Page 41 of A Shade of Myself
I tapped my foot impatiently, conscious of the clock ticking to save that boy. “What are the terms?”
“Just play. Win or lose you get passage.” The token disappeared, replaced in a sleight of hand by a deck of cards, which Poe shuffled, the cards flying from one hand to the other.
Great. That meant this wasn’t about high score wins; Poe sought something else from me. Had they come to collect on a debt I owed the universe for staying alive?
The ravens still blocked my path to Poe.
“Move your little posse and be quick about it,” I said.
Poe whistled and the birds flew up to circle us, their gazes boring into me. Like that was so much better.
I walked over to Poe and motioned for my two cards. The dealer laid them on the planks, so I crouched down to check my hand, careful not to let Poe see.
A ten of hearts and a nine of…ravens? The illustrated black birds standing in for either spades or clubs were freaky enough, but the hearts were beating. I wiped my fingers off on my sundress.
“Hit or stand?” Poe tilted their head at me, their hair falling to one side like a curtain blowing in the wind. The dealer’s face-up card was a five of clubs so at best they had sixteen and would have to take another card.
“Stand.”
Poe flipped a three over for themself. “I call.”
Ignoring the click in my right knee from squatting for more than thirty seconds, I turned mine over. “Ninete—ow!” I sucked my finger into my mouth.
One of the ravens on the card face winked. The little fucker had bit me.
A drop of blood fell on the card.
I watched in horror as the illustrated ravens shook their feathers out, resettling themselves to create a new space that was filled by a new raven formed from the blood.
The number on the card face changed from a nine to a ten.
The boards of the pier seemed to melt underneath me, and I grabbed on to the edge, convinced I was falling into quicksand.
Poe blinked impassively at me, the dock still intact. The shift I’d felt, whatever it was, hadn’t been wholly external. Something was different in the world itself, but also in how I felt.
“What did you do?” I jabbed my injured finger at Poe. “Why is there another raven?”
“A new player,” they murmured. “You are surrounded by so many magicians. Now there is one more than there was when we first began to play this game.” They nodded their head. “And an unexpected one at that.”
A brilliant light engulfed the entirety of the ten of hearts card while the now-ten of ravens became blanketed in darkness.
“Perhaps in another universe you would have fared better without them,” Poe said, “but that is not the way of this universe anymore.”
“Who is it?” I demanded. “Are they evil? What’s with the light and dark?”
Poe calmly gathered up their cards. “You’ll find out in due time.”
“Answer me, damn you. You did something to me, didn’t you? Is the ultimate game to make me paranoid and doubt myself? Tell me the truth!” I grabbed the shifter by their shirtfront.
The real ravens sped down from the sky like a tornado, engulfing me, their wings thwapping against my body. I swatted them away, but by the time I’d dispersed the last one, Poe was gone, leaving only a silver token on the pristine pier to show they’d been there at all.
