"Epitaphs. Have you ever written one? Ever summed up someone's life in a few lines?"
"No, I haven't."
"I'm going to pay the Emperor back for these murders." Aric and my grandmother would teach me Richter's weaknesses, and I would figure out how to use Sol as well. Which meant I didn't get to kill him.
Seething with displeasure, the red witch receded.
I had to get the Sun to Death. Maybe with this card strengthening me--and the help of every player in our alliance--we could take out Richter.
But then, our small alliance had recently dwindled by two Arcana.
The game seemed to be speeding up, building on itself. Right around the deaths of Tess and Selena, I'd met the Sun.
Were we spinning to an end?
How stupid I'd been to think I could avoid fighting--that Jack and I could live happily ever after. The Arcana did converge; I'd face them for the rest of my life. Unless they all died.
That doesn't mean I have to take them out, I thought, even as my claws tingled for Sol's vulnerable flesh.
"What will you do to the Emperor?" he asked.
"Vines will grow through his body like veins, oh-so-slowly flaying him. Roots will burrow and feed on his organs. When he begs me to kill him, I'll force him to pick his next meal: thorns or pieces of himself."
Sol coughed. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."
"You and I are going on another little trip." Logically, getting to Aric's castle made the most sense. Then Lark could help me find him. I didn't exactly know the location of his home, but I'd made the journey from there to Fort Arcana not long ago. Matthew had given me directions; I would simply reverse them.
"Where are we off to now?" Sol said.
I smiled evilly. "Right to Death's door."
_______________
Day 396 A.F.
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Sol asked for the third time this hour.
I ignored him and kept walking.
Two days ago, the truck had died, probably due to Sol's driving. I didn't miss the ride too much though. The roads had gotten so bad that we'd bottomed-out every other mile. Each time, Sol and I had freed it with the help of my vines and his Baggers.
Pushing the truck shoulder to shoulder with zombies had been bizarre.
We'd been forced to continue on foot, trudging through mountainous terrain. Sol had found some clothes and boots at Fort Arcana, so he wasn't slowing me down. He, Bea, and Joe had restocked our food and water from the supplies there, while I had . . .
I frowned. Huh. I didn't remember what I'd been doing.
Now Sol asked, "Pequena, can we stop for a moment?"
I kept walking.
Ever since the gravestone, he'd tried to be nice. He'd said consoling things. We'd politely shared food and water as we'd traveled the Ash together.
But I had nothing left. Bea and Joe showed more liveliness than I did.
Whatever burgeoning friendship--or at least understanding--between me and the Sun had disappeared.
Jack had been one of my last links to humanity. Without him, I was cruel.
Without Jack. I was already thinking about him in past tense. I might have sobbed, but my tourniquet was holding fast. Yet my mind suffered, making odd connections.
The whirlpool I'd been trapped in just days ago, spinning like a roulette wheel . . . roulette meant little wheel . . .
Tess reversing time as though on a backward-spinning carousel . . . carousel meant little battle . . .
Tourniquet came from the French word tourner, to turn or rotate . . .
Everything was turning; I was turning. I'd entered Fort Arcana one way; after finding Tess, I was changed forever. I no longer believed with certainty that I was in charge of my own destiny.
In the middle of a clearing, Sol stopped. "Empress, you're lost."
I faced him. "I'm not lost." I was completely lost. I never thought I'd miss the voices. I still hadn't heard any. I was relying on my own sense of direction--which sucked.
Even if I could navigate using the sun or stars, neither were visible. Dawn never came, and clouds concealed the night sky. Endless nights.
Now that I assumed Aric was alive, I'd started hailing every puddle for Circe, hoping she would help me, but she never did. I'd imagined I heard her whispers from every raindrop--until I thought I'd go crazy. Eventually, I would.
I just needed to hold off until I'd completed my missions.
Find Aric.
Annihilate Richter.
Sol rolled his head on his neck. "Please tell me where we're going. Por favor."
