The Arcana Chronicles 5: The Dark Calling

"Are we clear of them?" I asked.

"Nothin' can catch us now."

In front of us: a desolate road. Behind us: thwarted wolves. Maneater snapped at Scarface, and a scuffle broke out between them.

Joules bellowed into the night, "Get fecked, Fauna!"

I gazed away, my attention drawn to the top of a mountain in the distance. Aric. He was astride his warhorse Thanatos, illuminated by the yellow haze.

I drew back my whipping hair. He sheathed his swords.

The bastard had already retrieved them. Way to prioritize, Reaper.

For my own survival, I was being separated from my husband, the father of my kid. My only hope was for him to leave that sphere. I somehow managed to yell, "Come and get me, Death!" While inside, I was pleading, Please, Aric, please come and get me . . . .

12

When I could no longer stand the cold, I knocked on the icy rear window, wincing as pain stabbed through my bare knuckles. My teeth were chattering. "C-can we come inside?"

Kentarch glanced at the rearview mirror.

"Chariot, please. I'm freezing, injured, and powerless."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because if I had any of my abilities, I wouldn't have needed you to save our lives back there."

Joules added, "We'd both accepted that we were wolf chow. Not by choice."

Noting his camo jacket, I said, "Come on, soldier. We're what you'd call neutralized threats."

Kentarch slowed to a stop. "Try to harm me, and I'll put you inside another animal. Or a boulder."

Talk about an awful way to die. "Understood."

Joules and I hopped down from the back. Hastening to the passenger door, I climbed into the front, sliding over the wide bench, Joules right behind me. Kentarch gunned it again.

"Cheers, Chariot." Joules gazed around the roomy cab in awe. "Talk about tricked-out."

Electronics covered the dash--everything from an outdoor thermometer display to a CB box, to a small monitor with GPS coordinates plugged in. Did GPS still work? Aric had said most satellites were untouched.

Storage pouches abounded. The sun visor had sleeves for even more gear: a penlight, a couple of unrecognizable hand tools, and a picture of a gorgeous, smiling woman about Kentarch's age. A rifle was mounted to the ceiling, within his easy reach.

"You got a name for this beast?"

With a shrug, Kentarch turned up the heater. His jacket billowed, revealing a holstered pistol. He also had a pair of blades strapped to a thigh.

I raised my hands to the warmth. "Thanks." My fingertips were discolored, and that snakebite was swollen. I should've already regenerated from two tiny puncture wounds--so, definitely venomous.

Kentarch's gaze took in the icons on my hand before he faced the snowy road again. "You said the Hanged Man brainwashed Death. Who is this new player?"

According to Paul, brainwashed wasn't the right word, but I didn't have a better one right now. Once my teeth stopped chattering, I said, "The Hanged Man, a.k.a. the Traitor, is a medic who lived in the castle. Goes by Paul. We had no idea he was the inactivated card."

Joules said, "I thought that player had to drop another one to get juiced up." His face fell. "Oh, yeah. The Magician."

"Paul killed my grandmother, a Tarasova, priming his powers. Today he took out Finn. The Magician was immune to his influence, so Paul poisoned him, then blamed me."

Joules punched the passenger window. "I'm goin' to fry him."

I folded my arms over my chest. "Get in line."

Kentarch glanced at his side mirror, clocking the area. "What is that yellow haze?"

"Paul calls it his sphere of clarity. It reverses cards, changing their personalities. You can actually see their tableaux turning upside down."

Joules raked his thin fingers through his brown hair. "No wonder Gabe was such an arsehole to me."

Kentarch cursed under his breath. "I finally reached that place to recruit help, and there's none to be found."

Would he jettison us now? The Chariot had one mission, and neither the Empress nor the Tower could assist him. "But there will be help. If we free everyone in the castle, Lark can locate your wife as planned." If Issa still lived. "Fauna's animals found the Magician out in the Ash."

And now I wished they hadn't.

Joules asked Kentarch, "So you're really an ally of Death's?" Demonstrating his lack of a filter, he added, "Know that I plot his downfall most minutes of every day."

I turned to him. "Enough!" Don't give Kentarch another reason to ditch us. "If you want Gabriel back, we're all going to have to work together to defeat the Hanged Man."

"All of us, is it?" Joules gave a harsh laugh. "We're just a trio, and you're up the duff. Up the flue. Up the pole."

"Pardon?"

"You're pregnant! What are you goin' to defeat that card with? Your swollen ankles?"

I glanced at Kentarch to see if he was surprised by this news.

