The Arcana Chronicles 5: The Dark Calling

I accepted the canteen, but said, "I'm fine."

"Not stopping for you." He jerked his chin at my midriff.

Jack had shown more concern for my kid than I'd managed to. His loyalty was so strong, he would even protect another man's child.

As I took a drink, I gazed down at the truck. Joules and Kentarch had stayed with the Beast. Joules laughed as he balanced a sparking javelin on his forefinger, while Kentarch practiced throwing his blade. He now holstered his pistol and knives in reach of his left hand.

We were fortunate that the Chariot was healing up well; the one place we could get help wasn't an option.

We'd started picking up a recorded radio message from the very place Hal and Stache had spoken of--the Sick House: "Do you or a loved one need medical assistance? At the Sick House, we can help. Our doctors are on standby to save lives. Come to us with goods to trade and get treated today!" The spokesman had sounded like a smarmy lawyer: Have you been in an accident?

Jack had heard on the road that the Sick House was a military base commandeered by a gang that traded drugs, medical care, and women.

His pensive gaze took in our surroundings. Here on the coast, the snow had dissipated. We'd gone from pristine blankets of white to the ash we all hated--like ripping off a clean bandage to reveal a festering wound. "I always thought it was my job to get you here. Non. My job was to get you to safety, to a place you could call home. I haven't succeeded yet."

"We'll find that place, Jack. Somehow." Would it be the castle? Everything depended on Circe.

"So this is where your grand-mere rode out the end of the world?"

"Yep." I surveyed the coastal town. Apocalypse: Beach-Style! How had she survived here for so long? The towns we'd driven through had once been filled with seashells, sun umbrellas, and beach towels--not canned goods.

"How'd Dominija find her?"

"Like you, there's little he can't find." Both men had an innate talent for sourcing.

"He'd had her at the castle the whole time the three of us were on the road together?" I nodded. "Why didn't he play that card when you were about to make your decision between us? Seems that would've made him a shoo-in."

"He realized how much I would resent the coercion." I admitted, "He said he'd felt so strongly about me that he believed I must have felt the same." At Jack's troubled expression, I changed the subject. "I told Gran about you. She said she would've liked to see me with a bayou boy."

That muscle ticked in his jaw. "Why you tell me something like that?" he grated. "You've never been more out of my reach."

"Jack?" He looked exasperated with me, like I'd forgotten my bug-out bag or something.

"Sorry." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I told you how the future would play out, and I'm not liking my odds."

"You said you had to be convinced that Aric would return to normal and keep his rage in check. I've been replaying my escape from him, and maybe I'm not liking his odds." If the trust Aric and I shared had vanished like a desert mirage, I wasn't eager to trudge across scorching sand in that direction again. "And don't forget, when I accepted him as my own, I believed you were dead. It's like I explained to Joules--you and I didn't break up. We were planning a future together. Now . . ." I bit my lip.

"Now we doan have enough information to make a decision. So we live in limbo."

Which wasn't fair to Jack. "I don't know what else to do." At present, my missions were to meet up with Circe, plan a takedown, and rescue Aric.

After that? Beats me.

"Your kid's goan to need his father."

"I didn't have mine for long. And look how mentally well-adjusted I turned out."

"I'm serious, I know this better than anyone." Being abandoned by his father had shaped Jackson. But I'd come to realize that all his hardships before the Flash had strengthened him, preparing him for ever more challenging trials.

He and I were alive because of his hardships.

He studied my face. "What you thinking about, ma belle?"

"Remember how much envy there was in high school? I envied Mel because she had two parents. Grace Anne envied me because I lived in a big house. I wish I could go back and tell everyone: the more perfect your life is, the less prepared you'll be for the future. If you don't have bullshit to deal with, you're about to get hosed."

"You believe that?"

I held his gaze. "My mother once told me that diamonds were born of pressure, but I never understood what she meant until I met you."

His brows drew together, and his voice roughened. "For true?"

"Jack, your past--and how you handled it--is why we're both still breathing."

