Dead of Winter (18 page)

Jack looked annoyed, no doubt thinking I should have stayed at the fort. He'd once told me that he kept his eye on me to monitor how I was doing because I never complained. But Aric was right; Jack could scarcely glance my way.

In contrast, I found Aric's eyes on me again and again. And as much as he'd been watching me, he'd been studying Jack.

Earlier, when we'd been forced to slow on a washed-out mountain pass, Jack had finally snapped, “What the hell are you looking at?”

“Something about you is not right.”

“You got a lot of nerve to be saying that about me, Grim Reaper.”

There'd been a couple of other tense exchanges between the two. But for the most part, they'd behaved.

Jack spurred his mount forward over the corpses at a brisk pace. His horse's hooves ruptured carcasses, sending slushy remains squelching into the air. Bones cracked.

Crack, squelch, crack.

“Just follow my lead, Empress.” Aric started across. Thanatos's immense weight compacted bodies. Chest cavities and skulls disintegrated under its hooves.

Crack, squelch, crack.

Driving a car over a corpse was one thing, but this . . .

I rolled my head on my neck, then urged my mare forward to pick her way through Thanatos's gory wake. I really needed to give this poor horse a name. She high-stepped, as if saying “ick, ick” with every hoof fall.

Ahead of me, Death suddenly gripped a sword hilt. Thanatos grew agitated, braided tail flicking.

“What is it?” I called. “Did you hear something?” Over the sounds of our headway?

Jack reined around.
Crack, squelch, crack.
“Why you slowing down, Reaper?”

“There's a threat nearby.”

“What direction?” Jack swept his gaze, crossbow ready.

“Even with my uncanny senses, I can't pinpoint it.” Death surveyed the area with a cool glance. “I doubt anyone could in this fog.”

“Probably just Baggers.” Jack slung his bow back over his shoulder. “Hell, maybe nothing's out there, and you're stalling us on purpose.”

“Again, feel free to move on.”

“For all I know, you could be allied with the Lovers, you. All the other Arcana worked together against them. But you showed up a day after.” Jack started forward.

Aric rode up beside him.
Crack, squelch, crack.
Our gruesome soundtrack seemed to be ratcheting up their tempers. “Perhaps I am merely vigilant when taking the Empress over corpses cloaked in preternatural fog. Do you not have any combat sense?”

“We're on a clock.”

“Ah. So to rescue the girl you presently favor, you would risk the one you used to favor. You might have a spare female, but I'm intent on keeping the one I have.”

“You stirring up shit? It woan work.”

“To save your precious Archer, you're leading the Empress of all Arcana on a treacherous journey directly to the Lovers—despite the fact that fate marked her. Still you press onward.”

“It was
coo-yôn
who told us to ride out together—in order to save
Evie
!”

“The Fool didn't say to do it recklessly. He didn't say to sacrifice one female for the other. I value the Empress above all things. Just as you do the Archer.”

Crack, squelch, crack.

“You doan know what you're talking about.”

I muttered, “Back here, guys. Falling farther behind you.” I'd only made it about halfway through. Wait . . . Had the bodies beneath me just moved?

No, no. Of course not.

Aric kept at Jack. “You've made a life with Selena. Sharing meals, missions, victory celebrations. The king and queen of Fort Arcana, the hunter and his huntress.”

“Is this the kind of underhanded bullshit you been feeding Evangeline for months? You got into her head, sowing doubt about me?” Just past the line of exposed bodies, he slowed to a stop.

Aric intoned, “I've told her a great many truths.” He stopped as well, both turning to wait for me.

“So after you mentally tortured her for the better part of a year, you abducted her. Then I'll bet you tortured her some more.”

Over the last couple of months, I'd blocked out how traumatic my capture had been. My gloved hands tightened on the reins. Or they would have—right now, they were numb. Yes, I'd wronged Aric. But that wasn't me anymore. Which meant I hadn't deserved to be tormented.

Jack gazed from Aric to me and back. “On the heels of all that, you fill her head with your
truths
?” His eyes met mine and lingered. His brows drew together—as if with realization. “Now I understand what's goan on, me. Couldn't figure it out before.” I thought a flash of
pity
crossed his expression—then came a hint of raw, blistering emotion.

“Thrall us, mortal.”

Ignoring him, Jack addressed me, “I'll be scouting for a shelter to stop at for a spell,
bébé
. We'll ease our pace. Just hang in there a while longer.”

Huh? Jack's attitude had done a one-eighty. If I weren't so exhausted and freezing, I could make sense of this situation.

The bodies roiled. No mistaking it now. “Uh, things might be shifting under me,” I called. “And it feels—I don't know—kind of deeper in this spot.” Like I was on a
pile
of them.

“You're likely over a clogged culvert of some sort,” Aric said. “Where the corpses circled a drain. Continue forward, Empress.”

“Yeah. Got it.”

The pile heaved upward, lifting me and my horse! “What's happening??”

A more forceful heave. The spooked mare reared; my numb legs, hands . . . I couldn't keep my seat!

I tumbled out of the saddle. Landed on my back. Atop gunky corpses. Oh God, oh God.

The mare trotted a retreat, abandoning me in the carnage.
No name for you!

The mat of bodies kept roiling like a bounce house.

“I've determined where the threat lies,” Aric called. “Empress, it's beneath you.”

“What?”

A hand shot up, snatching my ponytail.

Just past my boots, two Bagger heads popped up.

“Bagmen!” I screamed.

In a carefree tone, Aric answered, “Use your powers.”

I still hadn't recharged them! I gripped my ponytail and jerked back from the clenched hand. Caught fast. “Any time you two feel like helping me!”

