by Kresley Cole
Such as roasted bodies. I shuddered.
In the past, Death had waited to attack until the Emperor had drained himself. Yet just now Richter had looked like he was only warming up.
"But you weren't summoning the great Priestess for help with Richter. Not yet. You want to defeat the Hanged Man. I sensed his activation at the castle."
My gaze shifted toward Circe. I needed my eyes on Jack, but I'd waited weeks to talk to this woman. She was the key to my future, the ally who'd just saved our lives. "Yes. He poisoned Finn and reversed the others' cards."
"The dark calling."
I frowned. "My grandmother spoke of that."
"We're all at risk for our card turning. Any uncontrollable emotion can reverse an Arcana. Fury, pain, sorrow. Remember, the Lovers' tableau was reversed."
Matthew had described them as reverse, perverse. "I've felt fury before, but I didn't succumb to the dark calling." So what would happen if I tapped into my well of wrath? Every time I called on my Empress gifts, I played with a primal force--and I had no idea of the cost. "After Richter's massacre, I nearly lost my mind."
"Yet you didn't. The reverse comes when you do. Or else the Hanged Man can turn a card with just a thought." At my exasperated look, she said, "The dark calling exists without the Hanged Man, but the Hanged Man doesn't exist without the dark calling."
Now that we're all clear on that . . . "Why couldn't Paul reverse me? I might be immune to brainwashing, but that's not his only power."
She glanced at my belly. "The Hanged Man can't control mortals. Perhaps your child shielded you."
A breath escaped me. My thoughts about this baby were as conflicted as ever. I hadn't felt much protectiveness toward it. But maybe it'd already protected me? "Paul told me he couldn't make Aric and Lark hate me unless they were predisposed to it. Is that true?"
"What you want to know is whether the Hanged Man can plant a tree where there is no soil. I can't say for certain."
"Aric's rage over the past was real." Again, what kind of future would we have?
"Clearly." She hiked one slim shoulder. "Since mine is."
My lips thinned. "Can he be saved or not?" What if Paul's influence did last even after I killed him? Aric might already be lost forever.
"So little is known about the Hanged Man, but I believe his demise will end his sphere. Without it, he has no influence."
"His demise? One problem: he's invincible, as far as I know."
"True. He can't be harmed by most weapons. To trump a card like that will take more than bullets or blades." Or claws. "I recall that he has a weakness to a specific weapon, but I don't remember what it is. I have been researching."
I swept wet hair from my face. "Maybe you could use a spell of some sort to locate it?"
"Perhaps. This temple is my spell book, the walls covered with incantations, all written in tiny letters. I haven't eaten or slept, too busy reading every word."
"How big is your temple?"
She rose from her throne. "Vast." The water window followed her as she meandered down a torchlit passageway. I could hear tentacles slithering but couldn't see below her waist. When she entered another chamber, a stone slab ground closed behind her.
Impatience gnawed at me--why hadn't Jack returned yet?--but I sensed I was on the verge of some revelation with Circe.
She paused beside a wall to trace her fingers along a section of foreign text, and firelight glimmered over one arm fin. Was she becoming more sirenlike, just as Lark had become more animalistic?
I'd seen Circe in my memories of past games. She'd looked like a normal girl, with a few scaly body mods. Now she might have tentacles for legs. "Circe, what's happening to you? Are you changing?"
"Maybe I'm more myself in my temple. Maybe I become more myself every day I remain down here."
"What does that mean?"
"I feel so tired, Evie Greene. The cold makes my bones ache. Trespassers claim my domain as their own. They pollute every last atom of me. I hear much of what they say. Some of what you say. None of what my currents sigh. The trespassers don't make the proper gifts to me."
"What do you mean? What gifts?" Decoder-ring talk from Circe? But hadn't I done the same on the phone with Aric? He'd told me, "You're not making sense, Empress."
"If I received a proper sacrifice--one that would be dearly missed--I could see farther, could regain my strength and control over my element." Revealing more of her domain than ever before, she headed into another chamber. Inside was a stone table carved with trident symbols, stained with blood. Was that a sacrificial altar?