A flush tinged his broad cheekbones. Uncomfortable with the praise, he coughed into his fist, then said, "Let's get goan. Like a shadow, you." He pointed to the sand. "Doan want you to step on a surprise."

"Bagmines," I muttered, and we began to climb.

When we crested the dune to take in the lightning-lit view, my heart sank. There was nothing. Not a drop of water. "Jack?"

"It's okay. I didn't figure the ocean had risen to its normal levels yet."

"Circe told me to go to the coast and then keep going. But I'd assumed there'd be another target to shoot for. Not this"--I waved at the horizon--"nothingness."

"Guess the question is: how much do you trust her?"

"With my life, now that I'm pregnant. But she's been unwell." Who hadn't been? Hello, bottomless pit. "Maybe she got things confused."

"One of Kentarch's maps showed a shelf of land that used to be under the sea, dozens of miles wide. It drops off into a trench. My bet? We got ourselves a new coastline."

I tried to wrap my head around that.

"The Beast has enough gas to get us to the edge of that shelf, but not back. So do we try to scare up some more fuel and food?" We'd found nothing on the way here. "Or do we take our chances out there?"

I thought of Aric, pacing his lonely castle. I pictured Finn's grin on his last night alive. I thought of how vulnerable Lark was under Paul's rule.

I might not blindly trust that Aric and I could regain what we'd lost, but I would still fight to free him. "Let's take the leap."

27

Day 557 A.F.

"Would you look at that?" Jack murmured at our surroundings.

We'd driven miles and miles past the last of the burned-out high-rise condos into an undersea landscape that was no longer under the sea.

The going was slow, the shelf teeming with debris--anchors, traps, sunken wrecks, and even crashed planes. Enormous whale skeletons stood as big as houses. Every now and then we would pass a Bagger, emerging from the sand, scrambling to catch us.

According to Kentarch's elevation gauge, we should've been well beneath the surface. I wished Aric could witness this surreal scene with me. How would I ever describe it to him?

The fog thickened

the further we descended, slowing us even more. Lightning illuminated the gray cloud deck. I rotated the spotlight, picking out wrecks through the eerie mist.

From the back, Joules said, "This place makes me bollocks shrivel."

Kentarch made a sound of agreement, his gaze alert.

Jack tapped the fuel gauge. "We just passed the point of no return."

I swallowed. "Are you sure we're going the right way?"

He pointed to the map screen. "Due east."

We continued on in anxious silence, descending another hill, chugging around a pair of whale skeletons . . . .

Suddenly a flare lit up the sky over the horizon.

"Who could've shot that?" And why? Matthew had warned me to beware of lures, like a light in darkness.

"It's coming from the direction of the trench." Jack rolled down his window and slowed the Beast to a stop. An engine revved somewhere in the night. Another followed, and another. He killed the headlights. "Company from the northwest." For my benefit, he added, "North of where we first hit the shelf."

The darkened mist grew brighter. Bouncing beams of light shot into the sky. "Are those headlights?"

"No way," Joules said. "There's too many of 'em."

Jack eased the Beast over a rise of sand. Stunned quiet reigned.

Finally I said, "Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

Jack nodded. "Traffic."

Not far in the distance, dozens of trucks and dune buggies hauled ass past us on what looked like a cleared sand road. Whereas we'd spent a day inching our way around debris, they were charging across the shelf. "Why are they racing?"

"No idea, me. They're heading toward that light."

Joules slapped Jack's shoulder. "Back in Oirland, me ole mam said, 'Whenever you see a mysterious line, Patty, you best hie your arse into it.'"

"Even with what you guys are packing, that many survivors could pose a threat to Evie and Tee." His new nickname for my kid, short for p'tee garcon. Baby boy.

"No choice but to push on," Joules said. "We're skint--out of grub and running on fumes."

What else could we do? Despite the lure, my instinct told me to head toward the light. "Jack, that must be where Circe wanted us to go." And she was our only lead to save Aric.

Jack read me so well. "So to spring Dominija, I'm supposed to risk you and Tee? No way."