Page 41 of Queen of Volts

Levi pulled a glossy business card out of his pocket and dialed a number he hadn’t used in months.

“This is Fitz Oliver,” came a snappy voice. Fitz was a real estate mogul who had offered Levi a deal last August that Levi had been forced to turn down. But if Levi was going to make volts—the one thing he’d told himself he’d never do—to save the Scarhands, then he would save the Irons, too.

“’Lo, this is Levi Glaisyer.”

“Levi,”Fitz said, clearly pleased at the call. “I didn’t think I’d hear from you again. What can I do for you?”

“That casino you tried to sell me—is the property still available?”

“I’m afraid it’s been bought,” Fitz answered.

But Levi wasn’t so easily put down. “How much?”

“It’s...it’s not available anymore,” Fitz stammered.

“How much?” Levi repeated.

“I can’t go back on my contracts. It’s not good for business.”

“How much?”

He heard the exact moment Fitz relented, a throaty sigh that scratched through the receiver. “They’d sell for one hundred thousand.” It was forty thousand more than the original offer.

“I’ll take it,” Levi told him. After they finished hashing out the details, Levi hung up. He had just closed the biggest business deal of his life, the sort he and Jac used to fantasize about when they were thirteen, when life was lived in the late hours after a Saturday night shift.

I’ll feel like that again,Levi told himself.I’ll feel it when I see it.

Since September, the casino’s construction site had neared even closer to completion. It still smelled of lumber, but the electricity worked, and the insulation along the ceiling was no longer exposed.

This place is mine, Levi thought.Exactly like Jac and I pictured it.

Stepping inside, Levi waited for the fantasy to wash over him. And he couldn’t figure out why it didn’t.

“I’m not sure this place suits you,” Harrison said from the atrium. He stared up at the casino’s opulent black-and-white aesthetic with a similar expression as Levi—he’d once pictured himself owning such a place, too.

“I’m not sure, either,” Levi admitted. He tugged on his too-short jacket sleeves.

“Then why buy it?”

Levi considered telling Harrison the practical reason—that the Irons, like the Scarhands, needed to start over. But instead, he shared the real reason. “Because it completes the story, the card dealer who buys himself a casino.”

Maybe that was why the fantasy didn’t work. Levi didn’t feel like just a card dealer anymore, but he couldn’t tell if that was because the Chancellor no longer looked at him like one, or if he’d begun to think of himself differently. He didn’t have control over whether the world regarded him as a criminal or an orb-maker, and he didn’t want to let go of part of his identity just because a different one was thrust upon him.

But if this casino wasn’t the culmination of his story, then what was?

He led Harrison into the cards room, already furnished from the months Fitz Oliver had used it as a showroom. Levi sat Harrison at a Tropps table like the sort he’d dealt at in St. Morse, and Harrison ran his fingers across black felt with admiration.

“I’ve already spoken to the Chancellor and other representatives in the Senate. Even if I haven’t been formally sworn in yet, I have sway,” Harrison began. “They’ll pardon you and your associates, and we’ll end the state of emergency in the North Side. We can call all the violence the Second Street War—make it sound noble. Make it soundover.”

Even though Harrison had mentioned the possibility before, Levi didn’t realize that ending the chaos of the last few months would be so simple. After the losses they’d all suffered at St. Morse, after the months of curfews and patrols, the North Side needed this pardon, not because they needed forgiveness, but because they needed peace.

Then Levi remembered his conversation with Enne, and the demand she’d given him.

“You’ll pardonme,” Levi repeated carefully. “But what about Enne?”

“That’s what we have to talk about.” Harrison pursed his lips. “I take it she told you to negotiate on her behalf?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Levi mumbled, trying not to reveal to Harrison how furious he was with her. Regardless of how they behaved toward each other, Levi still thought they should appear a united front. “Enne doesn’t trust you, and she’s being careful. She doesn’t want to have a conversation or show herself until there’s been a public pardon.”