Chapter 28 · Midnight Contract

"Take your hand off the card, Cole." Eve’s fingers locked around my wrist before I could turn it over.

Her grip was warm. Too warm for someone standing in a room where every lamp had gone dead.

I looked down at the black card between us. The ink on its back crawled like something alive.

"You said the hand was over."

"I said you won." Her thumb pressed against my pulse. "I didn’t say the deck was finished with you."

Across the table, the last three chips cracked down the middle. Not split. Cracked. Tiny lines of red light leaked through them and crawled toward my hand.

I tried to pull away.

Eve yanked me forward instead. My knuckles hit the felt.

"Don’t touch it," she said.

"You’re the one touching me."

"I’m stopping you from losing another piece of yourself."

"Another?" My laugh came out rough. "That’s a cute way to say you’ve been letting the deck eat me alive."

Her jaw tightened.

Good. I wanted that look.