Page 6 of Vicious Princess
Crawler, one of the only two fae in Vasquez’s crew, jerks his chin at me, his only eye pinning me with a glare. “We playin’ for gold,gahin. So you better be ready to empty those pockets.”
Gahin. A word that means all the things I wish to forget about myself.
An outsider.
An outcast.
One who doesn’t belong no matter where they go.
Ignoring the slur, I lift my chin. “How much is the buy-in?”
Crawler opens his mouth to answer, but Hobbs beats the fae to it.
“Three gold coins for a pretty one like you,” Hobbs says, without even bothering to look up from his hand.
Jarry, a tall and broad human with a few missing fingers from one too many fights, takes a swig from Hobbs’s bottle and says, “Winner takes all.”
Eyeing me, Crawler puts a ball made from fermented tobacco leaves between his stained teeth. He works it between his molars, and the stench of smoke envelops us.
I scrunch my nose but don’t say anything. Anger slowly rises to the surface, but I swallow it down.
For now.
Vasquez and some of his boys, like Hobbs and Hawk, might have accepted me as part of their crew, if only temporarily. But most of Vasquez’s crew never approved of having a stray like me on their ship.
Crawler makes sure I know how he feels about me every moment of every day.
If not for Vasquez, he would have pushed me off the ship a long time ago. And I would have sliced his throat in his sleep.
“Nine of Bones,” Hobbs says.
“Six of Cups,” Crawler mutters, rearranging the cards in his hand.
“Twelve of Dragons,” I say.
Crawler’s gaze flicks up, and he narrows his eyes. Keeping his gaze, I pull the card from the top of the deck and lay it facing upwards next to it. Twelve of Dragons.
I try not to get my hopes up so early. But, damn, what a great thing it would be to wipe that smug look off Crawler’s face when I win.
Crawler is next to draw a card. Three of Bones.I might still win.Hobbs pulls out a Six of Dragons. My hopes of a win dwindle. When Jarry pulls out the Three of Cups, all my hopes are gone.
I keep my face neutral, though. Nothing worse that revealing your cards, especially with these thugs.
My turn. I pull out a Six of Dragons. Hobbs picks up the last card and slams it down. Seven of Cups.
Man, I suck at Bloodiamond.
Crawler slams his cards on the makeshift table so hard, it almost collapses, and he hollers loud enough to wake the rest of the ship.
“Today’s my lucky day, tit suckers,” he says.
Hobbs rolls his eyes and tips his bottle to his lips, gulping down the rum as if he’s drinking from the fountain of youth. Jarry mutters curses under his breath while he pushes all the gold towards Crawler.
With a sigh, I rise and sling my bag over my shoulder.
“I hope your luck in Ekios will be better than your luck with cards,” Crawler says to me as I’m walking away.
My steps falter, anger bubbling so hot and thick, I almost choke on it. I’m tempted. Oh, how tempted I am to put that motherfucking ass in his place…
