17. Evangeline
Evangeline
Jacks appeared unamused, his eyes hooded and his lips flat. For a moment, there was only the clacking of roulette wheels, the shuffle of cards, and the whispered prayers of people placing fresh bets. Then he finally said, “That’s not really how this works.”
“As far as I can tell, this entire gaming establishment belongs to you.” Evangeline held up one of the Jacks coins to illustrate. “You make the rules here.”
“I actually make the rules everywhere,” Jacks muttered.
“So, you shouldn’t have a problem changing ours. If I lose, I still want you to save everyone who was at the wedding. I’m willing to sacrifice my life, but I’m not going to bet it away if there’s a chance it will all be for nothing. I’m more valuable than that.”
Evangeline braced herself for another laugh, a derisive glare, a cutting remark.
Jacks did not seem happy about her suggestion, but there was something in his expression that made her think he was begrudgingly impressed.
For her part, Evangeline had never been more scared in her entire life.
That morning, before the wedding, she’d been nervous, but now she was terrified.
If her skirt had been shorter, Jacks would have seen that her legs were shaking.
If he said no, she might lose everyone she loved, and if he said yes, then there was a significant chance she might lose her life.
Evangeline found herself rubbing the hourglass on her wrist, as if somehow it could help her.
Then, so quiet Evangeline wondered if the words were only in her head, she heard, They don’t deserve you. And, for a flicker of a moment, something like sadness washed over Jacks’s face. It was an impossibly beautiful expression. And then it was gone.
“All right,” he said tersely. “You have a deal.”
Evangeline put out her hand to make the bargain official, but instead of taking her fingers, he wrapped his hand around her wrist. Evangeline felt a jolt of heat as Jacks’s cool palm touched the hourglass, and then he was tugging her through the gaming hall.
No one had seemed to notice her before, but now every eye was on her as Jacks led her toward a raised platform near the back, roped off by thick braids of gold.
As they started up the steps, the ropes were immediately pulled back by a pair of broad-shouldered men in bone-white suits with red cravats around their throats.
Evangeline couldn’t decide if she found it more disturbing or impressive that Jacks didn’t need to say a word for people to obey him.
Which explained why he was so annoyed by her relentless words and questions.
Although for once she didn’t feel like talking.
Her heart had lodged itself somewhere in her throat, and it seemed to be beating as fast as the sand going through the hourglass.
Earlier, Evangeline’s bare feet had been covered in petals, and now they were covered in playing card symbols, more confetti clinging to her with every step she took.
Everyone on the other side of the rope was dressed in rich colors and crowded around a black lacquered table covered in red velvet. Most were men, but there was also a handful of women in jewel-tone gowns with slits up to their thighs.
The dealer wore a red-and-white-striped cravat with a matching red jacket. He was holding a black-and-gold deck of cards, looking ready to deal them out. But he froze as soon as he saw Jacks.
“Leave us,” Jacks said, and the whole table scattered like bits of dandelion fluff in the wind. All that lingered was the heavy scent of perfume and cologne.
“Sit,” Jacks commanded.
Evangeline gave him a pointed glare, but it must not have been very good, for it only made him smile as he took a seat at the table.
The chairs were black-and-white–striped velvet and they were tall, the kind that always made Evangeline feel as if she might topple off at any moment.
It seemed safer to stay firmly planted on the ground, but her legs were wobbling so much with nerves and trepidation that she wasn’t certain how much longer they would hold her.
As soon as she sat, Evangeline realized that she could see the entire gaming den from up here.
All the spinning wheels and rolling dice and hands of players who didn’t keep their cards close enough to their chests.
Under other circumstances, she might have loved observing everything from this perch, but there wasn’t nearly enough sand in the hourglass now, and Jacks had already picked up the cards.
He gave the deck a series of elegant shuffles. “Do you know how to play blackjack?”
“Of course I know how to play.”
He looked skeptical.
“Luc and I play cards a lot,” she explained.
Jacks raised a dubious eyebrow. “Are you certain that lump of hair actually knows how to play?”
“You don’t have to insult him.”
“I just want to make sure you’re clear on all the rules.
” Jacks threw the cards into an elaborate series of shuffles that made the broken hearts on the backs flicker under the light of the gaming den candles.