No freaking way. "Ogen used to demand sacrifices."
"The Devil Card wanted power. Just as I crave it." Those tentacles slithered anew. "I am a priestess, you know. Didn't expect me to have blood rites?"
So much for making her my kid's godmother. Or godsmother. Which reminded me . . . "Earlier, you said your godson. Why do you think I'm carrying a boy?"
"Because I'm a powerful witch, and I know things."
Ah. So Aric would have a son. My hand drifted to my belly, but all I felt was conflict.
"By the way, Empress, I did eat Fauna's tiger--one she would dearly miss--and it tasted delicious."
I muttered, "We ate her lion."
"Bravo! And my ally Kentarch killed her bear. Lions, and tigers, and--"
"Don't. Just don't."
"Fine," she grumbled. "You were more fun in previous lives."
I gazed past her. Mosaics covered the walls, depictions of tidal waves destroying ports and monsters devouring ships. "Did you once control those monsters?"
She chuckled. "Of course not, Empress. I was the monster. The terror from the abyss."
How delightful.
"All who hear my call will fear my catastrophal powers."
Why did that sound so familiar? "Did we talk about that in a past game?"
"Hmm." Her gaze grew unfocused, and she swayed. "Much activity at the shore. I've been away too long. The suit I've been missing is right there."
"A suit? I don't understand." I was freaked out and exhausted, and I needed to know that Jack and our friends were okay. "Damn it, just tell me what to do."
No answer.
"Circe, give me some idea how long it'll be before I can face Paul. He's already killed one of our allies. What's to stop him from taking more of them out?"
"I don't know. I too have limited time. All my bodies are freezing. I'm starving down here. Maybe I can figure something out. But if this continues, I will perish. Coming to land might be my only hope."
"What kind of hope is that? You always die when you come to land."
Circe faced me with a wry half-smile. "Such worry, Evie Greene. It warms the cockles of my ice-cold heart."
Jack called from a distance, "We need some help here."
Her smile dimmed. "Go to them."
"How will I find you again?"
"As with all things, you'll find the answers you need on the shore. Wait for me there."
"Where specifically?"
"Go to the nearest coast. Then keep going." Her voice faded away, and her water window subsided into the lake.
"Ugh. That makes no sense!" I hurried through the pass, then around to the other side of the crater. Over here, fires still burned, the smoke needling my eyes.
Joules stumbled into view. "Goin' to get bandages out of the truck." He had blood all over him and a shell-shocked expression.
"Whose blood is that?"
"Tarch's hurt. Bad."
I rushed past him and found Jack kneeling beside Kentarch. The Chariot sat propped against a rock, cradling his arm. Staring at nothing, he demonstrated zero emotion.
Blood covered the ground, had splattered Jack's face. He'd used his belt to make a tourniquet around Kentarch's forearm. "Evie, can you give him something for the pain?"
"Of course. What happened?" I rubbed my gritty eyes, trying to make out the injury amidst all the smoke.
Jack rose, then crossed
to a small fire. His knife was heating in the flames, the blade red-hot. "We're goan to need to cauterize his wound."
I turned back to the Chariot and finally saw. Breath left me.
His right hand was gone.
24
Jack drove the Beast at a furious pace.
Kentarch was passed out in the back, mumbling in his sleep.
Before Jack had sealed his wound, the Chariot had roused long enough to teach Jack the Beast's security measures and to decline my medicinal plants.
No matter. I'd injected him with a generous dose, telling him, "Think of Issa. Think of better times to come."
He'd peered up at me with soulful eyes. "Did you kill me? As you did before?" Even after all the shit we'd been through together, he still considered me cold enough to poison him . . . .
I gazed over at Jack's strong profile. My emotions were going haywire, tangling up inside me. I was appalled by what had happened to Kentarch and spooked to my marrow by what I'd glimpsed.
Jack clutched the steering wheel with white knuckles. What must he be thinking about everything? I dreaded his reaction to my pregnancy.
Joules asked, "What did you give Tarch?"
"A sedative-slash-painkiller. Want some?"
