Dead of Winter (The Arcana Chronicles #3)(47)

“She can’t do that if she’s dead, no.”

“I’m right here,” I cried. “Right—here. If you two are going to fight, then do it over something other than me.” I folded up the remains of the bar, stowing it and the canteen. Dinner had officially concluded.

Aric raised his brows. “Aside from you, I have no quarrel with the mortal. He’s an uncouth drunkard who slaughters the English language every time he attempts it, but I probably wouldn’t kill him just for that.”

“You keep talking about slaying me, Reaper. Let’s go outside and see if you can.”

My impatience boiled over. “Just stop it—both of you! Get your heads in the game. We’re out here to save someone’s life.”

After a hesitation, Jack returned his attention to his bow, Aric to his sword.

I asked Aric, “Can you call to Selena without the Lovers hearing?”

“Of course.”

“Will you tell her we’re coming for her? And ask her for any information that can help us?”

“What makes you think she’ll respond to Death?” Graaaate. “But for you, I’ll try—because it seems I can deny you nothing.” He paused, his gaze going distant for long moments. “She’s ignoring me, letting my words drift over her thoughts. A feat not easily done. Someone taught her a great deal about focus.”

That extensive Archer training. Looking from Aric to Jack, I asked, “What’s our plan?”

“I’m curious as well.” Aric turned to Jack. “How far are you willing to risk the Empress in this endeavor?”

“If not for coo-y?n’s prediction, she’d still be back at the outpost.”

I shook my head. “I need to help. Jack, the Lovers want revenge against me. I was in an alliance with them in the last game, but I betrayed them. Horribly. Their line chronicles, so they know every detail.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know until they said something.”

He jerked his chin at Aric. “I bet he knew that history. Guess he couldn’t find time in three months to warn you about a pair of psycho killers who’re out for your blood.”

I had wondered the same.

Graaaate. “After she earned my trust, I had only scant hours with her—because of your foolhardy capture. And actually that insults the Fool.”

I rubbed my temples. “Can we just talk about the plan, please?”

Jack cast a last scowl at Aric, then shifted his attention to me. “I’m meeting some dissenters from Azey North tomorrow on the road. I’ll work with whatever I learn, see if I can trust them. At worst, they can give me intel on Selena. At best, they’ll help me take the twins and the general off guard. I’ll kill those three, free Selena, and seize command.”

Aric raised his sword, eyeing the edge. “So our ‘plan’ rests on how well the mortal can read his co-conspirators’ trustworthiness?”

“You got a better idea, Reaper? I’m all ears.”

“You assume the source twins and the Archer will be in Dolor?”

“Ouais. Until I hear different. It’s the only waypoint I got.”

I asked, “If anything goes wrong, will the Lovers retaliate against Selena? Or if they find out another Arcana is riding with me?”

“Empress, they’re already torturing her.”

I flinched and thought Jack had too. No doubt reliving his own torment, the ordeal he would never tell me about. “Will they kill her?”

Aric shook his head. “Not for a while. She’s the most valuable thing they possess. Consider the lengths they went to in order to acquire her. If they were going to murder her outright, it would already be done.”

Death had gone to lengths to acquire—and keep—me. He’d had a suite prepared in his apocalypse-proof castle. I could understand how Aric had accrued so much power through the ages, to prepare for and weather the end of the world.

But how had the Milovnícis gotten the upper hand—over everyone? “How did the general amass an army?”

“He owned a private security firm in Virginia,” Jack said, “with a mini-army of mercenaries—the kind of paramilitary that rescued kidnapped CEOs and stuff. The Milovnícis and those mercs must’ve holed up during the Flash. Afterward, his men overran smaller militias in the Southeast, one after another. He built the Azey like a snowball.”

A bloody, murderous snowball—

Suddenly both Jack and Aric tensed. Outside, Thanatos gave a low nicker.

“What is it?” I asked.

Aric rose with that lethal grace. “I’m going to stand watch.”

Jack was on his feet as well. “If there’s something out there, I’m ready to fight.”

“The day I need your help . . .” Aric trailed off. “I will never need your help, mortal.” To me, he said, “Get some sleep. You can rest secure, sievā.”

“What’s that word mean?” Jack demanded.

Aric delighted in telling him, “Sievā means wife.”





25


I gazed at the door long after Aric had gone, disbelieving he’d left me alone with Jack, threat or no.

I suspected he was testing me, testing my promise.