felt his entire world shift sideways. He groaned as the weight above him went limp, choking the breath from his lungs. He gradually rolled over and stared up into the bullet-mangled face of his assailant. At nearly point-blank range, his nose had been blown clean off, leaving a riddled mess of flesh and bone in its place. The blood dripped from him onto Levi’s own face, and his stomach lurched as he pushed the man off.
Levi staggered to his feet, so dizzy and sickened that he could barely make out what Tock was yelling at him. She held Tommy by his jacket, one hand pressed to the back of the closest motorcar.
“Run! What are you doing? Run!”
She took off in the opposite direction, Tommy stumbling to keep up. The woman held her side as though she, too, had been shot. She leaned against a car hood for support and fired, her aim wild and haphazard.
“Run! Muck, Levi,run!”
Only then did Levi realize what Tock had done. She’d laid a line when she touched that car.
The car was going to explode.
Levi sprinted, his head pounding, his balance veering from side to side. Tock had told him her limit was thirty seconds. How long had it been? A bullet whizzed past him and shattered the mirror of a nearby car. He wasn’t lucid enough. Wasn’t fast enough.
Boom!
The explosion swept him off his feet. He felt the heat pass over him, but, of course, orb-makers couldn’t burn. The crash hurt, though. He fell painfully on his shoulder, hard enough to bruise. When he turned behind him, the first car was engulfed in flames, the woman screaming and lost among them.
Levi half crawled, half staggered his way to a nearby stairwell. He found Tock and Tommy pressed against the wall, their arms still covering their heads. Tock jumped to her feet and threw her arms around him.
“Muck,” she cursed in his ear. “If I’d killed you, I never would’ve forgiven you.”
Levi stumbled down to Tommy’s level and lightly slapped his face. The dealer’s eyes had a glassy look, and Levi wondered if he’d been drugged. “Are you all right?”
“Never better,” Tommy mumbled.
“You won’t be pretty anymore with that nose,” Tock told him.
“Don’t be ridiculous. He’s never looked sweller.” Levi smeared some blood off Tommy’s chin. Tommy was so delirious he barely noticed.
Levi stood and shook his head to clear it. The ringing in his ears had died down, leaving only a dull headache. The lot had gone silent, and Levi hoped that meant both of the assailants were dead.
Footsteps pounded down the stairs above them.
“None of that was quiet,” Tock breathed. “People are coming.”
Levi grabbed Tommy by the arm and hoisted him up. The Martingale Casino was his most lucrative client, and the Irons murdering people downstairs hardly spoke well of their business practices. “Get in the other car.”
They ran across the lot. Tommy somehow managed to climb into the back seat without support, leaving Levi and Tock to deal with the bodies. Tock dragged the man Levi had shot across the ground, smearing the pavement with a trail of blood. Levi approached the flames, nearly vomiting from the smell, and pulled out what remained of the woman. His fingers sank into charred, crusted flesh.
By the time they dumped both bodies in the trunk, swarms of casino employees and other bystanders had begun flooding into the garage. Levi did his best to keep his face covered. He didn’t want another headline inThe Crimes & The Times. He just wanted to get out of here, crawl into the silence of his bedroom, and pretend this entire night had never happened.
Levi took the driver’s seat, and soon the engine roared, their car speeding forward and onto Tropps Street. As soon as they screeched through the first turn, Tock rolled down the window and vomited.
“Delicate,” he told her, even though he was a hairbreadth from being sick himself.
Tommy snickered from the back seat, then let out a low groan.
“Shut up, Tommy,” Tock snapped at him as she wiped her mouth. “Your nose is broken. You’re not dead.”
Those were the last words they spoke for a half hour. At first, Levi wasn’t sure where he was driving. They barreled down Tropps Street, passing St. Morse Casino, and eventually veered north, to the distant edges of the Ruins District. The lights and bustle faded behind them, and when he rolled down the windows, the air smelled of the sea.
