Theirs To Possess And Ruin
I continued, steering them gently but firmly toward the lower tables,
“you lose money. Up there, you lose limbs. Sometimes names. Occasionally souls.”
Mara swallowed. “Okay. Downstairs.”
They picked a table that looked harmless, cards, not wheels, four players already seated. The dealer smiled too wide. I stayed standing, leaning against a pillar, watching everything while pretending not to care.
They played and they lost a lot.
Maya’s confidence cracked first, her laugh thinning as her stack shrank. Mara followed, biting her lip, eyes darting between the dealer and the man across from her who hadn’t lost a single hand.