A Court of Innocents

12: Indulgence

The Devil's Doom was located at the eastern edge of the city, far away from the other shops and open streets. It looked ancient and vaguely threatening. The fact that it sat at the edge of a cliff that dropped off to the river one-hundred feet below didn't make the business anymore appealing.

"Um," was all I could think to say.

Tamlin chuckled at my expression. "Believe me, you'll like what's inside."

"This isn't payback for me trying to kill you last week, right?" I asked, just to make sure. "You're not trying to send me to my death, I hope."

He rolled his eyes. "I told you to trust me, didn't I?"

I gave him a look.

"What are you? Scared?" he taunted.

"Those school-boy taunts don't work on me," I insisted, but I moved towards the front door anyways.

A waft of smoke attacked my senses as I stepped inside, Tamlin on my heels. There were several circular tables throughout the main room, all occupied with smokers playing cards. Money piles of various sizes sat at the center of each table, changing in size with every round. A bar was built into the back wall. A few people sat there, nursing drinks of dark liquor, while the bartender polished glasses on the other side of the bar. The place was a perfect mix of Lesser and High Fae. It seemed the prejudices stopped when it came to gambling.

I instantly knew why Tamlin brought me here. "You remembered I like cards?"

"You were the one who taught me how to gamble," he mumbled into my ear, though his voice was... not his own. "How could I forget that, sunshine?"

I looked at him over my shoulder—only to find that it wasn't Tamlin who stood beside me. A tall, thick man had taken his place. Tattoos of words in a foreign language decorated half of his face and neck, disappearing below his shirt collar. The clothes, at least, had remained the same, but he'd changed everything else: his blonde hair was now cropped short, his eyes were now blue, and his nose was longer and crooked. He had glamoured himself in the few seconds it had taken us to cross the threshold of this place, and he'd done a damn good job at it.

He didn't have to explain why he'd done it. I could connect the pieces on my own well enough. If someone caught the High Lord of Spring partaking in the illegal, nefarious dealings of gambling, he'd stand no chance at getting his court back.

"I haven't gambled in a very long time..." I said, then paused, not knowing what to address my new companion as.

"Rowan," he offered. "Rowan Whitethorn."

"And I have no money, Rowan," I pointed out. "But thank you for taking me here to sightsee; I've thoroughly enjoyed this experience—"

A bag of coins fell into my hand. It was heavy—I could spend hours here with this much gold. "This is your limit. Once it's gone, we leave. Until then..." His unfamiliar face tugged up into a wicked smile. "Enjoy yourself."

***

Enjoy myself, I did. It took me a few rounds to fall into my old patterns, but within the first hour I made the cards bow to me. I lost track of time between games, but the hour of the day no longer mattered. The only thing I cared about was the growing pile of gold in my pockets. It took five games for me to win back the money Tamlin had spent on my clothes this morning; another three to pay him for Lucien's outfits as well. I lost only two games and won often enough that three different men accused me of cheating as I took their livelihoods from them.

Tamlin had once said he believed I had kindness running through my veins instead of blood, but the gambling hall was where that compassion stopped. Here, it was every man for themselves. It was a rare kind of selfishness that I let myself indulge in.