Finn’s hands stayed at his side and he just looked back at me as if to say he was at a loss—that this sweet talker was really telling the truth. I squirmed in my seat and crossed my gams to hide the movement. Finn probably just wasn’t bothering to call out the lies that had nothing to do with the cards. That was it, right? That had to be it. I tapped one nail against the table.

  “Are we playing cards, or what?” I asked. “Deal me in.”

  Damon sighed and nodded to the dealer, who shuffled the deck briskly and thoroughly before flicking five cards to each of us.

  My palms were damp, and I tried to subtly wipe them on my lap before I picked up my new hand. Then I lifted the cards, fanning them out so I could see what I was working with, and my heart sank like a stone in a well. I could almost hear it clicking as it skipped down my ribs to land in my stomach with a thump.

  It was the worst hand I’d been dealt all night.

  I had nothing.

  Nada. Zilch. Not even a lousy pair of twos.

  Don’t panic, Cain said.

  Right. Don’t panic even though this is the worst hand in the history of hands.

  The important thing was not to let the panic show. I did my best to channel Wanda. I pursed my kisser, shook my hair back and peered down my nose at my cards like they’d personally offended me and I was thinking about what invertebrate I was going to transform them into.

  And hopefully keep Damon from seeing the sweat that had started to bead at my hairline.

  He watched me like a hawk, predatory eyes and all. The little smile hovering at the corners of his mouth grew into a smirk as he tossed two gold chips into the center of the table. With my lungs feeling like lead in my chest, I did the same.

  You can still pull through, Cain whispered and I could tell his entire focus was on the game. Just keep your breathing steady.

  The first discard wasn’t much help, but it did get me thinking. I sure did have a lot of hearts in my hand. Still, it might be something I could work with. Second discard came around, and I asked for two cards. It sure hurt to sacrifice that ace, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Damon asked for only a single card, and I was so focused on my own hand that when the dealer slid a new card across the table, I almost missed it.

  Finn rubbed at his nose like he was trying to pull it off. His eyes were wide, fixed on me with a desperate intensity.

  I froze.

  That was more than a bluff he was trying to warn me about. Taking a deep breath, I glared up through my lashes, watching Damon’s long, elegant fingers play over the backs of his onyx cards.

  He’s cheating.

  Cain was right—it was what Finn was trying to tell me. Somehow that bum of a Grim Reaper was trying to pull a fast one on me. But how? And what was I going to do about it, anyway? I didn’t have proof, other than my own version of cheating in the way of a human lie detector. And what would Damon do if I did call him out? Would he throw out the whole game? Would he just decide not to let any of us leave? If he was willing to cheat at the game, then what did that say about his word about not hurting the people I cared for?

  There wasn’t anything I could do, I realized. My bones felt heavy.

  The deck must have been stacked against you from the beginning.

  And that was when it dawned on me: how many stories were there about playing against Death? And in how many of those stories did anyone actually win? Death always got his way, in the end.

  What do I do? I asked the lawman inside my head.

  I could hear him breathing in deep, like he was thinking. Play it out to the finish, and hope for the best.

  I couldn’t stop the glare, though. I was ticked about Damon cheating. Like a millennia of skill and practice wasn’t enough of an advantage? He had to, what, give himself better cards? What a fink.

  I angrily snapped up my two new cards and scowled down at them as I slipped them into place. My brows twitched, and I tapped the back of one onyx card with my fingernail.

  Damon smiled like a shark, all greed and sharp white teeth. “This has dragged on long enough, don’t you think, Darla? Why don’t we make this the last hand?”

  He snapped his fingers, and all of his chips piled themselves into gleaming towers in the middle of the table. His eyes met mine. “All in.”

  My heart was thundering in my chest so loud, I almost didn’t hear the words. I watched the shapes his lips formed and forced my bone-dry throat to swallow. I wouldn’t shake. I wouldn’t as much as tremble.

