Chapter 1 #3
“Well, it sounds like your grandmother was an acquired taste,” Geneva said, ever the diplomat. “La ruota is too, I’d say.”
“Some of us are still acquiring.” McKenna laid out two minors in the center of the table, snapping the corners in frustration. “Your go, Adrian.”
Adrian took his hand out of his pocket and grinned. “Excellent.” He didn’t bother to discard and draw, simply pulled a card from his hand and threw it onto the careful array they’d been building throughout the round. It was the Tower. “Game over.”
McKenna cursed so hard Dani checked the tip of her braid to make sure it hadn’t turned white again. Professor Silva chuckled, and Geneva began to gather up the cards as Adrian raked in the bills and coins.
“He always does this,” McKenna said through gritted teeth. Gingerbread hopped uneasily to her shoulder. “He acts like he doesn’t have shit and then cracks the board wide open.” She slumped back in her chair and threaded her fingers through her crimped hair, grabbing at the roots. “It isn’t fair.”
“It’s a card game,” Adrian said. “There’s no board.”
“It’s okay, Kenz,” Dani said, eager to prevent a beheading this early on. “We’re only partway through the night. There’s still time to turn it around.”
McKenna turned to her, embers of anger simmering in her eyes, and Dani braced herself for a reprimand: This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t showed up late. But when the other girl looked at Dani, actually looked at her, those embers went out, and she laughed instead, a high, hummingbird sound.
“You’re right,” she said, in that breezy way of hers. “There’s still plenty of time.”
McKenna hailed from a small, closed-minded town that had provided no avenue for her to pursue her dreams of becoming a fashion designer and found no charm in her fae tendencies.
Dani, on the other hand, had taken to her and her foibles from the moment they’d met on their very first day at Fox’s Leap.
The girl had been in the middle of an explosive argument with her mother as first-year orientation was about to start, making it impossible not to overhear them.
It seemed her mom hadn’t thought to tell her until that moment that she’d forgotten to pay for on-campus housing, which meant McKenna didn’t have a place to live.
Dani, who was still looking for a roommate to split rent with, had made a timid approach.
She’d half expected to walk away with scorch marks, but the other girl had jumped at the offer with sunny gratitude.
It had been a gamble on both their parts, but luckily, they’d bonded quickly over a shared hatred of vapid icebreakers and having parents who often forgot to be parents.
Their easy chemistry and the lack of colors in Dani’s brain when they talked had made her feel safe enough to tell McKenna about her ability—though the shots of marshmallow-flavored vodka they’d done that first night in their apartment hadn’t hurt, either.
“Let’s play,” Adrian said.
McKenna winked at Dani, and Dani glanced at Professor Silva, who was watching them now with interest. The uneasy feeling in her gut turned into a hot, heavy coal of apprehension.
“Everyone ready?” Geneva asked mid-shuffle.
“Ready,” Dani said. She couldn’t disguise the tension in her body as Geneva passed seven cards to each of them.
Her proximity to the others was enough to gradually bring their guards down and exaggerate their body language, including their tells: Adrian had a tendency to fiddle with runes in his pocket when he was hiding something, Geneva conveyed everything by what she was doing with her lips, and Katya’s knee liked to jiggle if she had a really good hand.
Dani didn’t think any of them had ever realized what they were doing—but if Silva was watching closely enough, she’d definitely notice a difference in their behavior before and after Dani had arrived. Yet another thing that wouldn’t have been a problem if she hadn’t been late.
Dani cleared her throat and tried to look captivated by Geneva laying out three cards in the center of the table: the Queen of Cups, the six of Wands, and the Star.
“Oh shit,” McKenna said under her breath.
“What’s the Star do again?” Katya asked.
“It means the Fool ends the game with no winner,” Geneva said, “and the Moon wins if the Hanged Man has already been played.” She set out the next row of cards, five that they could swap from: the three of Wands, the World, the King of Pentacles, the eight of Pentacles, and the ace of Cups.
La ruota had highly conditional rules; the Queen of Cups meant that Cups was the most valuable suit this round.
The goal was to have the highest-scoring hand possible under the round’s conditions.
If either Dani or McKenna drew the Moon, they would wait until they had as many Cups as they could before they played it.
Whoever had the highest total points from all rounds won the most cash at the end of the night.
“Dani, you start us off,” Geneva said.
Everyone picked up their cards. Dani’s hand was unexceptional. She discarded the two of Swords and picked up the Page of Swords instead. She swapped the Page for the three of Wands in the center, leaving the Cups card to see who might take it.
It was Adrian’s turn. His eyes flicked between his cards and the ones on the table, runes untouched in his pocket.
He discarded two cards, drew, and then traded the Chariot for the ace of Cups.
Geneva went next with the nine of Pentacles; she didn’t have anything promising judging from the way she chewed on her lower lip.
Katya’s legs stayed still as she switched out the Page of Swords for the two of Wands.
So far, no one had drawn a significant card.
Out of the corner of her eye, Dani saw McKenna smirk.
Professor Silva seemed to see it, too. She glanced at Dani, then down at her cards.
Dani studied her own hand with a single-pointed focus.
She hadn’t seen what the professor acted like before, so it was up to McKenna to judge the difference to figure out her tell—but under no circumstances could Dani allow Silva to connect her with what was happening, especially after the whole grandmother slip.
She knew what happened when adults, no matter how well-meaning, found out about what she could do.
Even the ones who were supposed to protect her couldn’t help but use it to their advantage.
Silva played the eight of Wands, then sat back with an unreadable expression. But Dani didn’t relax.
Nothing of interest happened until Dani’s third turn, when she drew the Fool.
