“Matthew, we need your help. What do we do?”
“Look at my new kicks.” He raised one boot. “Finn said I’m ballin’ like a pimp now.” Then he frowned. “Good thing?”
“Yes, yes, but—”
“He took care of me when you abandoned me.”
God, the guilt. In a rush, I said, “I thought you’d be safer at Finn’s than going back out on the road with me! You know how dangerous it’ll be to reach the coast.” But then, I’d believed that before I’d understood how lethal I could be.
“Dangerous Empress!”
“I had no idea Jackson would drag all of you up here.” He’d come for me, wanting to be with me. Until he’d witnessed what I was. “Sweetheart, can you please concentrate? What should we do?”
“Fight to the death.”
“Damn it, Matthew!”
Selena grabbed my upper arm. “You want me to join in this make-love-not-war bullshit? Then convince me it’s even possible. You might not be able to defeat them, but you better look like you can. . . .”
5
“This isn’t working!” Back on Arthur’s front porch, I’d shed my pack and new parka, willing my claws to appear. They’d tingled but remained dormant. “Tapped out.” My glyphs were dark, the fuel gauge blinking E. “I used everything in my arsenal last night—”
Selena’s hand shot out and smacked my face.
“What the hell?” When I raised my palm to my cheek, she slapped the other one harder.
I felt my glyphs stirring.
“If you don’t want these cards to die, then get to work, Evie! You need to look like the Empress of Old, slithery and creepy and sexy all at the same time.”
“Touch me again, and you’ll see slithery and creepy—”
With her enhanced speed, she shoved me back before I could even react. I tripped over my pack, landing on my ass. “You bitch!” I bounded up, thorn claws bared.
“That’s it! Sell it, sister, or we are dead!”
I gazed down at my body, at my skin glowing through the fabric of my clothes. Sharp emotions like fury and utter terror always sparked my powers; Selena had pissed me off enough to give me a jump-start. I narrowed my eyes at Matthew. “This is why you want me angry, terrified, and sad for the rainy season?”
Blank smile.
Which power to choose? The flower glyph was my lotus, the barbs my tornado. The gleaming vine circling my upper arm was ready to spring to life, leaving my body to maim and kill. The dotted pattern shivering across my torso represented my poisons.
I opened my palm, peering down at the three thorns that emerged from my skin. I tossed them into the air, watching the barbs multiply in the sky, forming a tornado.
“Rad-ick-ull!” Finn cried.
You haven’t seen anything. A few slashes of my claws across my forearms gave me blood to grow vines. I let it drip to my fingers, flinging drops across the ground. Greenery slithered to life. When I popped a crick in my neck, my two oaks whipped to attention.
“Now we’re talking, girl.” Selena strung her arrow, holding her bow at the ready. “Jungle this up!”
I surveyed my arsenal. Not as petrifying as the one I’d conjured last night, but . . . “It is what it is.”
We all took up positions on the porch. In this lull, my mind flashed to Jackson, and my chest ached. Don’t think about him, don’t think about him. He was obviously safer away from us. Right now, we were facing a possible supernatural battle.
Selena asked me, “You really think your good ole granny can help you exit the game?”
“She might be the last living chronicler.” Before, I’d needed to reach her to ask about my nightmares and hallucinations, about the physical changes taking place inside me. Now I needed her to help keep me from turning into a stone-cold killer, one who’d had the impulse to murder her friends. “She’ll have answers.”
Yes, Gran had once told me I’d have to “kill them all,” but she’d just been reciting ancient rules. The fact was that her granddaughter Empress hadn’t turned out right.
This Empress wanted nothing to do with the game.
“How could the cards find us here and so fast?” Finn asked. “Evie just toasted one of these freaks yesterday.”
Selena scanned the street. “We’re drawn to each other, seeking something that will bring us into the fray. They were probably close already.”
“Convergence,” Matthew said.
Finn wiped his sweating palms along his jeans. “What if some player had been in the Antarctic before the Flash? It isn’t like he could fly or take a boat now.”
A good guess, since there were no planes. Or oceans.
“Convergence,” Matthew repeated in an overly patient tone. “We are led. We lead. We follow MacGuffins! The Tower’s alliance arrives in twenty . . . nineteen . . . eighteen . . .”
As he continued his hushed countdown, Finn asked, “If the Tower is a heavy hitter, what’s this guy packing?”
I murmured, “Control over all electricity and straight-up lightning. He has these silver javelins that appear in his hand. Wherever he throws them, lightning strikes. Plus he can electrify his skin.”
“Fourteen . . . thirteen . . .”
Selena explained, “A direct strike could fry my insides, but I might survive. Evie would be stunned, maybe long enough for him to take her head. Finn, you and Matt die instantly.”
Finn scowled, wrinkling his freckled nose. “That’s not fair! Why are we so lame?”
“Matt should be able to foresee a strike, and you should elude it with your magic. But he’s crazy and you’re weak.”
“Eight . . . seven . . .”
Here we were: a mentally unstable Fool, an all but arrowless Archer, a magically challenged Magician, and me, running on fumes and anger.
What could possibly go wrong?
I reminded myself that today’s encounter might be step one in bringing down this ancient contest. I imagined the game as a machine with cogs and wheels grinding to life every few centuries. I wanted to jam a stick of dynamite into the cogs and laugh as it exploded forever.
“Shh.” Matthew covered his lips with his forefinger. “They’re here.”