  It was a mistake to glance at Finn and the others, to see Poppy clutching her son’s shoulders and watching the table with wide, terrified eyes. Taliyah could have been a statue carved outta ice, her expression blank and remote. But I could see the fear in those ice blue eyes, and in the way her hands curled into fists at her side.

  The tendrils of frost creeping across the carpet in a circle around her feet was a bit of a giveaway, too.

  I forced myself to turn away.

  My voice didn’t even sound like my own when I spoke, barely more than a hoarse croak. “All in.”

  We couldn’t drag this out indefinitely. Damon would just keep cheating until he won. It was better to end things fast. One last hand, for all the marbles.

  My chips vanished in a shower of metallic sparks, only to stack themselves in the center of the table right next to Damon’s own bet. His eyes met mine as he fanned his cards down on the table.

  Damon smiled, his eyes crinkling a little in the corner. “Call.”

  I was too keyed up to smile back. I was worried if I cracked my lips apart, I might scream, or throw up. It was hard to figure out which was more likely.

  Ever the showman, Damon flipped his cards over one at a time. Each graceful flick revealed a worse and worse picture. The king of diamonds, king of clubs, and king of spades flipped over one after the other, all staring with their creepy little painted peepers. The ace of spades followed, and then the ace of clubs that I’d just discarded! That rat fink had done whatever he did to poach a better card from the deck!

  “Full House,” Damon said, so smug I wanted to reach across the table and yank on his tie until his eyes bulged. Would it even be worth it to call him out? Who exactly would you complain to that Death didn’t play fair?

  He opened his mouth, either to gloat or to offer false sympathies, while he toyed with one of the golden chips in the pile. I cut him off with a raised hand.

  My heart kicked against the cage of my ribs. My dress felt too tight, like it was all that was holding me together, keeping me from flying apart into tiny pieces. I was so scared that there was a weird metallic taste in my mouth, clinging to my teeth.

  I wasn’t sure what would come out if I opened my mouth, so I stayed silent as I laid down my hand. Damon’s expression grew darker as each card was revealed.

  Ten of hearts.

  Jack of hearts.

  The queen of hearts I’d just been dealt.

  The only king that Damon didn’t have in his cheater hand.

  And finally, the ace of hearts.

  “Royal Flush.” The words came out barely a whisper, but they carried across the silent room. Even the spirits seemed to be holding their breath.

  Damon stared at me, his handsome face completely expressionless. Cain was vibrating like a tuning fork in my chest. I risked a glance over to my mortal audience and saw Poppy had a death grip on Finn and Taliyah’s arms. Finn was just as wide-eyed and pale as his mother, but there were the beginnings of a grin twisting the corners of his kisser.

  Taliyah stood in the center of a corona of frost. It fanned out in snaking tendrils across the lush carpet, creeping towards the poker table. Her eyes were all but glowing as she stared at Damon. If he tried to go back on our bet, I honestly didn’t know what she would do. As neat as it sounded, I’d rather go my entire second life without witnessing a match between Death and the Queen of Winter.

  Damon shook his head, a huff of laughter escaping him, and the tension in the room, while it didn’t quite shatter, at least dropped down a few notches.

  “You win,” he said. And he sounded pretty darned shocked.

  The pile of chips vanished in a cloud of glitter before stacking themselves into towers on my side of the table.

  You did it! Cain had never sounded happier.

  “I win.” It wasn’t a comment so much as a question as I waited for the other shoe to drop—for Damon to pull a fast one on me.

  “Good game, Darla Fenton.”

  I’d done it. I really had. Maybe I didn’t have magic hotel building powers, and maybe I couldn’t cheat by switching the cards like Damon could, but I’d found my own ways to level the playing field.

  With Finn to tell me when Damon was bluffing, I’d started working out my own set of deliberate tells. Any time I’d had nothing in my hand, but was trying really hard to hide it, I tapped my cards with my index finger. And just as I’d hoped, Damon had seen it as his chance to push me to double down on a lousy hand.

  Not bad for a gal whose last acting experience had been before movies had sound.

