“Sorry, I’m just a little, ah, nervous now that I’m a few feet from the Scarlet Spider and one-sixth of the fucking Iron Council.” He pinched her collar, pulling her ear to his lips. “What’re they doing here?”
“You think they tell me that? Rico just told me to be ready for a couple higher-ups tonight. I doubt even he knew it was going to be her and the general.”
“Please, Mel. You’ve got to know more than that,” he said.
“Nope. Not a thing. Another whiskey?”
Dino reached into his coat and pulled out a roll of bills, more than she would earn for a week even if the nights were busy. “Think this covers it?”
Melanie’s eyes lit up, and she slipped the cash into her pocket. “Rico might’ve told me he heard there’s some rumblings going on in the Council. Apparently not all the generals see eye to eye, and not all of them are as loyal to the archduke as you’d think. You know how the Scarlet Spider is. She’s probably plucking at the web to see where the juicy flies are. She thinks the archduke sees her like some kind of pet, when she wants to be his equal.”
“I think I’ll take that next whiskey now. Make it a double.”
She turned toward the bar, but he caught her shirt and spun her toward him. “Wait. Go over there and listen. Tell me what they say.”
“Friend, don’t be a fool tonight, okay?” She flashed a tight smile and transformed into a cool mist. “I’ll be right back with your drink.”
She vanished near the bar. Dino clenched his fist, pressing it onto the tabletop. He watched the Spider and the general chat as casually as lifelong friends. But the Spider had a way of doing that. She could make the stoniest soul turn to butter before her.
“What’re you two hatching?” Dino strummed the table, eyes narrowed beneath his hood.
Wilhelmina finished her martini and kissed the general’s cheeks, her long nails caressing the top of his hand as she stood. He took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles, and in the blink of an eye was nothing more than a few wisps of thinning smoke.
The Scarlet Spider smiled and rose to her feet, her dress fluttering around her hips. She meandered through the tables, and as she did, her body turned to mist and faded.
Melanie returned to the table, watching the spot where Wilhelmina vanished. “Here’s the second round.”
Dino grabbed the drink and tossed it back. He thunked the glass on the table and stood, wiping his mouth on a sleeve. “See you next time.”
“You’re not staying? Rico says he might let me sing once Jana’s done with her set.”
“Maybe next time. Let me know when.”
“That’s too bad,” Mel pouted. “Have a good night. Keep your hood up for a little while. I heard it might rain.”
“Will do. Thanks, Mel.”
Dino tightened his jacket, licking his whiskey-seasoned lips. He shoved his hood over his brow and kept his head down. Playing drunk, he wobbled from the casino and into the thunder-choked night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The Spirit Within
“Are you trying to get yourself killed, or do you just have some twisted sense of power since you can use a few curses?” Dino threw up his hands and spun to the balcony door. He snatched it, throwing it shut and bolting the lock.
“You’re overreacting,” Amber said.
“Overreacting? I don’t think you realize how hot things are getting. Every Godforsaken blackjacket in Afterlife’s got their eye out for you. I take the huge risk of putting you up somewhere you’ll be comfortable—somewhere you don’t deserve, mind you—and what do I find out? You’ve been waltzing around Angel Park without me? Alone?”
“I’m not defenseless, Dino, and I’m not your prisoner.” Amber motioned at the balcony door. The lock flipped up and the door swung open, Afterlife’s evening breeze whistling into the room with a few glittering specks of dust.
“Our deal was that you got to stay here if you only left with me beside you. You’ve broken that,” he growled.
“I was bored. I only left once,” she said.
He cocked his head, eyes narrowed. “Not according to the lobby attendant. Apparently you have a fondness for evening strolls and gliding in and out of hotel windows.”
“How’d he see me? I took the balcony!”
“He’s a spirit. I had him keep his mind on you. Far more effective than his eye. Why all the late trips to the park? Spit it out.”
