Page 26 of Queen of Volts

Harrison held up his hand to Levi and shook his head slightly, as if to tell him,Don’t. Levi didn’t take orders from Harrison—still, he dropped his hands. But he didn’t sit down. His legs felt leaden, and he was sweating through his suit.

“If we cooperated,” Harrison asked Bryce coolly, “why wouldn’t we just hand our cards over to each other to end the game without bloodshed?”

Bryce licked his lips. “Because there’s a caveat. If the game ends and you’re not in possession of your target’s card, then you die. But also, once you give away your card, you rest your fate entirely in the other person’s hands. If they die during the game, so will you.”

Fenice’s eyes flickered to Harrison’s card—her own target. Harrison averted her gaze and quickly slid it into his pocket.

Levi’s heart hammered. The game could be finished in days, or it could take years. And it seemed there was no way to end it without at least some of the players dead.

All of his friends had a card.

They would work together, he decided. If there were twenty-two players, one for every trump card, then they would work together in order to survive. Maybe Enne had stood him up because she’d thought this meeting was a mistake, so it was up to Levi to explain these rules to their friends. Like everything else in his life, it was his responsibility to make sure the people he cared about survived.

He stared at the name of his target.Strength. He didn’t know who that card belonged to, but hewouldkill for it, if he had to.

As Bryce finished his speech and stood to leave, Levi spoke up, “I don’t get it. How does this game get you what you want? How will this get you your bargain?”

Bryce gave him an ugly smile and answered, “It will get me everything.” And then he left, and despite his three enemies in this room, no one bothered to chase after him. What good would it do? Maybe the other players were vulnerable, but as the Gamemaster, he’d made himself invincible.

The Chancellor’s hands shook as she pushed herself to her feet. “Don’t be fooled—the only true threat is the Bargainer, who still wants to see this city gone. Never let Bryce distract you from that.”

Harrison gave a funny noise from the back of his throat and ignored her. He instead looked at Levi with an expression that resembled—dare Levi say it—concern. Levi self-consciously wiped the sweat off his brow.

“Are you all right?” Harrison asked him.

“I’m fine,” Levi grunted.

“Do you need a ride home?”

It was such a pleasant, absurd question that Levi gaped. “Am I your ally now? Or am I still a wanted criminal?”

“A discussion I’m happy to have,” Harrison said smoothly, ever a politician.

It was a conversation Levi wanted to have as well, but his list of requests would have to wait. He needed to speak with his friends before any decisions were made.

“My driver and I have a meeting place,” Levi responded, then he muttered a terse goodbye and left the room. He strode down the hallway and out the door, where he took a deep, gulping breath of fresh air. It still tasted of dread. He’d hoped this meeting would make him stop looking over his shoulder, make him feel in control, but instead, he ducked past every passerby. He felt dizzy, foreign, exposed. The businessman who strolled past with a cup of coffee thought he was a Mizer sympathizer. The man carrying his toddler thought he was a dangerous criminal. The stranger who accidentally bumped into his shoulder was another player in Bryce’s game, and Levi her target.

Panicked, Levi slipped down a nearby alley—he’d take a detour in his walk back to Tock. The morning sun gleamed brightly, though the harsh shadows cast the alley in muted darkness. Still, he made out the silhouette of a girl at the alley’s mouth. She looked barely older than Levi, though she had a harsh, serious face, with thin eyebrows and thinner lips and a sharp part in her light brown hair.

She resembled an ordinary girl, was dressed like an ordinary girl. But even though Levi couldn’t see her aura, he sensed somethingwrongabout her. She watched him—a young man—approach her alone in an alley, yet she did not move. And a scar traced a circle around her neck, faded to the white of new, pale skin.

Levi didn’t realize until he grew closer where she stood—at a crossroads.

Levi had listened to legends his entire life. He’d wanted tobeone. But now the hairs on his arms stood on end. The shadows each stretched an inch too far.

A jolt went through him as he passed her. He felt her eyes on him.

“An orb-maker.” Her voice was an eerie murmur, but still he heard it, even as he put distance between them. He heard it like her lips grazed his ear, and he nearly leaped out of his skin. “Is there something you want? Someone you desire? Someone you miss?”

Run.

Levi finally listened. He broke into a sprint, and he didn’t stop until he reached Tock waiting in his Amberlite and jumped into the passenger seat. He kept his gaze fixed out the window as they drove back to the North Side, but the Bargainer didn’t follow him.

ENNE

Enne did not feel like herself as she descended into the abandoned Mole station.

Even if Enne had agreed to carry out the Scarhands’ plan, she hadn’t considered what it would mean to face danger so soon after St. Morse. She didn’t feel weepy or afraid—she felt disoriented, as though she was watching herself from outside her body. She did not recognize this place, the acrid stench of piss, the cigarette butts and street cart wrappers littered on the concrete steps. Other than Grace and Roy, she did not recognize any of the gangsters flanked at her sides.