"Bet your lifespan against theirs? Just like Dean did."
"He could go that far for Bobby. Could you?"
Sam's finger tightened around the trigger.
For a moment, he truly wanted to pull it.
But reason told him that ordinary bullets might not work against a wizard who had lived for eight hundred years. And if Ryan died, Dean and Bobby would truly be beyond saving.
Just then, the sound of high heels came from outside the door.
A woman carrying a beige handbag appeared in the doorway.
She looked twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with chestnut hair and a well-tailored trench coat. Her features were delicate, but an unshakable weariness lingered between her brows.
"Ryan," she said softly as she looked at the Card Traveler. "Stop gambling. You've already gambled enough. Quit while you can."
The smile vanished from Card Traveler Ryan's face.
He was silent for several seconds. "Evelyn, you shouldn't be here."
"If I didn't come, you'd keep gambling." The woman named Evelyn entered the room. Her gaze fell on Sam for only a moment, but he caught something in her eyes—sympathy? Or perhaps a warning?
"Sir, please leave," Evelyn said to Sam. "Ryan won't return the lifespan to you. It's his principle."
Sam looked at her, then at Ryan.
His instincts told him this woman was far from simple, and that her relationship with the Card Traveler was complicated.
He slowly lowered his gun. Not because he had yielded, but because he judged that a direct attack now stood no chance of success.
"I'll be back," Sam said. Then he walked past them and left the room.
He did not go far.
In an alley across from the hotel, he waited less than ten minutes before Evelyn emerged. She seemed to know where he would be waiting and walked