Amber plopped on the bed and folded her arms. She’d never tell him about Liam. He would find a way to either dust the man or eavesdrop, neither of which particularly appealed to her. “I float coins from the fountains when strangers throw them in. It’s how I practice my curse since you won’t help and Bentley’s just as much an asshole as you are.”
“Floating souls’ coins is bad luck. Might also get you a black eye if whoever tossed it sees you.”
“I don’t see how my luck could get any worse these days.”
“Don’t tempt the city. Look. I don’t want to make you a prisoner, but if Faye found out about this you’d be stuffed back in a cell so fast your head would spin. Don’t leave again without me. Okay?”
“You’re not going to tell her?” Amber’s arms unfolded, her brows pinching together. “She already knows, doesn’t she?”
“No, she doesn’t know. It’ll probably come as a surprise to you, but I actually don’t like Faye. I don’t like Faye more than I don’t like you. And that says a lot.”
“Wow. What happened there? Something about—”
A quick, hard scowl from Dino stole the name from Amber’s lips. He turned toward the door, crossing the room in a few heavy steps. “Zoe stays out of this.” He paused at the door, his hand on the knob. “I’m not telling Faye as a favor to you, Amber. We might not like each other, but even people who don’t get along can work together. I need you to trust me, and you need me to survive. Playing these games only keeps you farther from your brother. Think about that. I’ll be waiting in the lobby.”
The door swung shut behind him. She listened to the steady march of his steps fade down the hall. Amber swiped the hat from her nightstand and stood before the mirror, adjusting the brim and veil until it shadowed her face.
He almost sounded sincere then. For a heartbeat, Amber almost believed his words. If only she could reconcile all the things he’d done with all the things he supposedly meant to do. “No, he’s just using you,” she sighed, turning to the door.
From then on, she would have to be more careful about her escapades beyond the hotel. If she carried all these curses inside her, maybe it was time to practice more than just the poltergeist curse. If she really was some powerful being, maybe it was time to accept it, and become one.
Amber cracked the door open but paused in the doorway. She lifted her hand and wagged her fingers. They shifted, swirling into smoke before quickly reforming. She grinned and headed down the hall.
She rejoined Dino in the lobby, threading her arm through his. “Where are we going now?” she asked. “The Crystal District?”
“Would you have gone anywhere else?”
“Nope.”
Dino flashed a grin and opened the hotel door, allowing a stiff, dust-laden breeze to subside before he spoke again. “I know Bentley’s doing his best to make you a somewhat decent wraith.”
“If his best is beating up a woman who has no idea how to use her wraith power in front of a bunch of people, I’d hate to see his worst.”
“He was just trying to get you angry. It’s how wraiths operate. This city will bring it out of you soon enough. Like I was saying, I know he’s been working with you on being a wraith, but I’m wondering if you might not be more apt with the mental curses. That trick you did with the balcony lock was smooth. It took control. Have you tried to use the spirit curse yet?”
“Not since I went in Abel’s mind. It makes me uncomfortable. It feels, I’m not sure how to describe it really, but wrong, I guess.”
“Violating someone’s mind
like that is wrong. It’s taboo here and an easy way to get you on a dust list. But that’s not the only power spirits have. They can nudge a person, or people, if they’re powerful or old enough. They can see into the future and glimpse danger before it comes. They can speak mind-to-mind or cause hallucinations.”
“And you want me to practice that?”
“Why not? Spirits are great backup in a fight. Or, they could keep the fight from happening at all.”
She slowed, a grin inching up the corner of her lip. “What about phantom? You could always teach me that one.”
“I’d love to teach you, but I don’t think you’re ready yet. It’s very complicated.
Her mind reacted to his words, her spirit curse reverberating with the sound. Amber’s grin spread into a full, fake smile. I can’t believe it, he’s lying!
“Gosh, Dino, well I hope I’m ready soon.”
“I’ll let you know,” he said.
Amber adjusted her hat as they filtered through the streets, weaving their way beyond the elegant Parisian hotels and flourished townhomes of Angel Park. Grand hotels gave way to shops crowded against one another, four stories of ruddy bricks lined by bay windows and walled by the sharp leaves of manicured holly bushes.
