Dead of Winter
Page 4
A fire burned in the center of the tent, vented out of the roof. More Arcana sat on benches around it: the Tower, Judgment, and the World Card, an alliance of three.
Joules sized me up. Gabriel tilted one of his black wings in greeting. Tess Quinn waved shyly, her fingernails bitten to the quick. Matthew dropped down to sit beside her.
“Well, if it isn’t our fair Empress,” Joules said in his thick Irish accent.
Selena shot upright, her silver-blond hair tumbling over her shoulders.
“Evie!” Finn called. “How did you get free of Death?”
This could get tricky. “Uh, I had an opportunity to . . . steal away.” Steal Death’s horse and saddle, steal a new bug-out bag, steal my hi-tech all-weather gear. “It’s not important. I’m here now.”
“Yet you didn’t accept my offer.” Joules’s reddish brown hair was disheveled, his gaze cagey.
Selena—who’d called out no greeting—said, “If you got a jump on Death to escape, then you could have brought Joules’s payment.”
Aric hadn’t been the only one to offer a deal to save Jack. Joules had demanded Death’s severed head in exchange for a rescue. “It’s not that simple,” I told them. “Things aren’t how we thought them.”
“Did you have a chance to kill the Reaper or not?” Whatever Joules read in my expression made him say, “You feckin’ did! A shot at the Endless Knight! The one who always bloody wins!”
Selena’s lips parted. “Death dies; J.D. lives. What part of that equation are you having problems with?”
“We can hash everything out later.” I was nearly choking with worry and exhausted to the point of kicking toes-up. “For now, let’s focus on—”
“We were in an alliance to defeat Death,” Selena bit out. “One you started. When Matthew told us you’d recovered your powers, we believed you’d do whatever it took to free J.D.—especially from the psychotic Lovers.” Selena swiped a hand over her livid face. “Instead, you betrayed all of us. J.D. more than anyone! Do you know what they’ll do to him?”
My grandmother had told me they warped and perverted their victims, making them confuse torture and pain for pleasure. “I have an idea!” My glyphs moved over my skin, a sign of high emotion—or aggression. But I grappled for patience. “Which is why we need to stop arguing over things that can’t be changed and start planning a rescue!”
Maybe Gabriel had done a flyover for recon on the army; he’d know the lay of the land across the river. We could plot a mission.
“Start planning?” Selena sneered. “You don’t have a plan? You’ve got some nerve to show up here with no answers and no payment, sauntering in with your fancy new clothes, looking like you haven’t missed a meal.”
Exactly the way she’d looked when I’d first met her.
“Because of you, J.D. is suffering right now.” Voice rising with each word, she said, “You should have paid the Tower!” With her supernatural speed, she leapt from the cot, lunging to attack.
3
Selena’s good hand was in the air, poised to backhand me; instinctively my thorn claws shot out—
“Gamekeeper’s blood!” Matthew cried.
Selena and I both screamed in pain, matching red lines glowing across our hands.
Cyclops sprang inside the tent, baring his monstrous fangs at her. I used Selena’s moment of shock to scramble back.
Tess whimpered and shrank away from the beast; Gabriel flared his wings.
“Th-that wolf was dead!” Finn sputtered from his cot. “The cannibals killed all of Lark’s war wolves.”
Joules opened his palm upright; a silver baton materialized out of thin air—one of his lightning javelins. In a blur, it extended to its full length. “My bolt once fried that very beast!”
Which was why Cyclops’s fur was frizzy. “Lark’s familiars are . . . hardy.” I withheld the full truth: her three wolves were undying—as long as Lark lived.
“It’s protecting you?” Selena looked aghast.
“He won’t hurt anyone unless I’m in danger.”
“You’re allied with Lark now?” Finn’s gaze darted from me to Matthew, as if the Fool should’ve told them this. “Even after she sold us out?”
Matthew rocked back and forth on the bench.
“Lark didn’t know us when she made the pact to hand us over to Death,” I explained. “For all she knew, we could’ve been cannibals like the Hierophant’s followers.”
Finn peered at Cyclops. “But then she did get to know us,” he said to the wolf.
Hoping Lark was listening through her familiar?
“And she still betrayed us. Me. For days, we were down there in the pitch dark because of her, and the water kept rising, about to drown us.” He visibly shook from the memory, and a soft whine came from the wolf’s chest. “When I realized she’d played me, it—laid—me—out.”
“If the Empress is allied with Lark, then she’s allied with Death,” Joules said. “She might be here to open the gates for them while we sleep.”
I rubbed my still burning hand. “We don’t have time for this!”
“You have no idea what we went through over these months.” Selena sank down on her cot, adjusting her arm sling. “And it was all to save you from Death!”
Finn tucked his dirty-blond hair behind his ears. “While you were getting chummy with our enemies, we took a cruise through hell.”
They made it sound like I’d waltzed over to the other side without a care. “Enough! You all went through hardships, but so have I.”
Selena cast me a bitch, please look, goading me to say more.
“A cruise through hell is when a cloven-footed monster tells you he’s about to feast on your bones—and you believe him.” I let that sink in. “Lark stayed by my side to fight Ogen—even as he grew three stories tall! Because of her loyalty to me, she lies in a bed with broken bones.”
Finn winced at that. He wasn’t over the girl by a long shot.
“I’d be dead if not for her and those wolves.” When I gestured at Cyclops, he lay down, sphinxlike and regal. The effect was offset by the finger he still wore in his scruff.
“We heard when Ogen got capped.” Joules used the tail of his coat to polish that lethal spear. Cryptic symbols adorned the already gleaming metal. “Didn’t quite believe who did the deed.”