He looked interested-slash-skeptical. "Why didn't the Priestess tsunami Richter's arse?"
I debated whether to reveal the truth. But what was the point of pretending? "She's weak. She could barely put up enough of a front to scare the Emperor off." I wondered how a well of wrath would affect her.
"That's just bloody great! How can we fight them? The Emperor's immune to--to everything. And Zara? What are the chances that lightning--me own element--would end up saving her?"
"Freak coincidences are her power. But she's got to be depleted now." Unfortunately, they'd just go hunt survivors for a top-off.
"Depleted? Not before her power did that." Joules waved at Kentarch's arm. "What are the feckin' odds that a flat shard of rock could sever his gun hand clean?"
Jack said, "Right now, I'm more concerned with them finding us again. The Sun must've been the one to tip them off."
Joules snorted. "So much for a man on the inside, Empress."
"Hey, he used a Bagger to warn us about Richter's approach, okay? And then we warned you. So if not for Sol, you'd have one of Zara's missiles up your arse. In any case, I'm sure he has to help them. They're only keeping him alive as long as he's useful to them, which he must know."
Joules asked, "What did Circe tell you about the Hanged Man?"
How to put this without crushing all their hope? "She's researching a weapon to kill him. She told me to go to the coast and wait for word." Kind of. "We'll be safer there from Richter too, closer to big water. As soon as she comes up with a plan, she'll contact us." But with her rate of deterioration, would she be less and less help?
"Where on the coast?" Joules wanted to know.
Have no idea. I thought we should continue our heading for the Outer Banks. "I'll know more when we get there."
"Grand directions, Empress. You'd best plug that into the GPS." He laughed without humor. "Maybe I shouldn't be working to rescue anyone from the Hanged Man. If Jack and me save Death, then we sacrifice ourselves to the Ash--and Gabe too. The Reaper will never share his resources with us."
"Joules, I vow to you that if you help me, Aric will reward you. He'll give you a freaking medal."
"Canna eat a medal. Just want in on that bacon we smelled. Hell, at least Gabe's got food and warm shelter right now. He's thriving there."
Jack said, "Gabe's living with a sword over his neck. He only survives as long as the Hanged Man says. And who is Paul goan to take out first when the food supplies dwindle?" Jack's gaze slid to me. We both knew Aric had set up the castle to sustain people for decades.
As long as the generators had fuel, the Reaper could use those sunlamps to grow crops to feed humans and livestock. Centuries of planning had gone into his home. It was everything to him.
I said, "Look, the bottom line is that Aric's the only Arcana alive who knows how to kill Richter. Understand me: saving Death could mean saving the world."
Joules's gaze darkened until I could all but hear his thoughts: Nothing good comes from Death. "Worst road trip I've ever been on," he muttered, leaning against the door. "Grabbin' a kip. Wake me up when there's even more fun to be had."
How could he sleep at a time like this? Soon his soft snores sounded from the back, effectively leaving me and Jack alone.
I touched his arm. "I know this is all . . . a lot."
When Jack's muscles tensed under my palm, I pulled my hand back.
"Please, talk to me. I need to hear how you're feeling about all this."
Quick glance from the road. "Doan know, me. Confused. I pictured us having a kid together, down the line when we were older. Now it's you and Dominija." He briefly squeezed his eyes closed, as if the thought brought on fresh pain. "You two do this on purpose?"
"Never! Paul gave me a contraceptive shot--or so I thought. I told him I didn't want to have a child in a world like this. And I'd already told Aric that I was way too young."
"Dominija wanted you to have his baby?"
"Yes. No. He did at first, but then he changed his mind. Still, after we found this out, he was happy. He thinks it could derail the game. Plus, he simply wants a family. To this day, he misses his."
"Tell me about it." Jack would always miss his beloved mother and his sister Clotile. "What if the Reaper plotted with the Hanged Man? What if they set you up?"
"No, I don't believe so. I trust Aric. Or I did trust him." Death's look of fury plagued my memories. "I'm really confused too."
"How could he attack you and his kid?"
"Paul convinced him I lied about the pregnancy. Now Aric hates me for 'tricking' him into believing it for a time."
