The Arcana Chronicles 3: Dead of Winter

I tensed when Matthew wandered over to Aric. The last I’d heard, Matthew had broken ranks, reneging on some deal the two had made.

But he and Death talked calmly. What could they be discussing?

“Christ, Evie, you can’t take your eyes off him?”

I closed the flap, then headed for Matthew’s cot.

“How much history can you and the Reaper have? You never met him before three months ago.”

I sat with my hands folded. They wouldn’t stop shaking. The fear I’d felt for Aric bewildered me. “We were together in a past life.”

“Dis-moi la vérité!” Tell me the truth!

“I am. Arcana are reincarnated.”

His mouth opened, then closed.

“Whoever wins gets to live as an immortal. The rest of us reincarnate for each game. Death has won the last three, so he’s lived all this time. But I have memories of being with him.”

Pacing, pacing. “That bastard ain’t acting like this is a past thing! You sleep with him?”

“You have to understand: I thought you and I were over.”

Jack’s eyes grew crazed. “Did you—sleep—with him?”

“No, but I was . . . with him.” The night he’d saved me from Ogen, I’d decided to have sex with Aric. But I hadn’t gone through with it.

“I ain’t hearing this!” Jack heaved in breaths, like he couldn’t get enough air.

“I believed I’d never see you again. But then I couldn’t stop thinking about my promise to you, to give you a chance to reach me. So I didn’t go any further with him. I told him I was going to get your side of the story about everything.”

Jack tipped that flask up, swiping his sleeve over his mouth. “I’m out here, nearly dying every day trying to find you or make it safer for you. And you were almost screwing the man who nearly killed me!”

“I can’t explain what it was like when I found out about your lies. It was like something broke in me.” I thumped my chest. “Died in me. I felt so betrayed by you. By Matthew too. Then I learned that in a past game, I married Death. I tried to poison him—on our wedding night. In another game, I got him to trust me again, then struck once more.”

Jack slowed his pacing. “Then you were with him this time out of guilt?”

At one point with Aric, I’d thought of it as penance. At another point, I’d been rocked by our connection. “I don’t know.”

“You came back here—for me. You told me you loved me! Was that just bullshit?”

“No!” I pinched my temples. My nagging headache had turned into a pounding migraine.

“You love that bastard?”

“I care about him. If not for you, I probably would.” And if not for his deal.

“You always liked the rich ones.” Jack’s pacing and drinking resumed at full speed. “The blue bloods. Figures you’d go for a knight.”

“That’s not fair!”

“I can’t even wrap my mind around this! He abducted you. You think he’s not here to do it again? Maybe you want him to?”

“He can’t force me away. I have my powers back.”

“That’s right—he stole your powers for months, and you reward him. He tried to kill me and your friends, and you reward him. Damn, Evie, where’s your loyalty?”

“What about Selena? Have you forgotten that she planned to take me down the night we met her? If you hadn’t been there, I would be dead. Beheaded.”

I guessed all that had been swept under the rug. “Things change, Jack. This game makes us all villains at some time or another. And besides that, Aric didn’t try to kill any of you. Ogen demolished the mountain. Death could have ambushed us earlier.”

“Why didn’t he?”

“I think deep down he hoped I wouldn’t be evil. He knew I would never forgive him if any of you died. He considered taking you out in the mine, but didn’t.”

“You believe he could’ve? You got a lot of confidence in him.”

“He’s Death—killing is second nature to him.” Some would say first nature. “I used my arsenal against him, fighting with everything in me. And I couldn’t defeat him.”

“But you still let him kiss you? Touch you?” His voice was whiskey roughened, his accent thicker. “Even when I thought you were lost to me, I never turned to another!”

Another. Selena. Jack was telling me he’d never gotten with her. Yet Selena had admitted, “Things between us are different.”

“I’ve had cause to hate in my life; I never hated like I do Death.” Aric had said the same about him. “How can I not kill him?” Jack had hit his limit.

I was nearing mine as well. Just over a week ago, the Devil had strangled me. “Pretty meat,” he’d sneered as his drool had coated my face. I put my head in my hands. “I need to slow down, just long enough to think.” I wished Tess could make time stand still.

“We doan get that luxury. Not since that bastard showed up here. We got a grenade in our camp, with the pin pulled.”

On the road, Jack had taught me about grenades: Once you pull the pin, a grenade is not your friend.

“What do you want from me, Evie?”

“I want you two not to fight each other. To give me time to sort through things.” I met his eyes. “I’m asking you not to hurt him.”

“I can’t . . . I can’t do this now, no. You’re fucking gutting me.” He rubbed that bandage. “I’d had this hope of being with you again, only thing keeping me goan.” He gazed past me. “But now, can’t even look at you.”

“Please try to see this from—”

A yell sounded across the camp.

Great. What had Death done now?

20

When Jack and I ran outside, we found Aric standing by his horse. Matthew was no longer with him.

Jack eyed the knight with a withering hatred; steady and still, Aric kept his gaze locked on me—

“She’s gone! She’s been taken!”

“Was that Finn?” I asked.

Jack made for the Magician’s tent, while I tried to keep up.

Inside, Finn sat on his cot, Matthew beside him. By the light of the low fire, I couldn’t tell which boy looked worse.

Gabriel, Joules, and Tess rushed in right after us.

“What happened here, podna?” Jack asked Finn. “Tell me nice and slow.”