“I would never insult the love of your life. Although”—he drew the word out as his tone turned from careless to mocking—“I’m the first to admit I have a twisted idea of love, but I do believe that a groom who abandons his bride on their wedding day deserves to be insulted. ”
“Luc didn’t abandon me. He asked me to go with him.”
“And when you said no, he shouldn’t have left you.
He should have stayed or carried you away, kicking and screaming.
” Something flashed in Jacks’s unearthly blue eyes as he set the cards down on the red velvet tabletop.
It was a spark that made Evangeline think of metal on metal, a jagged line of silver that looked less like caring and more like someone considering murder.
“You know,” Jacks said. “You could always bet with his life instead of yours.”
“I would never do that!”
“I bet he would.” Jacks met Evangeline’s gaze with eyes that had gone completely silver. And for an awful second, she wondered if maybe he was right.
“How well do you know that lump of hair?” Jacks asked.
Before today, Evangeline would have sworn that Luc loved her as much as she loved him.
But truthfully, she did agree with Jacks.
Luc shouldn’t have left her. She wanted him to care as much as she did, and it upset her that he didn’t.
It would have made her question their love if not for Mistress Luck telling Evangeline that she had already found true love and she was incredibly lucky.
So then why did Evangeline feel betrayed instead of lucky?
Jacks had just said he had a twisted idea of love, but she agreed with everything he said, even the bit about carrying her away.
She didn’t actually want to be carried away kicking and screaming, but she did like the idea of someone being so protective and so unwilling to part from her.
She wasn’t going to admit this to Jacks. She didn’t even want to admit it to herself. If Luc wasn’t her future, she wasn’t sure what was.
“I think you should deal the cards,” she said.
Silently, Jacks set a card facedown before her.
Then he dealt one to himself.
Another to her. Facedown again.
A final to him. Face up this time.
It was the jack of hearts.
“What a coincidence,” she said, in a way that made it clear she didn’t think it was a coincidence at all.
Jacks shrugged insouciantly. “It happens every time.”
Evangeline might have argued with that, but then she finally took a peek at her own cards. She could hardly believe it. Evangeline held back her smile, but she couldn’t stop herself from kicking her feet.
“I’ll hold,” she said.
Jacks looked surprised. “Are you certain?”
Evangeline nodded. “I told you I knew how to play.”
“Just making sure.” Jacks flipped his other card over with one finger.
A queen of hearts.
Not that it mattered.
“Your turn,” he said.
Evangeline giddily flipped over her black jack. “I win! I win!” She wanted to say it a third time, but there was a grim look on Jacks’s flawless face.
“What’s your other card?” he asked.
“Why does it matter?” Evangeline asked. “I have one of the black jacks.”
Jacks looked at her card and frowned. “That’s not how this works, pet.”
“What do you mean?”
“The winner is the player whose cards total twenty-one, or who has the closest to that number without going over it. A black jack counts as a ten and that is all.” He reached across the table and flipped over a six of hearts. Her cards added up to sixteen, not even close to twenty-one.
She had lost.
And now Jacks looked terribly annoyed. “Who told you that having the black jack means you win?”
Evangeline didn’t want to say it was Luc, but from the way Jacks’s frown was turning into a scowl as he took in the burning red on her cheeks, she was fairly certain that he had already figured that bit out.
Angrily, he gathered up all the cards.
“I don’t understand why you’re upset,” she said. “You won.” She was the one who should have been angry. Not him. But suddenly she felt as if she couldn’t be angry because he’d already stolen that emotion from her.
“I’m not heartless,” Jacks gritted out. “My heart just doesn’t work very well. And while I do take pleasure in a lot of things that would probably appall you, I take no delight in beating people who have no idea what they’re doing.”
He started to shuffle the cards again, fingers moving quickly but precisely.
Evangeline could scarcely believe it. “Does this mean you’re giving me another chance?”
“Unless you want to walk away.” And he sounded as if he wanted her to, from the way he emphasized walk away. “If you—”
Jacks broke off abruptly as the door to the gambling den burst open. It was the sort of burst that sounded like a force of nature, a group of thugs, or—as it turned out—a windswept girl in a dress.
The same girl Jacks and Evangeline had seen in the ruins.