Dead of Winter (The Arcana Chronicles #3)(39)

Jack clasped his shoulder, holding him steady. “Coo-y?n, 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.”