“I know what Reymond was to you.”
“I’d rather not talk about it.” He didn’t think his current state of mind was related to Reymond. He knew the ache of grief from his mother’s death. It hadn’t come yet—Reymond’s death still felt unbelievable, more than anything else—but it would. This feeling just wasn’t that.
“Jonas already has patrols stationed around the borders.” Jac shook his head. “I know we talked about getting some dealers into Double or Nothing, but that den is right on the border. Might be too risky now. There’s plenty of other opportunities in our own territory.”
Already, things were changing. Levi typically met with Reymond once a week to talk about the investment scheme or the happenings of New Reynes. Reymond always paid attention to things Levi didn’t care about: politics, the Families, current events. But if it couldn’t earn him a profit, Levi generally tuned it out.
“You could be my second,” Reymond had suggested to him several years ago. It’d been October, around Levi’s fourteenth birthday. Reymond had bought Levi a beer, which Levi had pretended was his “first” drink, otherwise Reymond would’ve been mad.
“I don’t want to be your second,” Levi had answered.
“Then what do you want?”
“I want to be a lord.”
Reymond shook his head. “You’re better than us.”
“No, I’m not,” Levi had said. “Not yet.”
When Levi first had the idea for the Irons’ consulting business, he’d pitched it to Reymond. When he’d made a few enemies on the streets, Reymond had taken care of them. When he’d needed something—anything at all—Reymond’s door was open.
Reymond hadn’t been his best friend. He wouldn’t sit up all night, several glasses drunk, talking about the things that haunted him. Levi turned to Jac when he was looking for a typical night’s worth of trouble. But it was Reymond he’d turned to when he’d needed help.
But the one time Reymond had needed him, he’d been too late.
“Let’s not talk about Double or Nothing right now,” Levi said quickly, anxious to focus on something else. Maybe grief wasn’t waiting around to be found. Maybe it was called.
“Chez will be expecting volts,” Jac said. Today was Thursday, and although it wasn’t an official Irons meeting, it was collection day. Chez delivered the volts collected from their clients to Levi, and Levi recorded them and distributed all the Irons’ individual earnings to Chez. Chez was the middleman between him, his clients and the other Irons. Levi used to spend more face time with his gang, had always made a point to check in with all the Irons individually...until Vianca’s scheme started dragging him down.
“Then I’ll give him the volts,” Levi answered seriously.
“You need those,” Jac said. “I know you don’t have the ten thousand for Sedric yet.”
“I have seven. I can part with five hundred and earn it back tonight.”
“You’re good with cards, Levi, but your life isn’t something to gamble.”
He wasn’t being reckless. He just couldn’t hold out on the Irons anymore. Every time he looked at Mansi, she was a bit thinner.
All this time, Levi hadn’t thought he had a choice. He was backed into a desperate situation. Stealing from the Irons had felt like his only option. But the more he interacted with Enne, the more he remembered what he was like before he came to New Reynes. Every time he lied to her, he had to ask himself: Why? Why not tell her about his own Shadow Cards? About how he ran the Irons? About the kind of man he was?
But he knew why. He couldn’t bear to see the disappointment in her eyes if she knew the truth. The one thing he hadn’t given to this city was his shame.
“I need to make things right,” he said quietly.
Jac nodded. It was exactly the sort of language his second understood. Three years ago, after Jac had lost months and friends and dignity to Lullaby, the first thing he did was make amends. After Levi paid Sedric and put this mess behind him, he intended to build the legacy and empire he’d always dreamed of.
Sometimes we’re not who we want to be because we’re supposed to be something else. That was what he’d told Enne the other night. And it made him realize, every time he felt guilt and disgust in his chest over what he was doing, that it was his own fault. Not Vianca’s. Not Sedric’s. His.
He was meant for more than this.
“Have you talked to Enne since yesterday?” Jac asked.
“No,” Levi said. The events of the past two days flooded over him like a strong drink. The way her body had felt tucked against his. How her breath had caught on the Mole when he’d whispered in her ear. The gleam in her eyes when she’d claimed she knew what she wanted, even as she looked at him like that. Like she knew exactly what she did to him. The other night, when she told him she was a Mizer, he’d thought he sensed her mutual desire. But as yesterday had proved, the flirting was definitely one-sided. He couldn’t let the hopeless attraction get to his head—he had more important things to focus on.
“You need to be careful around her,” Jac warned.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure she’s good for you.”
Levi stopped and stared at him. “You weren’t wrong—you did know too much. You were already involved. But this is why I didn’t want her to tell you everything else.”
“Because I might get nervous about my friend’s safety?”
“Because you’re superstitious, and you worry too much.” To those who still followed the Faith, the the Mizers were a subject of lore. Some claimed that Mizers were the first to have talents, and all other talents resulted from reactions to volts held in people’s skin.
To Levi, it was all nonsense. Mizers were just people like everyone else.
But that wasn’t even what really bothered him. What bothered him was that he didn’t need Jac to tell him that falling for Enne was a dangerous idea.
“How well do you really know her?” Jac asked.
“Well enough. Can we not—”
“I never met Lourdes Alfero, like you did, but I know her reputation. She’s cold, cunning and...dangerous. I’m not saying Enne is lying about who she is—I think she was just as clueless about New Reynes as she acted. But the way she knows all our street rules? How Lola said she almost killed her? All the muck about her talents and her family...”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” Levi said, and he really wasn’t.
“What did Lourdes have in mind for her? What is Enne supposed to become?”
“I don’t think her goal is to become anything. She wants to find her mother, and she wants to...” Leave. The last part disappointed him more than it should.
“Maybe so, but...” Jac shook his head, sighing. “It doesn’t matter. You’re already wrecked, man.”
Another detail Levi didn’t need Jac to tell him. “Let’s just get this meeting with Chez over with.”
They walked to the edge of the square by the old fountain, which was bone dry and covered in dust. At its center, where water had once spurted, a sculpture of a Mizer queen stood, the details of her gown’s fabric worn down by the elements. Someone, many years ago, had decapitated her. The head still lay in the fountain, its features no longer distinguishable.
Chez was nowhere to be seen.
“Think he forgot?” Levi asked, even though he doubted Chez would forget a potential payment.
“I can stop by the house to look for him,” Jac said. “You good waiting here?”
“Yeah. Go ahead.”
Jac disappeared down an alley. Levi tapped his foot and stared at the black-stained clouds, only slivers of which were visible through Olde Town’s towers and spires.