  I preened. I couldn’t help it. All the fluttery adrenaline was foxtrotting through my body, and I felt ten feet tall and then I remembered what Damon had just called me. “It’s Darla Rowe, actually.”

  That was all I had time to say before Poppy and Finn crashed into me, hugging and crying. My eyes might have gotten a little damp, too, but I blinked carefully to avoid having my makeup run. I couldn’t get the grin off my face.

  “You did it,” Poppy squealed. “You won!”

  Finn smiled like dawn breaking over the horizon. “A Royal Flush. Nice job.”

  “Well, I had a great teacher.” I had to physically force myself not to pinch his little cherub cheeks.

  Cain gave a little huff of laughter in the back of my head, but he didn’t say anything more. Taliyah, meanwhile, rested her hand on my shoulder, and if her fingers were uncomfortably cold on my bare skin, I’d never breathe a word about it. She squeezed, but it was a squeeze that said: let’s blow this joint. Pronto.

  Happiness fizzed inside my veins, golden and glowing like champagne bubbles. It took some effort, but I finally managed to tear my attention away from my friends to face Damon, who was still sitting across the table and idly rolling one of the silver poker chips between his fingers as he watched me.

  It could still all go bad, I knew that. Part of me was braced for it. If Hollywood had taught me anything, it was that powerful fellas thought they could do whatever they wanted and get away with it. The sad thing was, they were usually right. Damon might be an ancient, unknowable being, even if he was a card cheat, but that didn’t mean I’d just lie down and make it easy for him if he tried to go back on our bet. I’d do my best to hold him accountable.

  “You promised,” I reminded Death, where he sat watching our joyful little celebration with an oddly blank expression on his face.

  “I did promise,” he agreed. His eyes were so bright, they seemed to burn, like they should have been enough to light the room all on their own. “And I’m a man of my word.”

  Damon raised his hand, and the poker table, the ghostly dealer, the audience on the second floor, heck even the entire room, vanished and we all found ourselves back in the hotel lobby. The doors and front windows were all mirrored, the same mercury shine as the random tiles on the floor. It meant I couldn’t see outside at all. I had no idea what time of day it was, how long I’d been playing our strange game, or even if anyone was still waiting outside for us.

  I really hoped they were.

  Damon leaned against the front desk, his elbow slung casually onto the counter to prop himself up. His dark hair fell back from his brow in perfectly styled waves as he glanced around the lobby, the decorations, the billiards room, the sitting area, with an expression I didn’t really understand. The closest I could come was nostalgia.

  “You’ve won our little game, Darla. And a deal is a deal.”

  Little game he called it. ‘Little’ my Aunt Ida!

  He straightened up from his slump and crossed the floor towards where I stood with Poppy, Finn, and Taliyah at my back. I tried to keep my chin up, to look like I wasn’t someone to mess with, but even imitating Wanda’s ‘out of my way, mundane peasant’, attitude couldn’t keep the blood outta my cheeks at the blatantly appreciative look Damon ran over me.

  “I’ll keep the hotel operating,” he said. “But you’re going to have to find the people to staff it. I have other spirits in the area to see to; I can’t just hang around here all day.”

  No rest for the wicked, Cain grouched in the back of my head.

  “I understand,” I said, fighting down a grin. I’d be a gracious winner, even if it felt like I was going to pull something if I didn’t start cheering out loud soon.

  Finding some people in the know to staff a ghostly hotel, I mean, how hard could that be? Maybe folks at Spook Society would have some ideas. I’d have to talk to Bailey. And… hope that nothing about this got back to my boss.

  At that thought, all my joy rushed out of me in a freezing wave. I didn’t even want to imagine what Mr. Howard would say if he found out there was going to be an entire hotel full of ghosts sticking around Haven Hollow, thanks to me. Yeah, I was definitely gonna do everything I could to make sure none of this reached Blaise Howard’s ears.

