Dead of Winter

by Kresley Cole

  "Then I'm ready for them." Once I got to the source twins in Dolor, I could take them out. Issue number one: where the hell was Dolor?

  "Have you fought the Lovers before?" Gabriel asked me. "What were the crimes they spoke of?"

  Gazing around, I parted my lips to confess about the alliance I'd betrayed--

  "She managed to take them unawares in the last game," Aric quickly said, "then destroyed them." Of course, he knew what I'd done. His gaze warned me to keep quiet.

  Show of hands, anyone I didn't betray.

  "Alas, they've learned from the past. They'll be ready to counteract the Empress's powers."

  "Who defeated them before that?" Gabriel glanced from me to Aric.

  "The Hierophant," Aric said. "He mesmerized the carnates, ordering them to slay their own source."

  Shit. I glared at his icon on my hand. "There went that option."

  "Before that, the Emperor executed the Lovers with a firestorm, burning them and all their duplicates to ash." Aric's icon hand clenched. One of his tells.

  What was Death's history with that card?

  "Maybe Eves can wrangle that dude into our alliance?" Finn asked. "Emperor and Empress. Sounds like a bond to me."

  Aric's irises darkened until they looked like cold amber. "The two earned their titles because they ruled over men--in warring empires." I had? Okay, sure. "When the Emperor set upon the Lovers, he spared no mortal bystanders."

  Then Richter was as despicable as the Priestess had said. Wait a minute . . . She'd told me the Lovers' icon was "right where it should be." She'd known we hadn't killed the true twins! Gee, Circe, thanks for the heads-up.

  "Destroy the root," Matthew murmured. "The Moon sets. Moon rises."

  "We can't dispatch the Empress and Jack to them alone," Gabriel said. "What can we do? What can I do?"

  "The Lovers are right," I said. "I'm not going to let Selena pay for what I did in the past. I can take the wolf with me and plan a sneak attack of some kind."

  "I'm goan for Selena." Before I could protest, Jack strode toward the exit, jamming his shoulder against Aric's armored one.

  He'd done that to Brandon in school. Because Jack refused to deviate from his path in the face of anyone.

  I shot to my feet to follow him. "Finn, look after Matthew."

  "Ten-four, blondie."

  Before I left, Matthew gazed up at me. A single tear tracked down his bloody face.

  21

  "Jack, just wait!"

  By the time I caught up with him, he'd already collected his bug-out bag, crossbow, and that mysterious camo duffel.

  "Where are you going?"

  "Setting off to end the twins." He stopped a passing soldier, grating some orders about a chain of command or something. Then he headed toward the stable.

  I jogged to keep up with his long-legged strides. "You think you can waltz in alone and take the twins out?"

  "You mean, as a mortal? The Milovnicis infiltrated my fort. I can do the same to their encampment. I got friends in the rank and file, me. I'll have help."

  "It's too risky! And the doctor said you're supposed to be resting from your injuries--your concussion. This is for me to do. They want me more than anyone."

  "For months, Selena's had my back. Last night, she did. You think I'm goan to leave her hanging in the wind? I'm riding--now."

  "Riding? Across the river to take one of their trucks, right?"

  He shook his head. "Azey North controls all the cleared roads to Dolor. They'd just be waiting for me. I'm taking the slaver route."

  "What is that?"

  "It's how black hats move their merchandise for auction."

  In the stable, he crossed to the large gray he'd ridden earlier, walking him to a saddling area. "And you? You're goan to sit your ass right here."

  Ignoring that, I led my own mare out. She seemed to scowl at me. I wished I could give her more of a rest, but even recovering, she'd be stronger than any of the other horses here.

  "Damn it, Evie, you ain't goan! Do you understand how dangerous that route is? It's all off-road tracks snaking through steep ravines. Full of chokepoints, traps, and tolls--where you're expected to pay in people. If you manage to dodge those, you'll thread the needle between more cannibal mines and skirt past a plague colony. Bagmen are everywhere. It's a concentration of all the bad."

  "Then why on earth would you go that way?"

  Jack turned to me with flinty gray eyes. "Because they'll never expect me to."