Underneath the table, where only McKenna could see, she made the shape of a zero with her fingers on her lap.
McKenna didn’t react. Then, when it came to Katya to draw a card, her knee joggled up and down a couple of times before she caught herself—so quick it almost wasn’t noticeable.
Katya swapped a Cups for a Pentacles and slumped back in her chair with a huff, tossing the rest of her cards face down on the table like it was a lost cause.
Dani thought she saw a flicker of something in Professor Silva’s eyes—understanding. Her pulse quickened. A long moment stretched out as the teacher considered her cards. Then, with a flourish, she plucked one from her hand and swapped it out. It was the Hanged Man.
Dani glanced at Katya and caught her restless leg a second time, confirming her guess. Yes, she had the Moon. But the triumph didn’t last long. When Dani looked back at Professor Silva, their gazes locked into place. The woman’s cool gray eyes were ringed with blue and bright with curiosity.
Dani broke their connection and stared at her hand. The Fool burned its imprint into her retinas. Next to her, McKenna quietly made a pointless exchange of cards.
“Your turn, babe,” her friend said. Dani felt frozen. She knew Professor Silva suspected something, and if she played the Fool now, it would only strengthen her case. If she didn’t, though, Katya would win the round, taking the points they needed to earn next month’s rent.
Dani’s back molars pressed together; surely the others could see the muscle in her jaw twitching.
Without the money from tonight, she’d need to pick up more shifts at the café, which would leave less of her already precious time for homework and sleep, which would threaten her all-important GPA and attendance record.
She had to keep her GPA above a 3.0 and her tardies or absences at three or fewer per semester, or she’d automatically lose her scholarship.
Those things were just as important as the money.
She didn’t want to end up back on the streets like she had been, off and on, for the last three years.
But on the other hand, one word from Silva could destroy everything she’d worked to build for herself: not just her nascent academic career, but the semblance of a life that wasn’t ruled by what someone else could get out of her.
A chance to find out what she was good at—rather, what she wanted to be good at.
Being here, at Fox’s Leap, learning who she really was, was what she’d fought for.
This felt like an impossible choice.
Dani didn’t know what she was going to do until the moment she switched out the minor Cups card for the Fool.
“Damn it!” Katya cried, and slammed her hand on the table, sending her cards sliding into the center. “I had the Moon, too!”
McKenna broke into a Cheshire grin. Adrian began to clean up the cards from the table, and Geneva gathered everyone’s hands to total their points. Dani would get a few extra for ending the round, plus from the Cups cards that had been on the table, securing a bigger chunk of the grand prize.
Dani made a big show of helping Adrian, acutely aware that Silva was watching. She would need to be ultra careful the rest of the night—but she’d had to win the money. Silva would have been suspicious either way. Now, at least, Dani had a better chance at making rent.
They played for two more rounds, Dani’s discomfort growing with every hand Geneva dealt.
McKenna won the next game, so Dani held herself back from winning the last, and when the night was over and they had divvied up the grand prize—her payout was indeed enough to cover her portion of rent—she hurried to gather her things.
“Good game, as always,” she said, nearly knocking over her chair in her haste to stand.
Professor Silva rose at the same time, and Dani cut her off before she could speak.
“Sorry, I have to run if I’m going to make it to work on time—great to see everyone!
” She winced at her own artificial cheer, just managing to keep her face on straight till she turned away from the table, pointedly dodging Silva’s searching gaze, and began to wift away at twice her comfortable pace.
“What in the—Dani!” McKenna scooped up her satchel, threw on her cape, and loped to catch up with her, performing every motion with elfin grace.
Gingerbread took off from her shoulder and flew over their heads, crowing his displeasure.
“What’s gotten into you? You were later than usual, and acted like you had a chunk of selenite up your butt all night. ”
The sharp click of high heels echoed behind them. “Can we please talk about this somewhere else?” Dani sped up, circling around an immense astrarium, and started across the expanse of the observatory toward the exit.
“Why are you running?”
“I’m not running. This is how I always walk,” Dani said, willing her friend to stop asking questions and just hurry. The heel clicks were getting closer.
“Don’t be ridi—”
“Professor Silva!”
The clicking slowed, almost reluctantly, then stopped.
Dani finally gathered the courage to risk a glance over her shoulder; Geneva had flagged down the professor to show her something in a binder—a lifeline for Dani.
She kept moving even as Silva’s gaze beamed over and locked onto Dani’s for one last, fleeting moment.
It was loaded with a meaning the girl couldn’t parse.
Silva’s lips parted as if she was about to call out, but then Dani ducked into the stairwell and clattered down the steps, nearly falling over herself in her hurry.
“Dani,” McKenna said, hot on her heels. “What the fuck.” Gingerbread flapped down to land on her shoulder, supporting his mistress with a plaintive squook.
But Dani just shook her head at both of them as they exited into the waiting room, where the hipster looked up from his textbooks so quickly he was in the danger zone for whiplash, eyes zeroing in on McKenna like lightning to a weather vane—a reaction Dani had gotten used to whenever she entered a room with her best friend.
The two girls angled their bodies away from him, but Gingerbread swiveled his head to scrutinize the boy’s snake necklace with a greedy gleam in his eye.
“I have to get to work,” Dani told McKenna. “I can’t be late again. Can we talk at home?”
“Fine,” McKenna said, “but I—”
“Great, thanks, Kenz. Love you!”
Dani didn’t give the other girl the chance to protest further—she power-wifted away, before Silva could descend from the observatory. But the residue of the professor’s attention still lingered like a sheen of oil on her skin, even as she stepped into the rainy night and hurried off campus.