Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Vesper
“Illusori,” Bellamy announced while she shuffled the cards. “You know it, yeah?” She placed five face down on the little table and then dealt out three each.
Vesper sat across from her and nodded. Simple enough game, one that Bellamy could cheat, though, so she’d have to keep a close eye. Vesper knew Bellamy had marked this deck, she’d marked all her fucking decks. But then again, how good of a cheat was she if she kept getting caught?
“No cheating,” Vesper said uselessly, picking up her three cards and peeking at them briefly.
She was mostly watching Bellamy’s face as she rolled her eyes at Vesper.
They hadn’t played cards together in years, and Bellamy had, apparently, learned how to hide her tells.
Aside from the obvious annoyance she’d shown at Vesper’s comment, her face didn’t give anything away about her hand.
No bother. Vesper was still sort of confident she could beat Bellamy. She had the Kamatian, death. If played strategically enough, she could utterly destroy any of Bellamy’s runs. She’d just have to save it for when Bel was on a roll, just had to time it well and…
“It’s not about brute force. You know this game is more delicate than that,” Bellamy said as if she’d read Vesper’s mind. Apparently, Vesper was not as good at hiding her tells.
“I know how to play,” Vesper snapped and Bellamy snorted.
“We’ll see.”
Vesper flipped one of the cards in front of her at random. Pertapa, lonely. She chuckled. Ironic. Peeking again at her other two cards, she debated if she could make a spread work. Ultimately, she decided to keep it, bide her time, and learn how Bel would play instead.
It might be a better idea to wait, watch, then destroy.
“So,” Bellamy started nonchalantly. She picked at her cards and decided on a move.
Ignoring the Pertapa, Bellamy flipped a second card instead.
“When did you get the…” She continued when her move ended, and she collected her successful spread, sticking out her tongue to indicate what she was asking.
Bellamy was watching her intently. Vesper shrugged, trying to focus on her next move, instead. She replenished the cards Bellamy had won and flipped a new one. “Few years ago.”
Bellamy was silent and it hit Vesper then.
Years. It had been years since she’d let Bellamy feel her tongue, years since they’d done anything remotely close to what had happened the previous day.
She almost couldn’t believe it. A part of her ached at the loss, but she didn’t want to acknowledge that feeling, so she shoved her desires down instead.
“Why?” Bellamy asked eventually.
Vesper placed two of her cards down, making a spread she hoped Bellamy couldn’t beat. “Why what?” Vesper asked, looking smugly down at her set.
Bellamy smirked and threw down a single card that effectively beat the five Vesper was about to claim, instead allowing Bellamy to take the whole stack for herself. She corralled the cards, adding them to her growing pile. Shit.
“Why’d you get it?”
“Why not?”
Vesper knew what Bellamy was doing. Knew Bellamy wanted to ask who Vesper got it for. But the honest answer to that would be no one. Vesper got it for herself, she liked it. But she did get it with Mazz, and Bellamy was absolutely not about to learn that bit of information.
Instead of giving her time to rephrase, Vesper asked, “Why do you get your tattoos?”
“Why not?” Bellamy snapped back immediately. She slammed a new set of cards down. Vesper couldn’t beat them without wasting her Kamatain—which wasn’t worth it for only four cards—and Vesper groaned in frustration, acknowledging Bel’s win before taking her turn.
“How many do you have now?”
“You wanna count them yourself?” Bellamy gave her a sly look. Vesper rolled her eyes.
“You’re trying to distract me,” she accused, flipping another card and studying the new hand available.
“I don’t need to distract you to win,” Bellamy laughed, waiting for Vesper to finish her turn before Bellamy threw down an absolute monstrosity that Vesper had no way of beating, even with her Kamatian. Bellamy might have been right—Vesper had clearly underestimated how good Bel actually was.
“Why do you keep cheating if you’re not actually bad at cards?” Vesper grumbled while Bellamy claimed another winning set. Bel shrugged, like there was no thought behind the cheating anymore.
“Why gamble on luck when I could have a guaranteed win?”
“But you’re… never mind.” She did not need to point out that Bellamy was still clearly not winning enough. That cheating might actually be more of a gamble since she kept getting caught and then forced to pay back the house, deepening her debt.
In fact, it wasn’t actually any of Vesper’s business anymore, and she didn’t care.
Bellamy’s eyes flicked up to meet hers briefly before she refocused on the game at hand, letting whatever Vesper had been about to say slip right past them, unspoken.
They lapsed into temporary silence, both too focused on the game at the moment.