Decker’s shadow chases the dark and mine gets tangled in his steps. We reach the end of the hall, and he pushes the final door open onto a universe of junk. Piles, tables, and shelves of old mugs, dataslates, pillows, figurines, furniture, dishware, circuits, and who knows what all. Decker shimmies his way through the mess to the big glass counter in the center of the room, yellow in the yellow light. He swings around behind it, spreads his palms on its smudged top.
The last time I was here, Yonni’s pendant lay on that counter—its green vines entwined protectively over a lonely red heart. Missa had given it to Yonni for their anniversary. Greg had swiped it from her dresser. I grabbed the pendant before the sale could go through and hauled Greg’s thieving ass out.
Decker leans forward, as if the memory plays in his head, too. “And to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”
“Dad,” I say. “I’m here to clear his debt.”
Whole data systems run at speed behind Decker’s eyes. “Mmm Ricky? Yes, Ricky Franks.”
I reach into my pocket and lay Yonni’s heart on the counter. It beats softly from the mesh circuits inside, isolated. Betrayed.
“This cover it?” I ask, flat.
Decker’s eyes narrow and he sniffs. “Isn’t this the piece you’d see your brother’s ass in hell over?”
“Cousin, and this covers it.”
Decker reaches for the heart with spider fingers, and I have to curl my own to keep from snapping his off.
“A Pulsebeat Echo 38–9.” He lifts it in his palm, strokes its subtle beats. “Pretty. But it was pretty the first time round.”
Yes. Back when I had a soul I wouldn’t sell.
“Is. The debt. Covered?”
Decker sighs and rocks. “I don’t know, will I actually get to keep it this time?”
“Decker.” Full of warning. He may be the lord of East 5th, but that’s Yonni’s soul between his pawing fingers.
“You’re the one who came to me, girl.” He catches my eye and sighs again. “All right, all right. I’d say this is worth six hundred reds?”
“A thousand, and you know it.” Which is a hundred more than he quoted Greg and likely less than half what it’s worth.
And still five hundred short of Dad’s debt.
Decker barks, laugh pitched deep for his high voice.
“You’re in dreamland, dearie.”
I hold out my palm. “Then hand it back.”
His fingers close automatically, eyes taking on the same lust they’d had the last time around. I’ve already pried it from his clasp once, with him cursing up hell while Greg freaked out. I’ll do it again.
“A thousand or nothing,” I say.
There are other dealers in the city. I don’t know who they are or where they are, but I’ll find them, get a better price, and come back with actual reds.
“You’re as crazy as your mother.”
Doesn’t matter what hand you’re dealt, Yonni aways said. You play the cards you have.
I reach over the counter and grab his wrist to drive that point home. “Yep.”
He’s got thick bones despite his lack of muscle. If he calls my bluff, I’m screwed.
If he calls my bluff, I can just reach for the naked steel woman holding up a serving plate on the end of the counter and hit him over the head with it.
Decker tries to pull away. I hold fast.
“You think you’re some Enactor Shadow or something? Get your hands off me!”
“Give me the pendant.”
“Why did I let her in?” he asks the ceiling, pathetic and abused. “Why, why?”
“The pendant.”
His gaze flips to me. “You do like to repeat yourself, don’t you?”
I squeeze tighter. My hand aches. My arm too. He better do something soon, because there’s no way I can keep this up.
He grins. Actually grins. “Oh, I do like my pretties with bite. All right. A thousand. But if I remember right, for daddy dearest, that still leaves you five hundred short. Maybe we could come to an arrangement?”
Not that kind, we can’t.
I let go and manage not to shake out my aching fingers. “I’ve got another piece for you.”
His ears perk up. Literally.
“Another Pulsebeat? My girl, what crypts have you raided?”
“No.” I pull my last bit of pawn-ability from my pocket and toss it on the counter. “A bracelet.”
It shimmers, and its silver threads and dangle charms seem to float. A coiled, sparkling snake.
It’d spun snakelike from Mom’s wrist, too, whenever she moved her arm. Sleek and subtle, like the neat knot of her hair and the silky weave of her clothes. Each charm represented a place—planets, cities, waterfalls—all far away and some even out of House. Beyond Galton’s borders, and into the Houses of Westlet or Fane. I know, because watching it was easier than watching her.
The last night I saw her, she’d slipped it off her wrist and laid it in my palm.
“Ooo.” Decker lays the pendant down, forgotten, to claim his next prize. He holds it up to the light so the charms flutter yellow. Far away wonders from distant planets.
You’ve the whole world, remember?
The whole world.
Decker purses his lips and tilts his head in a whole “It’s pretty, but mostly worthless” routine, then glances at me.
I don’t know what my face is doing, but it wipes the smile off his.
“Four hundred,” he says.
Holy hell. I thought he’d come back with half that. Mom can’t have put much money in it. But then, she did like to throw money around.
“Eight,” I say. That’d give me three hundred over what Dad owes, enough to set him up somewhere else.
He laughs, a breathy, soundless thing. “You’re joking.”