“The Crystal District isn’t quite an inner district, but it does border them,” Dino said. “It started as a few lanes for merchants to sell finer wares to the Old City, Angel Park, the Grand Braid, and the other snobby neighborhoods of the oldest souls. After a few decades, it was so famous for its glass and crystal shops that no landed soul would ever buy their wares from anywhere but a shop in the district. They said the street would shine on days when the sun shone bright.”
Amber followed him around an enormous statue of a blackjacket soldier holding the scales of justice, eyes open before him and smiling broadly to the city. “I’m guessing it didn’t stay that way for long,” she said.
“Crystal went out of style after the Revolution. The patrons who bought it were the ultra-wealthy, and the wealthy were the Soul Assembly. Fearing being a target of the archduke, practically overnight the merchants abandoned their stores. For years, no one set foot in the neighborhood, a broken maze of shops and dust wedged between nicer parts of the city. And while the old rich has been replaced by the new rich, crystal never caught on again. Fortunetelling did, though, and what goes better with psychics than crystal? Place is full of spirits and frauds, looking to part coin from the wealthy surrounding them.”
Amber expected the avenues to thin the nearer they traveled to the district, but the streets did just the opposite. Souls crowded the lane, stuffed and squished together like a week of clothes into a weekend suitcase.
Dino pinched her elbow, leaning to her ear. “It’s also the fastest route from Angel Park to the Silk Bazaar and Coin Crossing. Millions of people come and go through it on the way to and from work. Not a bad setup for a fortuneteller, if you ask me.”
Jackets and blouses and canes and lace rushed around her, choking off the rest of the city. Amber lurched between two men and latched on to Dino’s hand. He paused, flashing his brows. “Street’s pretty packed, right?”
A short woman built like a wine barrel shouldered Amber as she marched by, nearly knocking her flat on her back. Dino jerked Amber upright. She almost thanked him, but only managed a tight smile. “You could say that.”
“Maybe you should thin it out a bit for us then.” He shouldered through the lane, keeping a tight hold on her hand. “There’s no better curse for influencing crowds than spirits. Now, when you use your mind directly against someone else’s they’ll know it, kind of like you prodding at my mind to see if I was lying about practicing the phantom curse.”
Amber cleared her throat and smiled wider. “What? I’d never—”
“Hey, I was lying, right?”
“You were,” she said. “Why?”
“It’s not safe for you to flit in and out wherever you want. I want to keep tabs on you. There. That’s the truth.”
“You know I’ll just try and teach myself when you aren’t around.”
“I can’t worry about tomorrow, just today. And today we’re practicing spirit.”
“Fine,” Amber said. “What else?”
“As I was saying, spirits don’t have to go one-on-one, they can influence groups, gently, like a breeze plays with daisies on a hill. Try parting the crowd for us and see for yourself.”
“It’s not nearly as easy as you make it sound. People aren’t daisies.”
“The daisies can be much smarter, I know. Concentrate on the crowd and not any single person. Let your spirit flow. Nudge the crowd. Whisper to it.”
Amber bit her lip and took a deep breath. She opened her mind to the city, to the sounds, to the street, and a warm ripple washed from deep within her. The crowd shifted. The rough jackets and rustling dresses inched away from her.
Amber’s smile spread as her heart fluttered with the thrill of power. The crowd moved for her. She willed it, and they moved. The space increased between them, save for a lanky woman curtained in a dress of shimmering blues hemmed by gold. The stranger turned, her taut features pulling her thin brows back, the peaks of her knuckles whitening on the black purse in her grip.
“This one’s a spirit,” Dino murmured. “Don’t let her frighten you. Stay strong.”
She sees me. She knows what I’m doing. Amber’s excitement chilled. The space closed around her. The woman blinked, slowing her pace.
