Dead of Winter (16 page)

Jack shook his head. “They'll be spotlighting the skies for you. They've got truck-mounted rifles that can cut you in two.”

Gabriel turned on Matthew. “You had to have seen this, Fool!”

Finn raised his crutch to defend Matthew, but Jack blocked the archangel. “Just back off, Gabe! We're goan to get Selena back.”

Right at that moment, a staticky call sounded in my head.
—We will love you. In our own way.—

Every Arcana stilled in shock.

“W-wasn't that the Lovers' call?” Tess adjusted her baseball cap, her still-thin body trembling.

“That can't be,” I muttered, though I'd heard it.

“Are you sure you guys ganked them?” Finn glanced from one of us to the next. “Yeah? Then I guess their Arcana power is resur-freaking-rection.”

Matthew gave a low cry. “They're
calling
.” He stiffened and his voice changed, seeming to vibrate as he vocalized a message: “Empress, we'd planned to make you a prisoner of our love, but it didn't work out. Luckily we'll have Selena to keep us company. Will you let her suffer for you, for the crimes you committed?”

“What crimes?” Joules asked, but everyone shushed him.

Matthew continued: “If you're truly as different as you say, you'll come for your ally. We'll release her in exchange for you—and the hunter. We camp outside the Dolor Salt Mines; be here within four days. No Arcana can travel with you. If we sense another's call—like
the archangel's—we'll give Selena to our army. It's your choice, a test of your ‘alliance.' When to enter, when not to honor . . . Four days, Empress. We will love you ever so much.”

Matthew slumped, the message delivered.

“Vincent and Violet are alive? They have her!” Gabriel started for the exit.

I headed him off. “Just wait! You can't jeopardize her. We'll plan another rescue. Maybe Matthew can block our calls.” I turned to him—sucked in a gasp at the blood pouring from his nose. “Sweetheart, what is this?” I reached for him.

Jack was right beside me.
“Coo-yôn?”

Matthew rocked forward and back, blood soaking his shirt. “Beware the lures . . . strike first . . . or be first struck.”

I yanked a bandanna from my pocket and held it against his nose. His eyes pleaded; for me to do what? Why couldn't I figure out how to help him? When Matthew's blood saturated the material, I didn't think, just cried, “Aric!”

“Why you call for him?” Jack sounded like he was about to do murder. “I'm the one who's been looking out for
coo-yôn
for three months.
Me
.”

I sat beside Matthew. “Aric knows things. Arcana things.”

An instant later, Death silently entered.

Joules went bug-eyed, producing a javelin. Gabriel's wings flared anew. Tess floated to the back of the tent.

Finn's recent illusions glimmered over him. “Wh-what the hell, people?” He'd been unconscious, didn't know Aric was here. Up went the Magician's crutch again.

“Death is in the trues,” I said.

Jack's jaw clenched until I thought he'd grind his molars to dust. “You like to go where you're not welcome, Reaper.”

“Often.” Aric's pale blond hair shone in the firelight, his breathtaking face highlighted.

“This is actually happenin',” Joules sputtered. “We're in a tent with this rotten, bloody bastard.” Speaking to everyone else, he said, “You realize he's killed us all at some point in past games.”

Death's lips curled. “Some of you more than once.”

Like me.

“Bugger this, I canna be in here.” Joules cast Aric a look of scalding animosity. “That demon killed my lass, my Calanthe.”

Death's amber eyes narrowed. “
Your
alliance attacked
mine
.”

Gabriel reached for Joules's shoulder, saying under his breath, “Stay. Know thy enemy.” He jerked his hand away when the Tower's skin sparked.

“Feckin' Reaper.” But Joules did remain, directing his fury toward Jack. “You should have plugged his skull when you had a chance!”

“You think I doan regret that?”

I gazed up at Aric. “Do you know what's happening to Matthew?”

“In past games, the Fool occasionally did this—when someone was about to die. Someone he'd much rather
not
.”

All eyes turned to me. Was I on the chopping block? Or Selena?

“Plus, he must be overloaded,” Aric said. “I've seen this before midgame. His mind is simply
full
.”

“What does that mean?” I smoothed Matthew's hair from his damp forehead.

“It's unusual for so many Arcana to converge for extended periods. Our calls would blare like constant megaphones in his head.”

The Arcana switchboard.

“Not to mention that he's been seeing all of our futures, deciphering and acting on constantly updating information.”

Matthew had tried to tell me he needed a respite. He'd known his mind would be hurt like this?

“Mad and struck.” Saliva dripped from his mouth. “System the game. Eddy. Eddy. Now I go over the edge, the dog at my heels.”

Jack clasped his shoulder, holding him steady. “
Coo-yôn
, you got to
rest now.
Prend-lé aisé. Comprends?  
” Take it easy. Understood? “And press this against your nose,” he added, handing Matthew another bandanna.

The boy stilled at once.
“Comprends.”

I'd seen Jack calm him before, but not like this. Matthew behaved like a soldier taking an officer's order.

“How is this possible with the Lovers?” Joules demanded of no one in particular. “I tossed their remains into the river!”

Death gave a laugh.

“What's so bleeding funny?”