“The fuck you doing, Reaper?”

Aric had intercepted Jack, riding in front of him. “As soon as she needs assistance, I'll be first into the fray.”

The pair of Baggers struggled to the surface, wedging their arms upward for leverage, their seeping, cream-colored eyes locked on my throat. They wriggled their slime-covered bodies free to their waists, like worms from a rotted apple.

How much longer before more emerged?

The skies chose that moment to open up, dumping buckets of rain. Blinking against water, spitting it, I cried, “Are you shitting me?”

The trapped Baggers lunged for me with so much force, their torsos shot back in recoil. Another lunge freed them to their upper thighs, extending their reach—just as the pile heaved, sending my body rolling toward the pair.

One caught my boot!

“Your powers,” Aric called.

“I can't . . . seed anything in corpses!” I kicked against the creature's hold. “And poison doesn't . . . work on Bagmen!”

But my claws were as sharp as razors.

I twisted back and sliced the end of my ponytail off. The hand clutched the length like a prize.

Free to move, I dove toward the Bagger holding my boot, aiming my claws for his throat. He tucked his chin, chomping down, narrowly missing my fingers.

“Shit!”

“Come now,
sievā
, that is
not
how you're meant to use your claws.”

“Ugh—you are such a dick!”

“Vines would work better.”

Suddenly an arrow jutted from one Bagger's skull. Then the other. They slumped over. Jack must've fired right past Death's head!

I scrambled to stand, tripping forward as the pile shuddered. A boil about to burst.

Aric finally moved out of the way, allowing Jack to ride toward me.

“Move your ass,
bébé 
!” He offered his hand. When I managed to grab it, he hauled me into the saddle, spurring his horse. At my ear, he said, “A gem of a guy you got there, Evie.”

Once we'd made it to safety, Aric cast me a disappointed look. I was sick of guys giving me that expression!

To Jack, he said, “Whereas you view her as merely a girl, I've been on the receiving end of her powers. I've seen her shake the earth with fury, decimating populations. I know her for the goddess she is.” To me, he said, “I'll go clean up the mess you made.”

“Wh-what mess?”

The boil burst.

Baggers wailed as they rose, shucking body parts out of their way. They turned toward us, snarling for our blood, creamy eyes unblinking in the rain.

Riding hands-free into the mob, Death drew both swords and attacked.

I'd watched his punishing training sessions, but the cold lethality on display astonished even me. He moved so fast, I could barely see his swords.

Just the results. In the rain, heads flew, bodies collapsed over each other, bone fragments and entrails spattered the air. Thanatos trampled some that hadn't completely risen.

The clash lasted only minutes.

When Death returned, magnificent in his rain-slicked armor, he lifted his visor to narrow his eyes at Jack. The grueling tension between them only mounted. “It felt good to ride in and save her, didn't it? Imagine how good she feels whenever she vanquishes her enemies—
on her own
.”

“Like a shadow, Evie,” Jack muttered as we approached our potential pit stop. The rain had turned to fog, painting the small cinder-block house in an eerie light.

He was tense, bow ready—because this might be a slavers' den.

After three hours of passing one burned-out structure after another, I was so done in I'd rather face slavers than keep riding. The downpour earlier had soaked me through, and my teeth had chattered for miles.

At least it'd rinsed Bagger funk and corpse gore off me, like a car wash.

Jack had invited me to ride with him, but I'd said no. I doubted Death would approve. And Jack had confused me anyway. Why had his attitude toward me boomeranged?

We climbed the front stairs, Aric trailing us. “I'm surprised you're amenable to stopping, mortal. With the clock and such. The Empress can ride with me, and we'll continue toward Selena.”

“Even if there was a snowball's chance in hell of Evie riding with you on that thing you call a horse,” Jack said, “we're coming up on serious black-hat territory—which means our mounts need to be fresh.”

We'd pushed them all day. Not that Thanatos needed rest. Thanatos bench pressed three eighty and ate bricks for fun.

“This place has been occupied recently.” Aric drew one of his swords. “What makes you think the residents won't return?”

“Wagon-wheel ruts lead away from the house. Deep ruts. The slavers took their wagon full of captives north to sell—to the serious black hats I just mentioned.” Jack certainly knew his way around this part of the world. “They set out after the last rain. But if they return, we'll kill them. Unless the Reaper is afraid of mortal slavers?”

“In my lifetimes, they've come in many different manifestations. Not once have I feared them.”

Jack tried the door. Locked. He kicked it in, and we crossed the threshold into a front sitting room. The interior reeked, like someone had forgotten to take the trash out (for a garbage truck that would never come again). Most of the furniture had been destroyed, likely for firewood.

A line of shackles was bolted to studs in the wall. Definitely a den.

“Fuckin' hate slavers,” Jack grated. “Worse than Baggers.”

I stared at those cuffs. “When there was no water, slaves dug wells. So what's the appeal now?”

“Salvage crews.” Gaze alert, Jack checked a closet. “There are food stores if you know where to look—Prepper bunkers, government shelters, cargo ships that got beached, silos, rail cars. And sometimes bosses trade slaves for other goods.”

We entered a living room that smelled cleaner. There were a couple of lawn chairs, a plastic table, a stone fireplace.

Jack faced Aric with a mean glint in his eyes. “Maybe Evie should be asking you about slavers, since you're the one who kidnapped her. Pretty much the same difference,
non
? I wonder how you kept her bound. You shackle her? A sixteen-year-old girl?”

Instead of denying it or downplaying it, Aric said, “Absolutely.” There was that startling honesty again. “And once she cut off her own thumb to free herself from her bonds, she called up an army of green and nearly destroyed us all.”