Bodies bumped and jostled Amber, crowding, suffocating. She nearly tripped on the hem of a dress and barely missed a polished boot. The crowd was close. It would crush her. Drown her.
“Hey.” Dino jerked Amber to a stop, cupping her cheek in his hand. “Don’t freak out. Spirit’s a powerful curse, but if you lose confidence it can turn against you. You’ve always got to know you’re strong. Always.”
Amber took his wrist and pulled it from her face. “There’re too many people. I don’t think I can move all of them.”
He took a deep breath through his nose and swiped at the crowd. “This is nothing for you. You know how many people survived Bone Man and lived to tell about it? Nobody on this street but you and me. Now move them, because you’re Amber Blackwood and they’re nothing to you.”
There were so many people in the street, so many faces, so many souls. Could she move them all? Dino pulled her along, gaze nailed ahead. Amber followed just behind him, suffocating in the fine fabrics walling her in.
“Bone Man fears you,” Dino said. “He fears you. Move this crowd. It’s nothing.”
I don’t know if I can. She almost spoke the words. They came to her tongue, but she swallowed them down and pinched her shoulders back instead. “I can do this,” she muttered. “I will do this.”
Amber closed her eyes and listened to her breathing. She saw the crowd in her mind’s eye, but there she also pictured the space forming within it, allowing her and Dino to pass. Each soul around her had their own worries, their own fears, their own hopes, their own dreams. And yet, they were nothing to her, inconsequential, tiny.
The crowded flurry of fabrics and air weighed by heavy breaths cleared. She felt the gap widen and ushered its growth with her spirit.
Dino’s grip tightened on her wrist. “Holy shit.”
Amber opened her eyes to an empty avenue. Along the sidewalks, people clustered in packed lines, grumbling and mumbling and shoving past one another without so much as a foot stepping from the curb to the road. A man in dark overalls stumbled into the lane, but quickly dove right back in the mass writhing along the sidewalks.
“I did that?” she asked.
Dino rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. “I never expected … Wow. Good job.”
Amber flashed a wide smile and turned to him. “Not bad for a girl, don’t you think?”
He laughed and clapped, spinning around on a heel. “No, not bad at all! See? We’re not such a bad team when we try.”
His laughter f
aded. Amber looked at him. He blinked at her. She swallowed and turned away, strolling past him. “Yeah, thanks. Something you did actually turned out useful for me.”
Dino scurried beside her and nodded. “Good enough lesson for the day,” he said, the playful tone now flat. “Better let them back in the road before some blackjacket spotter notices us.”
Amber rubbed her knuckles and coaxed the crowd back into the street. She forced her eyes away from him and concentrated on the road ahead. The heat rising in her neck somehow tightened her collar. She pulled at the fabric with her finger and cleared her throat.
“Amber?” Dino slowed his pace at the turn.
“What is it?” she asked
“The district is around the corner, but….” He heaved a sigh through his nose and folded his arms, glancing around. “I hope you don’t think I’m a bad guy. I really want to show you I’m not.”
“Somehow I think you’re about to say something that’ll make me think otherwise.”
“If I asked you to join me and my friends, would you? I mean, after we help get you what you want. If we needed your help, would you do it?”
Amber saw the question coming. She’d been waiting for it for days now. All the nice things he did, the friendly words he spoke, they were all a thin façade masking his true intentions.
“You want to know the truth?” she asked.
He nodded, visibly bracing himself for her reply.
“I don’t know. I need time. I need Toby.”
“We’re running out of time,” he murmured. “My boss is watching the clock. You’ll need to pick sides soon enough.”
“Help me find Toby. Find him, and I’ll give you your answer.”
“I guess we better find him then.”
They turned the corner, and the crowd morphed into an impassable wall. Amber leaned onto the balls of her feet and tried peering over the shifting shoulders ahead, but the mass wouldn’t budge and wouldn’t part.
“What’s going on?” she asked
“No idea,” Dino said. “Not good, whatever it is.”
Afterlife (Second Eden #1) Page 21