"I'm goan to kill that medic."
"Not if I get to him first. I've wanted him dead since I learned I was pregnant."
Jack's gaze dropped to my stomach before returning to the road. "How far along are you? Women sometimes lose pregnancies."
"More than three months, I think. I get the feeling this one is here to stay."
"You doan sound overjoyed by that."
"I think having a baby is the craziest thing anyone could do during an apocalypse, much less during a deadly game. At best, I'm no longer bulletproof. At worst, it's draining my body."
All of my bottled-up thoughts spilled out: "And how could this kid be normal? Just weeks before I got pregnant, zombies dined on me. Since then, I've been bitten by a viper, caught in an avalanche, stabbed, starved, and nearly parboiled by Richter. And it's not like I can run out and get a sonogram. Not to mention that my grandmother warned me that Life and Death would become something dire. I'm probably carrying the Antichrist. Of course, she was half-crazed when she told me that--which reminds me: great genes I'm passing on."
"Wait. Circe said her godson. If you haven't had a sonogram, how'd she know it's a boy?"
"She sensed it, because she's a witch."
"Then couldn't she sense if anything was wrong?"
Huh. Good point. But then, Circe's judgment might be off. Aside from her mental decline, her likes included an occasional bloody sacrifice and being a sea monster.
"What'd the Priestess say about your pregnancy?"
I admitted, "She made it sound like the kid had shielded me from Paul's reversal power, his dark calling. It doesn't work on humans, and the baby might be a regular mortal."
"That's something, non?"
"Circe's probably biased. She thinks this baby could usher in a new era--the key to saving the world. She called me Mother Earth and reminded me that my powers and history were all about birth and rebirth."
"A new era?" Jack said, a wistful note underscoring his words. "You believe something like that could happen?"
I sighed. "Could this development affect future games? Yes. But I don't think my having a kid will make the sun shi
ne again. I'm coming to accept that only the natural conclusion of the game can do that." This subject always made my head hurt. "Jack, I understand if you want to bow out of this mission. I mean, this is really messed up."
"I woan stop until you're safe. Being out in the Ash is a certain death-sentence. Being out here when pregnant? You might as well have a target on your back."
"Which means you'll have one as long as you're close to me."
"I was never goan to live long anyway. I figure the average survival time out here is a year. I'm not average, so maybe I can eke out three more years. If I make it to twenty-three, I'll do a jig, me."
So how could I bear ever to be separated from him again? If Aric returned to normal, and I returned to him, Jack would leave. I'd never see him again.
"We've got to get you safe in that castle, now more than ever. That stronghold is your only hope. Come hell or high water"--we'd experienced both recently--"you're goan to be there when you give birth."
I nibbled my bottom lip. "How can you want to help me when I'm knocked up by another man?"
"You think I'm goan to abandon you, just 'cause you're pregnant? That's something my father might've done, but I ain't him." Emotion simmered in Jack's gray eyes. "I'll help you no matter what, Evangeline. I always will."
I couldn't accept this. There was no upside for him--only more Arcana madness, Death, and death. When Jack had decided to let me make a future with Aric, he'd been free for a time. "We aren't . . . together anymore. How can you risk your life for mine?"
He shot me a look like I'd gone crazy. "How can you ask that? You got my heart in your hand. I told you--I'm not ever getting it back."
I had his heart in my hand, and he had my thorn in his paw. I almost felt like I'd . . . doomed him somehow along the way.
Never meaning to, but done all the same. I rubbed my aching brow. "What will happen now?"
"I doan want to put pressure on you with another choice, so let me tell you how this is goan to go. If Dominija can be saved, and I trust that he woan give in to that rage again, then I'll let you two get back to your life. If we can't save him, we'll defeat him and take that castle. You and me'll live there and raise this kid for as long as we can hold on."
My breath caught. Jack was offering to raise Aric's son?
From the back, Joules said, "I know what I'm hoping for."
I shot him a look. He shrugged and closed his eyes again.
Facing Jack, I said, "There's something else you need to know. I can't win this game. I'd rather die than become immortal."
