The confidence in his voice was admirable, even if factually unfounded.

As promised, Sarah stepped down from her seat. She gathered the remains of her dignity, sliding out of the high-backed chair with a sigh.

"Well," she said, brushing the imaginary dust from her sleeves, "at least I can say I played for as long as I could."

Lilianna glanced at the vacated seat and then out at the remaining spectators. "Would anyone else like to join?"

She asked that casually, but there was something in the way her gaze swept the room that looked like she was targeting someone specifically.

Helena, who had been leaning against the arm of one of the large sofas with a languid expression, met Lilianna’s eyes.

The contact lasted perhaps half a second.

To anyone else in the room, it would have looked like nothing. Maybe a coincidence, a glance, the idle roaming of bored attention.

But not to Neville.

Helena uncrossed her legs and straightened.

"Lilianna," she said, in an almost playful tone. "Would you be so kind as to sponsor me?"

Lilianna tilted her head, a small smile touching her lips. "Sure."

Bryan’s hand paused mid-reach for his drink. His eyes narrowed, not with suspicion, but with careful calculation.

"Isn’t there a risk of bias," Bryan said, perfectly reasonable, "if you sponsor a player at your own table?"

Of course, she would be biased, Neville thought, keeping his expression normal. What do you expect?

Helena turned to Lilianna with a look of exaggerated innocence but passed off as trying to act cute.

"Are you biased?"

Lilianna set her hands flat on the dealer’s station.

"The deck decides," she said simply. "Not me."

From the end of the table, Ciel nodded in agreement.

"Right. How could you expect her to manipulate the cards right in front of everyone?"

Grayson said nothing, but there was a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

She already did, Neville and Grayson thought at the same time.

"Great," Helena said, clapping her hands once. "No objections then. Let me play. Same starting amount as Sarah’s earlier."

Then, she moved to the table unhurriedly. She settled into Sarah’s vacated chair and arranged her sponsored chips, each stack even.

Meanwhile, Sarah had moved to the sofa where Helena had been sitting. She plopped down next to Colonel Vane, who acknowledged her with a nod.

"I can’t believe my luck," Sarah said to him, without expecting any response.

Sensing that Colonel Vane didn’t mind her, Sarah immediately took the opportunity to launch into a blow-by-blow account of every hand she had lost, complete with dramatic pauses and hand gestures.

Colonel Vane listened with a stoic expression. He didn’t mind her talking to him, but it didn’t mean that she should run her mouth without stopping like that.

Thiago, who had been growing restless watching the games, walked over to join them.

He slung an arm over the back of the sofa and inserted himself into Sarah’s monologue with a dry comment.

"You played like someone who was trying to lose," he said.

"I was not—"

"In the first place, who hits on a fifteen?"

"That was—!"

"Tsk, tsk, why are you playing when you don’t even know how to play?"

"You—!"

Colonel who saw them talking by themselves was secretly relieved.

Their bickering faded into pleasant background noise as Lilianna dealt the twelfth game.

The cards fell and whispered snaps against the felt.

Bryan: five and four. Nine.

Helena: queen and five. Fifteen.

Julius: eight and six. Fourteen.

Neville: Six and four. Ten.

Ciel: queen and six. Sixteen.

And Lilianna turned her face-up card: an ace.

The temperature felt like it had dropped.

Everyone had the same thoughts in their heads, albeit Neville had a more bland expression on his face.

Serious? Just after a reshuffling, this appeared?

"Insurance?" Lilianna asked, followed by a chorus of refusals.

Bryan waved a dismissive hand.

Julius shook his head.

Ciel muttered no and something else under his breath that might have been a prayer or a curse.

Nobody was fool enough to throw more money into that particular fire that might turn out to be a blackjack.

Lilianna checked her whole card, her expression revealing exactly nothing.

"No blackjack," she said.

The collective exhale around the table was audibly heard.

The game proceeded.

Bryan, sitting on a nine, tapped the table. "Hit."

An eight slid across the felt.

Seventeen.

Bryan’s lips pressed into a thin line.

It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad.

"Stand."

Helena leaned back in her chair and looked at her cards—a queen and a five.

Fifteen.

"Well," she said, with a ripple of amusement or excitement. "It wouldn’t be fun if I played it safe on my very first round, would it?"

She tapped the table twice. "Hit."

From the sofa, Sarah straightened so fast she nearly elbowed Colonel Vane in the ribs, peering at the table.

Neville, who already knew the next card, felt a familiar twinge of irritation settle into his chest. Because the moment Sarah left the table, Lilianna’s strategy changed.

Helena’s card landed.

A six.

Twenty-one.

Twenty-one on her first round.

Helena didn’t celebrate but simply looked at Lilianna with an expression of mild, pleasant surprise.

It looked as if a twenty-one on her opening round was a delightful coincidence rather than planned.

From the sofa, Sarah’s wail echoed through the room.

"Are you kidding me?!" She clutched at Thiago’s arm. "She gets a twenty-one on her FIRST round?! Her FIRST?!"

"Life’s not fair," Thiago said, patting her hand with absent comfort. "Just accept it."

"I KNOW life’s not fair, I just watched it happen in real time!"

Neville’s jaw tightened a little.

It wasn’t your luck, he thought, watching Lilianna’s smiling expression. It was on purpose.

Neville had moved past anger into something colder.

Julius was next.

Eight and six — fourteen.

Under normal circumstances, the smart play was to stand and let the dealer bust. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Julius had clearly reached the same conclusion. He was about to open his mouth to call a stand when Neville spoke.

"Julius."

Julius paused and looked at Neville.

"Want to hit?" Neville asked. "Just for fun."