“Just because you destroyed that pair doesn't mean they're dead.”

Now he had everybody's attention.

It must be occurring to each of the Arcana that a source of information—a living, breathing, two-thousand-year-old champion—was talking to them. They would all have questions. He might have the answers.

And Aric could read us so well. “Aww, did I just become the most popular person in this tent?” He shouldn't be this amused. His typical
I-have-power-over-all-I-survey
vibe was in full force.

I got the feeling that he was making moves on a chessboard, and we were all luckless pawns. “Will you please explain how they can be destroyed but still be alive?” I guided Matthew to adjust the bandanna against his nose. Was the blood flow slowing?

“Have none of you truly looked at their card?” Aric gazed from person to person. “How it evokes the many-sided Gemini? How it resembles the Devil's card?”

Blank stares.

“Ah, I see. And why would I reveal their esoteric power? Because of our abiding friendships?” Death was practicing his own concealment. “The Lovers will probably defeat some of you. Aiding you against them would be unwise.”

“Do you trust me when I tell you we won't fight you?” I asked him.

Joules snapped, “Speak for yerself, Empress,” just as Jack said,
“Doan count on it.” Had his hand wandered toward his pistol holster?

Ignoring them, Aric told me, “Twenty centuries of experience is difficult to disregard.”

“Your past with me is what got you into trouble in the first place.” I'd told him that if he'd come to Haven in the beginning as a friend—instead of tormenting me for months—I would have fallen in love with him, before Jack had ever arrived.

“Perhaps I could share some details.” Aric had once accused me of having a conniving glint in my eyes; well, I recognized the calculating gleam in his.

He turned to the others. “I will tell you about the Lovers, for a boon. I want each Arcana's vow never to engage the Empress in combat. A
trues
forever.”

Protecting me? Of all the things Death could've demanded . . .

Even Jack appeared a shade less likely to shoot Aric.

“Far cry from a few months ago, Reaper,” Joules pointed out, “when you were tellin' us we couldn't kill her because
you
were goin' to do the deed!”

“It is a remarkable turnaround,” Death conceded with his customary frankness.

“My alliance already vowed never to hunt hers,” Joules said.

“Obliging enough, but you won't have to
hunt
them. The game will make sure you encounter each other.”

“I'd never hurt blondie,” Finn told Death, apparently over his earlier shock. “But you got my vow.”

Tess piped up, “I-I promise it too.”

“A vow. To the Reaper?” Gabriel looked torn between his loyalty to the Tower and his desire to
know his enemy
. “Joules, we need this information to save Selena.” He faced Aric. “I vow it.”

“Oh, for feck's sake!” Joules's skin sparked again. “Fine, I'll vow it, but only because I wasn't plannin' to anyway.”

“Very well.” After a dramatic pause, Aric said, “The Lovers can clone themselves.”

“Oh, my God.” The memory of my picnic with Gran surfaced in full. I'd been about seven years old. We'd spread a blanket under an oak. While she'd shelled pecans, I'd played with paper and scissors, cutting out a girl and a boy.

“Evie, what do you have there?”

“Twins,” I proudly told her. “Or more.” I pulled the paper apart like an accordion. Identical girls and boys stretched out, all holding hands.

“Very good.” She picked up a sharp fragment of shell to slice her thumb.

“Gran!”

“Shh.” Narrowing her gaze, she swiped blood on the front girl and boy. “They need to mix their blood to duplicate themselves.”

I frowned. Sometimes Gran said weird stuff.

“What if you wanted to kill them all? How would you do it?”

I bit my lip, thinking about it for a few moments. I folded the paper back to the original pair. “Kill these two?”

Gran was pleased, her dark eyes sparkling. “Such a clever girl.”

She'd been teaching me about Arcana without even mentioning the cards! How many other disguised lessons had I forgotten?

“The source twins are the ‘First' or the ‘heart,' ” Aric said. “Their clones make up the ‘body.' They're called
carnates
. You destroyed a pair of them.”

Puzzle pieces were fitting into place. “The Vincent clone told me, ‘What we hear is heard. What we see is seen. What we know is known.' The source twins see and hear through the carnates.” As Lark did with her animals.

Questions erupted from the other Arcana: “If we take one out, can they just create another?” “How long does it take them to duplicate themselves?” “Do they have a hidden replicant army?”

Was Selena on her way to be tortured by the
First
right now?

“The Lovers make clones with their combined blood. They blood-let like some”—Aric indicated me—“but they don't possess accelerated healing. So the number of carnates is limited.”

“What about their other rumored powers?” I asked. “Like mesmerizing?
Holding hands and swinging their arms or whispering together in a victim's ears?” Had they done that to Jack? I glanced at him with a question in my eyes. Curt shake of his head.

“Swinging their arms?” Finn peeled another cat sticker from his crutch. “Like an Arcana version of the Wonder Twins?”

Aric raised his blond brows.
If you say so.
“The First possess those powers, but the carnates don't.” He turned to me. “In any case, you'd be immune, since you broke the Hierophant's mind control over you.” Only because Aric had helped me.

“Then I'm ready for them.” Once I got to the source twins in Dolor, I could take them out. Issue number one: where the hell was Dolor?

“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?”