Joules sized me up. Gabriel tilted one of his black wings in greeting. Tess Quinn waved shyly, her fingernails bitten to the quick. Matthew dropped down to sit beside her.
“Well, if it isn’t our fair Empress,” Joules said in his thick Irish accent.
Selena shot upright, her silver-blond hair tumbling over her shoulders.
“Evie!” Finn called. “How did you get free of Death?”
This could get tricky. “Uh, I had an opportunity to . . . steal away.” Steal Death’s horse and saddle, steal a new bug-out bag, steal my hi-tech all-weather gear. “It’s not important. I’m here now.”
“Yet you didn’t accept my offer.” Joules’s reddish brown hair was disheveled, his gaze cagey.
Selena—who’d called out no greeting—said, “If you got a jump on Death to escape, then you could have brought Joules’s payment.”
Aric hadn’t been the only one to offer a deal to save Jack. Joules had demanded Death’s severed head in exchange for a rescue. “It’s not that simple,” I told them. “Things aren’t how we thought them.”
“Did you have a chance to kill the Reaper or not?” Whatever Joules read in my expression made him say, “You feckin’ did! A shot at the Endless Knight! The one who always bloody wins!”
Selena’s lips parted. “Death dies; J.D. lives. What part of that equation are you having problems with?”
“We can hash everything out later.” I was nearly choking with worry and exhausted to the point of kicking toes-up. “For now, let’s focus on—”
“We were in an alliance to defeat Death,” Selena bit out. “One you started. When Matthew told us you’d recovered your powers, we believed you’d do whatever it took to free J.D.—especially from the psychotic Lovers.” Selena swiped a hand over her livid face. “Instead, you betrayed all of us. J.D. more than anyone! Do you know what they’ll do to him?”
My grandmother had told me they warped and perverted their victims, making them confuse torture and pain for pleasure. “I have an idea!” My glyphs moved over my skin, a sign of high emotion—or aggression. But I grappled for patience. “Which is why we need to stop arguing over things that can’t be changed and start planning a rescue!”
Maybe Gabriel had done a flyover for recon on the army; he’d know the lay of the land across the river. We could plot a mission.
“Start planning?” Selena sneered. “You don’t have a plan? You’ve got some nerve to show up here with no answers and no payment, sauntering in with your fancy new clothes, looking like you haven’t missed a meal.”
Exactly the way she’d looked when I’d first met her.
“Because of you, J.D. is suffering right now.” Voice rising with each word, she said, “You should have paid the Tower!” With her supernatural speed, she leapt from the cot, lunging to attack.
3
Selena’s good hand was in the air, poised to backhand me; instinctively my thorn claws shot out—
“Gamekeeper’s blood!” Matthew cried.
Selena and I both screamed in pain, matching red lines glowing across our hands.
Cyclops sprang inside the tent, baring his monstrous fangs at her. I used Selena’s moment of shock to scramble back.
Tess whimpered and shrank away from the beast; Gabriel flared his wings.
“Th-that wolf was dead!” Finn sputtered from his cot. “The cannibals killed all of Lark’s war wolves.”
Joules opened his palm upright; a silver baton materialized out of thin air—one of his lightning javelins. In a blur, it extended to its full length. “My bolt once fried that very beast!”
Which was why Cyclops’s fur was frizzy. “Lark’s familiars are . . . hardy.” I withheld the full truth: her three wolves were undying—as long as Lark lived.
“It’s protecting you?” Selena looked aghast.
“He won’t hurt anyone unless I’m in danger.”
“You’re allied with Lark now?” Finn’s gaze darted from me to Matthew, as if the Fool should’ve told them this. “Even after she sold us out?”
Matthew rocked back and forth on the bench.
“Lark didn’t know us when she made the pact to hand us over to Death,” I explained. “For all she knew, we could’ve been cannibals like the Hierophant’s followers.”
Finn peered at Cyclops. “But then she did get to know us,” he said to the wolf.
Hoping Lark was listening through her familiar?
“And she still betrayed us. Me. For days, we were down there in the pitch dark because of her, and the water kept rising, about to drown us.” He visibly shook from the memory, and a soft whine came from the wolf’s chest. “When I realized she’d played me, it—laid—me—out.”
“If the Empress is allied with Lark, then she’s allied with Death,” Joules said. “She might be here to open the gates for them while we sleep.”
I rubbed my still burning hand. “We don’t have time for this!”
“You have no idea what we went through over these months.” Selena sank down on her cot, adjusting her arm sling. “And it was all to save you from Death!”
Finn tucked his dirty-blond hair behind his ears. “While you were getting chummy with our enemies, we took a cruise through hell.”
They made it sound like I’d waltzed over to the other side without a care. “Enough! You all went through hardships, but so have I.”
Selena cast me a bitch, please look, goading me to say more.
“A cruise through hell is when a cloven-footed monster tells you he’s about to feast on your bones—and you believe him.” I let that sink in. “Lark stayed by my side to fight Ogen—even as he grew three stories tall! Because of her loyalty to me, she lies in a bed with broken bones.”
Finn winced at that. He wasn’t over the girl by a long shot.
“I’d be dead if not for her and those wolves.” When I gestured at Cyclops, he lay down, sphinxlike and regal. The effect was offset by the finger he still wore in his scruff.
“We heard when Ogen got capped.” Joules used the tail of his coat to polish that lethal spear. Cryptic symbols adorned the already gleaming metal. “Didn’t quite believe who did the deed.”
