Silver on the Road (The Devil's West Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

wished, do whatever they wanted, pick up whatever skill they thought handy . . . but they were loners, too. They could go anywhere, but they didn’t have anywhere to come back to, not really.
    Izzy couldn’t imagine being alone. But crossing the River into the States, with all those people, their noise and bustle . . . she couldn’t imagine that, either. And Nueva España feared those who came over the Knife, the taint of the Territory; without something to offer, some skill or wealth, they would not welcome her. North held some appeal, but she lacked the skills to become a trapper or trader; Izzy knew she’d come to grief during their cold, hard winters if she went north. And it was a lonely thing there, too, she’d been told.
    All these choices, but the truth was, this was her home.
    The knowing of what she wanted rose up the way waters did from streams underground, so quietly you didn’t notice until you slipped on the slicked-down stone. All those choices, like the spread of cards facedown on the table, but she’d spent her entire life learning the devil’s game . . . and she was good at it. Good at seeing underneath the bluff to what people held, what they wanted.
    She looked at the girl in the mirror, and the girl smiled back at her, quiet and sly.
    Bargaining with the devil was tricky, but he didn’t cheat. He never had to. Ree had been right: the devil took nothing you weren’t willing to give. Her parents had taken money and handed her over to the devil they knew rather than the copper-skinned one they didn’t. They’d abandoned her, maybe with tears and maybe not, and it didn’t matter, because she hadn’t been their daughter, the only child of Alfonso Távora and Felipa Lacoyo; from that moment on, she’d been Izzy, indentured to the Devil’s House.
    And she wasn’t that Izzy any longer. Sixteen and free.
    Without thinking, Izzy rose, opened the door, went to stand by the railing, looking down.
    The night was in full swing. Molly was sitting in someone’s lap; William was deep in discussion with the woman in black and a freedman, the three of them leaning against the bar while the others circulated, refilling drinks and flirting, making everyone feel at home, whether they were there to gamble, gossip, or just drink their troubles away. Most of the tables were still full, and the dealers were flipping cards smooth as butter.
    Marie passed behind the boss’s table, her hand touching his shoulder as she went. To Izzy’s eye, he took no notice any more than he looked up to see her standing there, but she knew he knew where they all were, every moment of every day. They were his, for as long as their contracts ran, and the devil never lost anything he cared to hold.
    And he knew the things you don’t even tell yourself. He just waited until you figured it out.

    Panic gripped Izzy when she woke to the sound of the blacksmith’s hammer already ringing out. The light coming through the window told her she had slept well past dawn, and she sat upright, her heart racing, before remembering that she had no duties to perform that morning.
    Free.
    She slipped from bed and washed up quickly at the basin, then brushed out and rebraided her hair, feeling the weight of it swinging between her shoulder blades. That done, she paused, staring blankly at the wooden brush still in her hand. With the end of her indenture, she had no responsibilities today, no chores that needed doing, no obligations or . . . anything. The lack felt like an itch under her skin, uncomfortable and awkward.
    “And what do you do when there’s nothing to be done, Izzy?” she asked her reflection in the mirror. The words she’d heard nearly every day of her life came back to her, shaped by her own mouth but sounding suspiciously like Marie: “Find something that does need to be done.”
    She didn’t have far to look, although the thought of it unnerved her enough that she thought for a moment to crawl back into her bed,