The cards were turned over with a heavy, final thud.
Lucian's Ace of Diamonds glowed under the crystal lights, a symbol of absolute authority. My Queen of Spades looked small and defeated beside it. The Russian oligarch let out a guttural roar of laughter, already reaching out his massive hands to rake in the mountain of vouchers.
"A Queen," Lucian sneered, the color returning to his face as he gloated. "Beautiful, tragic, and ultimately second-best. It seems your 'Siren' has run aground on the rocks of reality, Rossi. A pity. She would have made a lovely addition to my collection."
"Wait," Julian's voice sliced through the laughter like a gunshot. He didn't look at the cards on the table. He looked directly at the dealer, a man whose skin had turned the color of wet ash. "Check the deck. The Ace of Diamonds was played in the third round by the tech heiress. It was supposed to be at the bottom of the muck pile. How is it back on the table?"
The room froze. The dealer's hands began to shake so violently that the cards rattled against the felt. He slowly reached for the muck pile—the discarded cards from previous rounds—and flipped them over. There, staring back at us, was another Ace of Diamonds.
"A marked deck," I said, my voice trembling with a perfectly choreographed mixture of outrage and fear. I stood up, my chair screeching against the floor. "Lucian, you invited us onto your ship to steal from us? Is this how the Syndicate maintains its power? Through cheap parlor tricks?"
Of course, the second Ace hadn't been in the deck. I had palmed it from the 'training' deck Josephine had given me—a perfect, weighted replica—and slipped it into the muck pile when Julian had leaned in to 'whisper' a warning in my ear earlier. It was a classic, old-school老千 (cheating) move, executed with a precision that would have made Aunt Jo proud.
"This is an absolute insult!" the Russian oligarch roared, standing up and slamming his fists on the obsidian table so hard the gold chips jumped. "The Syndicate brings us into international waters to rob us like common pickpockets? My associates will hear of this!"
Lucian's face turned a sickly, translucent shade of grey. He looked at me, and for the first time, I saw genuine, unadulterated fear in his eyes. He knew he hadn't cheated—not in this specific way—but he couldn't prove it without admitting he was monitoring every single card in the room with hidden sensors, which would only further alienate his 'guests.'
"The pot is voided," Julian stated, his voice a hammer of authority. He stood up, and in one fluid, terrifyingly fast motion, he drew his weapon and aimed it directly at Lucian's chest. "And according to the rules of the Siren, a voided pot due to house fraud means the house forfeits the stakes and the prize. The ledger, Lucian. Hand over the drive, or we start painting these white walls red."
Chaos erupted with the suddenness of a bomb. The lights on the ship flickered, hummed, and then died completely—Julian's tactical team had successfully cut the power lines from the engine room. In the suffocating darkness, I felt Julian's hand clamp onto mine, his grip like iron.
"Run!" he hissed into my ear.
We sprinted through the darkened corridors, guided only by the emergency red lights and the sound of Julian's breathing. Shouting and the sharp, rhythmic cracks of gunfire echoed through the metal halls behind us. We reached the lower deck, where a small, high-speed inflatable boat was bobbing in the shadows of the hull. But as I jumped toward the boat, I felt a sharp, searing sting in my shoulder, followed by a warmth that spread too quickly.
I looked back. Lucian was standing at the railing above, illuminated by the moonlight, a smoking pistol in his hand. His face was no longer elegant; it was a mask of pure, unhinged hatred.
"You think you won, Ivy?" Lucian screamed over the roar of the wind and the yacht's engines. "You've just started a war that will bury you! I will find you! I will find your father and I will make you watch as I take him apart!"
Julian fired back, a three-round burst that forced Lucian to dive for cover, and then our boat's engine roared to life, leaping away from the yacht into the vast, black expanse of the Atlantic.
As the Siren of the Seas became a dwindling dot of light against the horizon, I slumped against the rubber side of the boat. My red silk dress was soaked with salt water and growing dark with blood. Julian knelt beside me, his hands frantic as he ripped his tuxedo shirt to create a bandage.
"Stay with me, Ivy," he pleaded, his voice cracking for the first time since I'd met him. "We have the ledger. We have the money. Just keep your eyes on me. Stay with me."
I looked up at the cold, uncaring stars, the numbness finally starting to feel like a strange kind of peace. I had played the game. I had cheated the devil and walked away with his soul. For the first time in my life, I didn't feel like a victim of my father's sins. I felt like a queen.
"I'm not going anywhere, Julian," I whispered, my fingers clutching the heavy, encrypted drive against my chest. "We still have a kingdom to build. And I'm just getting started."