  "You're not going alone. You know I can look out for myself."

  "You'll just slow me down."

  "I ride as fast as anyone here." Except Death. My gaze widened. "Aric! He can control his call." If he even had one. "They would never hear him."

  "The hell that'll happen! Even if I wasn't about to put a bullet in his skull, it ain't like he's goan to ride out to help Selena. He left her to die. Remember that, you?"

  Jack was right. I was attributing traits to Aric that simply weren't there. Why would the ruthless winner of three games risk himself to save another card, much less one outside his alliance?

  As if on cue, Aric entered the stable. "Empress, your friends are delightful. Abysmally ignorant about the games, but that's how I usually prefer other Arcana."

  Jack's entire body tensed up. "I doan even have time to think about you. But you'll get what's coming to you. I swear it."

  "I've been hearing that for two thousand years, mortal." Aric turned to me with glowing eyes. "Yet never have I received what should be coming to me."

  Flustered, I gazed away.

  He leaned his armored shoulder against a roof support. --I've missed your company these long days.--

  I jolted to feel his words in my head after such a long absence. If Matthew was the switchboard, Death was king of the airwaves, had learned over his lifetimes how to mentally communicate with any Arcana.

  --The human can barely look at you. You must have told him that I had you in my bed.--

  I bit my cheek as I answered, Speaking like this reminds me of all your telepathic threats. I remember you telling me that I'd be under your sword in a week.

  --Had you been the same as before, I would have made good on that promise.--

  Sometimes, his honesty shocked me. What are you even doing here? You stayed away so long, I thought you weren't coming.

  --You missed me, and now are piqued. Know that I was obtaining something that guarantees my success with you.--

  More coercion?

  --A gift for you. That's why I've allowed the mortal leeway and refrained from a slaying. Because you're about to be mine.--

  His confidence unsettled me. Good to know you were worried about your wife alone out on the road. You let me make the journey by myself. And face the twins! Though you knew how much they would hate me.

  --I felt confident that you and six other Arcana, one of the largest alliances yet, could take out a pair of insignificant carnates. To guard you on your way, I bade Lark to dispatch the wolf.--

  And spy on me. Cyclops led you past the minefield.

  Aloud, Aric said, "Lark sends her regards, wants to know when you're coming home. She's feeling better, by the way."

  "I would've asked, but my mind's a little occupied. Who knows what could be happening to Selena right now?" Who knew what could be going through Jack's head?

  "You're determined to go after her?" Aric said.

  "Absolutely. She's my friend."

  "You won't ask if I'm willing to assist you?"

  I didn't pause, just hefted my appropriated saddle onto my appropriated mare. "Would it make a difference?"

  In a contemplative tone, he said, "Perhaps I miscalculated with you earlier this week." He was calculating even now! "Perhaps you would be moved by sacrifice."

  "Instead of a deal ?"

  "Just so. I underestimated the depth of your affection for me, Empress. When I was unconscious from your kiss"--smirk at Jack--"you took pains to ensure my safety. Your barri
cade of our bedroom door was as charming as it was heartening. Armor, swords, and shields, like a bird building a nest."

  Jack stiffened, clenching his jaw until the muscles bulged.

  "He's needling you, Jack. He'll do this until you want to"--I turned to Aric--"strangle him in vine!"

  Unfazed, Aric merely raised his brows at me. "Well?"

  I struggled with my temper. We did need him. If there was the slightest chance he'd agree . . . "Will you help us?"

  --On two conditions. For the duration of this rescue, you make no decisions about your future, concerning me or the mortal. And you resist his advances.--

  Borderline close to coercion there, Aric.

  --Those are my terms.--

  Fine. But I've got a condition of my own. You don't hurt Jack, or put him in a position to get hurt.

  Aric inclined his head, saying aloud, "For you, I'll pledge my sword. My standard has a rose on it for a reason." He sounded like a knight speaking to his queen.

  Or his empress.

  Jack finished saddling the gray. "No way in hell I'm riding with him."

  "Excellent," Death said. "You set off alone, and I'll accompany her."

