The Arcana Chronicles 3: Dead of Winter

“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 Milovnícis 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.—