  I very carefully didn’t think about the fact that I was more scared of my boss finding out I was responsible for a permanent spook hot spot than I was about sitting down at a life and death poker match with the Grim Reaper himself.

  Speaking of the reaper, Damon took my hand, tugging me out of the spiral pattern of my thoughts. He brushed a kiss over the backs of my fingers, his eyes never leaving mine, either not hearing or ignoring the little warning growl Cain made.

  “We could have been great together, you know.” His smoky velvet voice sent shivers down my spine. I was suddenly very aware of exactly how much skin I was showing.

  “I guess we’ll never know,” I answered.

  “I know you won our match, and I’ll respect the wager we made.” Damon squeezed my hand gently, still holding it up near his face. “But would you consider allowing me to court you, regardless? We could… what do the kids call it these days?” His intense golden peepers went unfocused for a second while he thought about it. “Oh, yes. We could go on dates.”

  I blinked, taken aback by the question. I opened my mouth to tell him, again, that I already had me a fella and I wasn’t really interested in what kind of ‘dates’ Death might find romantic, even if I still couldn’t get that one kiss outta my head, when Cain stopped me.

  Wait.

  Wait? I narrowed my thoughts down into an indignant hiss. What do you mean, wait?

  I don’t think it’s a good idea to turn him down.

  He couldn’t seriously be suggesting that I date Damon? Cain didn’t even like me hugging Henner, but now Mr. big, gruff, and ghostly was gonna start telling me to play the field? With Death?

  You won the match. He was a gracious loser, Cain continued. Best to take your luck and run with it. Don’t give him a reason to change his mind.

  I took in a slow breath as I realized Cain had a point, unfortunately. Best to let Damon think he’d at least won something just until my friends and I could get the heck outta Dodge. Not to mention the fact that it might actually not be such a bad idea to have a friend in someone like Damon. Well, not a friend exactly but wasn’t there something to be said about having friends in high places?

  Hmm. He might be a handy fella to have around. Not as a sweetheart, mind you—I already had Henner to fill that spot, but just as a good, old-fashioned friend.

  I gave Damon a slow once over, a smile curving my lips until my dimple peeked out. “I’ll think about it,” I told him and that wasn’t a lie.

  His lids drooped, absurdly long lashes veiling his burning golden gaze. “I hope you do,” he said, his voice a low rumble.

  I drew my hand back when he released me, my fingertips unintentionally sliding over his skin. Doing my best to ignore the little curl of heat in my belly, I turned towards the front doors, eager to be back with my friends, back to the life I’d built for myself in Haven Hollow.

  Taliyah, Finn, and Poppy fell in line with me, all four of us eagerly heading for the exit and not saying a darn word.

  It was a struggle, but I didn’t look back to see what Damon was doing, or what expression was on his face. I’d seen all the classics—I knew looking back never ended well.

  In spite of my lingering fears, the door opened easily under my hand, letting the early morning sunlight spill into the lobby of the hotel. I couldn’t stop the smile that bloomed at the first touch of the sun on my skin.

  The cheer that went up from the people waiting outside when they saw me (minus Lorcan, owing to the time of day), the way Henner picked me up off the ground to spin me around in a hug, the way Wanda nodded her approval and did her best to pretend she’d never been worried even once, it made every bit of what I’d just gone through worthwhile.

  Because this was my life and these people were my family.

  And I loved every minute of it.

  The End

  ~~~~~

  Return to Haven Hollow in:

  Pan’s Delight

  ~~~~~

  Return to the Table of Contents

  PAN’S DELIGHT

  Haven Hollow #23

  (Poppy’s Potions)

  by

  H.P. MALLORY

  &

  J.R. RAIN

  Pan’s Delight

  Published by Rain Press

  Copyright © 2022 by J.R. Rain & H.P. Mallory

  All rights reserved.

  Ebook Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Pan’s Delight

  Chapter One

  I slipped a pillow under the unconscious woman’s ankle, hoping the elevation would at least slow the swelling until I could get my supplies in order.