  I told Jack, "All things considered, more is better. Especially when the route is as dangerous as you say."

  "You can't trust him, no! Out there, you got to trust the people you ride with."

  Aric hiked his shoulders. "I've given her my word that I won't hurt you."

  Between gritted teeth, Jack said, "Try. To."

  "Jack . . ."

  "And what about you, Evangeline? You seeded your vines when he arrived--because you didn't know if you'd have to defend yourself from him!"

  Death waved that away. "Old habits die hard. But deep down she knows I will never again harm her." He tilted his head at Jack. "Curious that you would decline an extra sword to protect the Empress, the woman you profess to love?"

  "I woan ride with you, Reaper. And neither will Evie."

  "That would effectively doom the Archer. Shame. From what I heard, you now know how rough the Lovers play. The physical's just a fraction of the damage they can do. Or so I'm told. Would you want that for our poor, dear Selena?"

  Joules rushed into the stable. With a scathing look at Death, he told us, "Matthew was sayin' some things that actually made sense, in between the droolin' and crazy eyes and all. Said the three of you will ride out together, or she's dead by week's end."

  "Then we have no choice." I told Jack and Aric, "You two are going with me, and we will save her."

  Joules quietly said, "No, lass. The three of you ride from here--or you die."

  22

  As I followed Jack through the minefield, I chanced a look back at the fort.

  Matthew had provided no more information about how I might have died there by week's end. "Fate marked you," he'd whispered, rocking on his cot. "Far from out of the woods, Empress. Fate demands her due."

  After that pronouncement, Aric and Jack had shut up and readied for the trip. I currently rode between them. Fitting.

  I'd had time to grab bandages for Jack's burn, and for a quick apology to Tess. I'd promised Gabriel that we would return with Selena. In a spur of optimism, I'd snagged her bow for the trip back. I'd hugged an unresponsive Matthew until I thought I'd break him.

  Finn had sworn he'd take care of Matthew, and we'd left the wolf to protect them. Who knew if any other traitors had been planted?

  Jack figured we could make it to Dolor in three days. Seventy-two hours to reach Selena. Would the twins truly wait until her arm had healed to begin torturing her?

  The carnates had inflicted so much damage on Jack in such a short time. Shadows tinged his eyes that had never been there before. New secrets festered inside him that would never see the light. What had they done to him? I asked myself that over and over.

  My thoughts were in turmoil, my mind overloaded by all the things happening to us. I'd freaking time-traveled hours ago.

  Was this a hint of what it was like for Matthew?

  Aric's arrival just added to the chaos. As we'd exited the gates, he'd told me, --All I wanted was to return you to our home, yet now I find myself aiding my most hated enemy to save another card. You lead me on a merry chase, little wife.--

  I peeked over my shoulder. His eyes were locked on me.

  I faced forward, determined to ignore him. He might not have had malicious intent toward me; didn't mean I'd forgiven him.

  By the time the three of us had navigated the mines and the stone forest, rain began pouring. Jack pulled up the hood of his jacket. Without a glance back at me, he spurred his horse, setting a punishing pace.

  As I followed, I wondered what we would encounter out on the road? Or when we faced the twins?

  And how was I going to keep Aric and Jack from killing each other?

  Jack was my boyfriend--maybe. If he hadn't washed his hands of me for being hitched to Death, and if I could figure out how to trust him.

  Aric was my lethal "husband"--a master manipulator, one who clearly had a trick up his sleeve.

  Me, Jack, and Death on a mission.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  23

  Our journey's first stumbling block on the slaver route was like a macabre brainteaser.

  One: a narrow dirt road is carpeted with layers of bloated corpses. Two: they died from drowning. Three: there are no rivers or lakes nearby.

  After several hours of hauling ass, we'd stopped at the edge of the bodies. The rain had eased to a drizzle, the temperature dropping. That bizarre A.F. fog enveloped us, distorting ambient sounds and cloaking our way. "What happened here?" I'd thought I would welcome any chance to take a break. My migraine worsened with every mile, and I'd lost sensation in my limbs.

  "Dam went out," Jack said, without a glance in my direction. "Carried the dead down the ravine for miles and miles."