"I told you. I'm taking you to Death." Would Aric be immune to the Sun's powers? Would his armor protect him?
"What will he do to me?"
"Unless he knows something about you that I don't, he'll keep you cuffed, your movements limited." Aric had once kept me prisoner; I knew the drill. "I'll ask that your Baggers be put somewhere safe." Inside the castle's huge menagerie, Lark's animals now roamed free, their enclosures no longer needed since she'd come into her powers. I could borrow one of the cages. "You'll eat well and have a warm bed to sleep in."
In a quiet voice, Sol pointed out, "I don't get cold, and I was already eating well before--"
"Wait." I froze. A muted cry had sounded from somewhere. "Did you hear that?"
He shook his head.
Another cry, closer. An animal! A bird? I swept my gaze across the sky, spotting a falcon, one wearing a little leather helmet. "Lark! I'm here!" I jumped up and down and waved my arms. "Hey! Over here!"
The falcon banked, hovered, then dove for me.
"Thank God." It was flying in fast, straight for me. "Lark, you're coming in hot. Watch it!"
In a flutter of feathers, the bird leapt onto my shoulder, talons digging in.
"Enough! That freaking hurts." It swooped its wings, seeming to urge me in one direction. "Okay, okay, I'm coming!"
Behind me, Sol said, "It didn't have to be like this, Evie."
I frowned, turning. "How did you know my name--"
His arm was swinging toward me, a large rock in his hand.
Pain.
The falcon's screech.
Blackness.
13
I woke to a creepy sound. A slurping sound.
I managed to crack open my eyes, and almost lost what was left of my mind.
Four new Bagmen . . . drank me.
They'd bitten me. Had slashed at my clothes to get to my skin. They were greedily s
ucking my blood, jostling my limp body.
I strained to get away, to summon power . . . too weak. Couldn't move my limbs. Couldn't scream. Sol must've cracked my skull. Blood loss weakened me more.
The falcon tore at the Baggers' faces, its beak plucking at their eyes.
Another nightmare? Real? Unreal? This couldn't be happening. I wasn't supposed to go out like this!
Sol looked on with his two favored Baggers, their thorn collars gone. He'd called my bluff. The Sun wasn't gloating, didn't look pleased or displeased. But he was still doing this to me.
Killing me.
I choked out a word: "Why?" Though I hadn't trusted him, I hadn't expected this.
"Already in an alliance." He fiddled with that watch on his wrist. Then he raised his face to the night sky, and light flared from his eyes. Twin spotlights. A signal. He blinked, and the beams flickered in a rhythm.
To signal what?
I gasped, "Then just . . . kill me." The falcon still fought, but the Bagmen barely seemed aware of it.
"That's not the plan. I had them bite you because their mutation neutralizes an Arcana's powers." He intended to keep me alive? "At least, it did on the last player who attacked me."
Who? Sol had been in the game for a while.
He was right, though. I wasn't able to call forth a vine. Even my regeneration stopped working.
A Bagger above me released his bite, but only to sink his teeth into unbroken skin at my waist. I cried out, powerless to stop it. The falcon went crazy.
Would I join Jack and my mom and Mel on some other plane? Or would I become a Bagman myself, cursed to walk the earth? "You'll keep me around . . . like Bea and Joe?"
Had Sol flinched?
Despite the risk of turning, I should be glad of even the chance to join my loved ones. But I couldn't stop imagining Death's reaction to my horrific murder.
Had Aric believed me when I'd told him I loved him too?
Over the falcon's furious cries, I heard another sound: swoop swoop swoop. Familiar, but so unexpected; I needed a few moments to place it. A . . . helicopter?
Hadn't I heard one the night of the massacre? That's how Richter had escaped Circe!
Did the Emperor approach now? The Sun must have been working with him all along!
Spotlights flared as a copter came into view. The lettering read COAST GUARD RESCUE. It circled overhead, a metal buzzard. If Richter was in there, I needed to bring it to the ground!