Page 16 of Queen of Spades

Levy was smiling, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes, and he faded in and out of view as I watched, the doorway visible through his torso. “How did you end up with Erik?” I asked, daring a glance at his face. I expected him to disappear completely, sneak away as he normally did when anything close to this subject came up.

“Through a stroke of luck.” He smiled thinly. “Thanks to King Sr.”

Chapter eleven

Levy

Was I really doing this?

I shuddered, avoiding looking at Grace as I crossed my arms over my chest.Here goes nothing, I guess. “Erik’s dad had an arrangement with the chief of police. If anything unusual came across his desk, he would give him a call. King Sr. liked collecting oddities, if you couldn’t tell,” I explained, and Margot scoffed from her spot by the stove.

“So you’d been arrested?” Grace asked, raising her eyebrows.

This was it, this was the moment where I could stop talking, disappear, and let her think I was a petty criminal. It was better than the truth. Softer, easier to digest than the reality I was about to dump on her.Is this the right moment to do this?She looked so fragile and so goddamn tired.Am I really going to drop this burden on her?Her eyes focused on me, waiting for my answer. She deserved the truth.

“No,” I replied gently, my voice dropping low as my gaze hit the floor. “I was recovered during a takedown of a human trafficking ring outside of New Mexico.”

The words fell out of my mouth as I recited them from memory. It had been drilled into me enough times, repeated to police officers, school administrators, counselors, anddoctors. They didn’t even hold meaning for me anymore; it was just a sentence that explained why I was held together by scar tissue and poor life choices.

I wasn’t sure what I’d see when I looked at Grace. Pity was the usual response I received if the person had a semblance of a soul. Or horror, from me having permanently altered their worldview. Some people were unable to hide their disgust, their lips twisting and their whole body recoiling until their brains caught up with their facial expressions. How dared I taint their rose-colored bubble with my traumatic story. I might as well have walked across their pristine white carpet with muddy shoes. Daring a glance up, I was momentarily frozen by the look of pain in Grace’s eyes. It was a shared pain, a look that saidI see you, I know you.

“The New Mexico Police found an old missing person’s report that matched my description, so I was foisted off on the SoCal Police Department. The police chief called King Sr., told him they had a teen in custody that could teleport.” I laughed dully, trying to shake off the tingling pressure building up underneath my skin. They’d all been terrified of me. Imagine that, a bunch of men with guns, afraid of a broken shell of a teenager who vanished and reappeared in the holding cell.

“Why were you in custody?” Grace whispered, her hands clenched tightly in her lap. “You were just a kid!” She was hurting for me, I could tell by the pinched crease of her brow, the tightness around her shoulders. The way her hands seemed to be wrestling with each other to stay in her lap and not leap out at me.

“They thought I was a flight risk.” I shrugged. “King Sr. was the one who figured out I wasn’t going anywhere, I was justdisappearing. They released me into his custody, and I was no longer their problem.” I sighed. Being adopted by a rich criminal wasn’t the worst ending to a story like mine. I was seen by the best doctors that dirty money could buy, and I had a roof over my head and food on my plate.

“But… your parents…” Grace murmured, and I put my hands on the counter, leaning back as my body grew suddenly weary with the weight of life.

“They were the ones who’d sold me to the traffickers in exchange for drugs,” I told her softly, and her face crumpled. “It was my aunt who filed the missing person’s report, but she was gone by the time they brought me back.”

“Oh Levy…” she breathed, her hand brushing over mine. “How… How long?”

I shrugged, staring out the window. “They figure something close to ten years, maybe. Based on the date of the report and when I was found.” It felt like longer. Decades. A lifetime of pain crammed into a deceptively short amount of time.

“I’m sor-” I cut her off with a shake of my head.

“Don’t. It was a long time ago, I don’t need sympathy for it. I hardly remember that time anyway.”Lies. The nightmares of my childhood were so finely ingrained in my skin, sometimes I wondered if I even existed before that time, or if I was simply forged into existence, born out of the trauma experienced inside those walls.

Margot dropped a lid on the floor, and Grace leapt out of her seat like she’d been electrocuted. I steadied her in my arms as Margot mumbled apologies, her voice thick as she cleaned up. “It’s okay,” I told Grace softly, holding her shaking form.

“I think I need to lie down for a while,” she murmured, wiping her eyes as she grabbed for her hoodie. I loosened my grip so she could slip away from me, but when she stumbled against the counter for support, something in me just snapped.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered, scooping her up into my arms and carrying her up the stairs. I brought her down the hall to Erik’s room and nudged the door with my foot, leaving it open behind me. My plan was to settle her on the bed and leave, but she grabbed my hand when I turned to go, her slender fingers gripping me with surprising strength.

“Please, stay?” Her voice was rough and tentative; there was no way I could turn her down. My skin ached as I laid down on the bed beside her, struggling to stay visible for her comfort. Grace curled up into me immediately, pressing her face into my chest. I felt her tears dampening my shirt, and I wrapped my arms around her as she trembled, her shoulders shaking.

“I’m sorry I can’t make you feel better,” she mumbled, and my body tensed against hers.

Was she honestly concerned that I’d want to get physical with her right now?

“My light… I’ve been trying, but it’s just gone. I’m so sorry!” Her hands gripped handfuls of my shirt; it felt like she was trying to burrow into my chest and hide from the world.

“What do you mean? What’s gone?” I asked softly, drawing back so I could see her face. Grace tried to avoid my gaze, but I caught her chin with my finger, tilting her head up. “Baby, talk to me. What’s wrong?”

“My power, it’s just… it’s gone,” she whispered, fresh tears spilling over her cheeks. I pulled her close, wrapping myarms around her tightly as she sobbed. Eventually, exhaustion overtook her pain, and she softened in my arms, her breath evening out as she fell into a restless doze. I carefully extracted myself from her grip and covered her gently with a blanket. I wanted nothing more than to stay here with her and watch her sleep, making sure nothing could hurt her while she rested, but I needed to talk to the others.

Slipping out of the bedroom, I closed the door behind me and swore when I nearly collided with Anders, who had clearly been waiting to pounce as soon as someone came out of the room. “What’s wrong?” he demanded, looking down at my rumpled and tear-stained shirt. “Why is Margot crying into the soup downstairs?” I winced, feeling shitty for hurting both women with my life’s story today, it hadn’t been my intention at all.

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