  Most of the victims were older men. Apparently, they'd managed to avoid slavers and the plague, then got wiped out by something they'd never seen coming--and couldn't fight against.

  We might be goan extinct.

  Aric lifted his visor, revealing his glorious face. "I've seen this in other places. Catastrophic dam failure. The drought cracked the dams, and now we have nonstop rains. No one's manning the plants, no one's discharging overflows."

  "So this will keep happening." A new post-apocalypse reality. "Why are the bodies laid out like this?" They formed a nearly level rise a couple of feet high and a hundred feet long, spanning the sides of the ravine.

  "They're probably lining much of this section of road." Aric ran his gloved hand over Thanatos's neck. "I suspect they've been here for weeks, entombed in silt, gradually uncovered by rain. We could be riding over others beneath this very layer of soil."

  Chilling. "We have to go across the exposed ones?" I didn't see any way around it.

  He nodded. "And it's trickier than one would think. Corpses can roll unpredictably. Their skin is slippery and rotted. Sometimes the dead clutch things to them, like packs and weapons. Just follow me, and Thanatos will establish a track." His massive warhorse had sharpened hooves. This ought to be interesting. And by interesting, I meant vomit-inducing.

  Jack looked annoyed, no doubt thinking I should have stayed at the fort. He'd once told me that he kept his eye on me to monitor how I was doing because I never complained. But Aric was right; Jack could scarcely glance my way.

  In contrast, I found Aric's eyes on me again and again. And as much as he'd been watching me, he'd been studying Jack.

  Earlier, when we'd been forced to slow on a washed-out mountain pass, Jack had finally snapped, "What the hell are you looking at?"

  "Something about you is not right."

  "You got a lot of nerve to be saying that about me, Grim Reaper."

  There'd been a couple of other tense exchanges between the two. But for the most part, they'd behaved.

  Jack spurred his mount forward over the corpses at a brisk pace. His
horse's hooves ruptured carcasses, sending slushy remains squelching into the air. Bones cracked.

  Crack, squelch, crack.

  "Just follow my lead, Empress." Aric started across. Thanatos's immense weight compacted bodies. Chest cavities and skulls disintegrated under its hooves.

  Crack, squelch, crack.

  Driving a car over a corpse was one thing, but this . . .

  I rolled my head on my neck, then urged my mare forward to pick her way through Thanatos's gory wake. I really needed to give this poor horse a name. She high-stepped, as if saying "ick, ick" with every hoof fall.

  Ahead of me, Death suddenly gripped a sword hilt. Thanatos grew agitated, braided tail flicking.

  "What is it?" I called. "Did you hear something?" Over the sounds of our headway?

  Jack reined around. Crack, squelch, crack. "Why you slowing down, Reaper?"

  "There's a threat nearby."

  "What direction?" Jack swept his gaze, crossbow ready.

  "Even with my uncanny senses, I can't pinpoint it." Death surveyed the area with a cool glance. "I doubt anyone could in this fog."

  "Probably just Baggers." Jack slung his bow back over his shoulder. "Hell, maybe nothing's out there, and you're stalling us on purpose."

  "Again, feel free to move on."

  "For all I know, you could be allied with the Lovers, you. All the other Arcana worked together against them. But you showed up a day after." Jack started forward.

  Aric rode up beside him. Crack, squelch, crack. Our gruesome soundtrack seemed to be ratcheting up their tempers. "Perhaps I am merely vigilant when taking the Empress over corpses cloaked in preternatural fog. Do you not have any combat sense?"

  "We're on a clock."

  "Ah. So to rescue the girl you presently favor, you would risk the one you used to favor. You might have a spare female, but I'm intent on keeping the one I have."

  "You stirring up shit? It woan work."

  "To save your precious Archer, you're leading the Empress of all Arcana on a treacherous journey directly to the Lovers--despite the fact that fate marked her. Still you press onward."

  "It was coo-yon who told us to ride out together--in order to save Evie!"

  "The Fool didn't say to do it recklessly. He didn't say to sacrifice one female for the other. I value the Empress above all things. Just as you do the Archer."