He shrugged. "Death told me about the baby. You're almost three months along?"

"Two and a half or so." Would this pregnancy survive snake venom, an avalanche, a spearing, and a truck ride from hell?

"I canna believe Gabe and me have been out here starving, while you got knocked up with another mouth to feed. Much less the Reaper's bastard."

"First of all, my baby isn't a bastard. Technically, Aric and I are married." At least before he crushed his ring and forsook me. "And secondly, I didn't do this on purpose. Paul gave me a shot, telling me it was a contraceptive. He knew how much I didn't want to have a kid. He knew Aric would. Paul was trying to drive a wedge between us."

"Death wants a tyke?" Joules asked. "Mind blown."

Kentarch said, "The Reaper believes a child between two Arcana can upend the game."

Joules grew uncharacteristically grave. "Can it?" His best friend was an Arcana; Joules wanted to play this screwed-up game as much as I did. Not at all.

I exhaled. "Look, I just work here. But maybe? Circe thinks this kid will ring in a new world. If the entire planet is Tar Ro, our playing field, then the gods might bring it back. All I know for certain is that nothing like this has ever happened. Aric has lived through three games, and he's never heard of it."

Joules grudgingly said, "It wasn't in Cally's chronicles either."

My brows rose with my interest. "You have them?" Want them.

Joules jutted his pointy chin. "I might."

"What's your plan now?" Kentarch asked.

I let the subject of chronicles drop. "I doubt Paul will ever leave the castle, so we've got to get inside to kill him." Easier said than done. Probably best to hold off telling them how invincible he was. "Which means you two will need some kind of protection against his influence."

"Gabe likes to roam," Joules said. "He might fly the coop and leave that sphere. Then my problems are over."

I shook my head. "They don't want to leave." On that mountain, Aric had been poised at the very edge, but he hadn't crossed to pursue us. "I think that's part of Paul's hold over them."

Kentarch narrowed his gaze. "Why couldn't the Hanged Man control you? Were you immune like the Magician?"

In general, some cards were unaffected by specific Arcana powers. I vividly recalled poisoning Ogen to no effect. But according to the Hanged Man, I didn't possess an innate immunity to his abilities. Though I trusted little of what he'd said, I hadn't felt as if I were a foil to him, a secret weakness. And

at first, I had been swayed a touch. "I don't think brainwashing affects me anymore, not after I shucked off the Hierophant's mind control."

Joules said, "Oh, yeah, you ganked him."

Kentarch glanced at my icons again, and I felt my cheeks heating.

Joules pointed at his scrawny chest. "Maybe I'm immune like Finn."

"There's only one way to find out. Are either of you willing to bet your life?"

That got Joules to shut up.

Kentarch checked the mirrors again. "Then how do we fight this new enemy?"

"The Priestess. Circe is a witch, so I'm hoping she can do a spell." I recalled the sight of those towering ice shards. She'd been trying to get to me--but I wasn't sure why. I took a steadying breath, deciding to believe in her. "She's probably unaffected by the Hanged Man since she's still safe in her abyss. I think she was trying to help with my escape."

Kentarch's demeanor turned contemplative. "Strange that she and I were allies throughout the games, but I have no memories of her."

"She was always loyal to you." To me as well. I just hadn't returned that loyalty until this game. "We can try to contact her. She's a friend of mine." Surely she'd know how to defeat Paul, a player I hadn't even been able to scratch.

"Friend?" Joules snorted. "We heard she attacked you outside of Fort Arcana."

"Only a little. She didn't commit to it."

Joules rolled his eyes. "Oh, well, in that case . . ."

"If anyone has any better ideas, I'm open to hearing them."

"How will we summon this witch?" Kentarch asked, making it sound like we were summoning the kraken.

Circe would get a kick out of that. I imagined us chuckling together. Then reality returned. My husband wanted to murder me, and Finn was dead. Laughter was a long way away, not even a glimmer on the horizon. "I usually just make a lot of noise and bat at the water. Doesn't often work."

Kentarch raised his brows. "I'd anticipated something more . . . formal."

"We'll have to find a body of water not trapped in ice. The larger the better. Preferably as close to the Bermuda Triangle as possible."

"I can only teleport to places I've already been, and this is as far south as I've traveled in this country. We could drive to the nearest coast."

"That would put us in the Outer Banks." Right where my grandmother had been locked up. Seemed I'd always been fated to go there--except Jack was supposed to have taken me; that had been our plan. "We'll contact Circe from the Atlantic."