When the three rounded the corner, two on foot and one in the air, my adrenaline surged. Yet then I noticed that our adversaries weren’t as intimidating as I’d expected. Gabriel, for one, flew in obvious pain, blood seeping from one silky black wing, staining his old-timey gray suit. Underneath hanks of jet hair, his face was pale.
As an Arcana, I could see his tableau, a brief superimposed picture, like a Tarot card. His was of an archangel carrying a staff and sword, flying over a mass of bodies.
Selena murmured, “He’s injured.”
“Death stabbed his wing,” I replied. “Right before he beheaded the Temperance Card.”
And the World? Tess Quinn was a chubby brunette with nervous eyes. She carried a battered staff. Presently she was biting the nails of her free hand to the quick. Hardly a seasoned killer.
I’d wager she had as little control over her powers as I used to. Her tableau was a bare-chested maiden with a swath of cloth around her hips, symbols of the four elements framing her.
But Joules looked malicious, his dark eyes flashing as sparks glittered over his skin. His tableau was the most terrifying—charred bodies plummeting from a lightning-struck tower.
When the three paused in front of the house, he called out, “Get a gander at all the vines! Empress must’ve spilled pints of blood to grow ’em!” His Irish accent was pronounced. “And the grand trees too? I’ll bet you’re right wasted. That tornado’s fierce-looking, but Gabe can fly circles around it.” He opened his right hand and a javelin appeared in it.
At this sign of aggression, my claws tingled anew, the heat rising. Come, Tower, touch, was on the tip of my tongue. Instead I inhaled for control and forced myself to say, “Hi, Joules, my name is Evie.”
Double take from the Tower.
“And I want you to know that I’m sorry about what happened to Calanthe. She was a brave fighter. She deserved better.”
In my head, Death tsked. —You wound me, creature.—
Ignoring him, I told Joules, “We want to join with you in an alliance to take out Death. Then we would be seven, gunning for him.”
Joules twirled his javelin with ease. It was a thing of beauty, gleaming, etched with ancient symbols. “Or I could end you all today, snag your icons and more power to take him on myself.”
Out of the side of her mouth, Selena muttered, “Told you, dumb-ass.”
“We don’t want any trouble with you,” I called.
“Too bad. ’Cause it’s trouble you’ll be gettin’.”
“What happened to the enemy of my enemy is my friend ?”
“Death stole my lass from me. Now I’m going to steal what he’s hankerin’ for most: your demise.”
I was selling this as hard as I could, and it still looked like we were about to throw down. “It won’t happen, Joules. Our alliance is too powerful. Already the Fool has foreseen that we would win this fight and all three of you will die.” Bluffing. “We could’ve hidden ourselves with the Magician’s illusions and ambushed you, but I wanted to offer an alliance. We’re not playing this game. We refuse to kill any other player except for Death. We can make that vow to you today.”
Tess’s eyes widened, excitement in her expression. Hovering above us, Gabriel tilted his head, his face unreadable. Joules looked even more furious. “The vicious Empress is making promises? Problem is, you never keep them. Everybody knows you break your vows each game.”
Had I? I slanted Selena a questioning glance, but she had her laser focus locked on Joules.
“Well, then, this game is different. We refuse to kill.”
“Oh, is that so?” His hostility was palpable—and strengthening, for some reason.
“It is.” My hopes for an alliance were circling the drain. Now I just wanted to get out of here alive. I readied my army. I could bind them with vines, giving us time to escape.
“Liar!” Joules yelled. “You think I canna see your hand, bitch? You already killed!” Without warning, he heaved his javelin straight at me.
Like a blur, Selena loosed her arrow; it struck his javelin, sending it off course. The spear hit the neighboring house. Lightning exploded it, firing debris over us.
Chunks of the house hit the closest oak like ax blows, cracking its trunk wide, sending pain ripping through me. Shingle fragments sliced into the side of my face, and blood streamed. He’d attacked? After I’d offered a truce?
He’d attacked . . . me? Fury filled me, and I screamed with it, my red hair whipping, my hands directing. Roots erupted from the deep, piercing the surface of the ground around him and Tess. As Joules aimed another javelin, a vine snaked around his waist and arms, slamming him to the ground.
Limbs from the remaining oak curled around him, the wood groaning as it ratcheted tighter. He thrashed to get free, but he was bound fast.
Gabriel sounded a battle call, diving to attack, but my tornado forced him back.
When vines circled Tess like serpents, she gave a nervous cry and swirled her staff in a circle above her head, as she might a lasso. Both Joules and Gabriel appeared to wait with bated breath.
Nothing happened. She was supposed to be one of the strongest? I stifled a yawn when she twirled her little stick again. Bored with the World, I launched my vines at her.
She batted them with her staff, but they kept coming. Tears streaming, she hunched down with a whimper.
Joules flailed against his bindings. “Let me go, you bitch!”
Death laughed. —I knew this Empress of Peace act wouldn’t last long. You’re far too proud of your . . . craft.—
Before I’d even made a conscious decision, I was sprinting for Joules, tree limbs parting for me. Nearly mindless with rage, I leapt atop him, perching on the limb clenched around his chest, careful to avoid his electrified skin. I could feel his currents bombarding his bindings.
“Wood,” I explained. “Such a poor conductor.” As he struggled, I raised my dripping claws to finish him. “Looks like you’re helpless.”
Death urged me —Do it. You once told me how good it feels to sink your claws into flesh. Don’t you remember?—
Tess screamed, “Don’t you hurt him! P-please, don’t!”
Yelling with frustration, Gabriel tried to elude my tempest to save his friend, but he was too injured, too slow.
“Póg mo thóin,” Joules grated. “Kiss my arse, Empress.”
