Dead of Winter (The Arcana Chronicles #3)(84)

“Um, your carnate needs you.” I pointed at the pool beside Selena. Both of the clone’s arms had risen, the top of a head crowning. Like a toddler, the creature repeatedly grasped at air, as if wanting to be picked up.

“Follow my voice,” he crooned to the thing as he knelt at the edge of the pool—

WHAM.

In a spray of blood, Selena had snatched her nailed hand free then whipped her straightened arm out at Vincent. The line of her tensed limb connected with his throat.

His head snapped back. Lolled at an odd angle. His body collapsed backward.

Selena had awakened to break Vincent’s neck—with one strike.

“The sensor!” I dove for it, but he’d dropped it into the blood beside the now sinking carnate. “Selena!” I twisted around to claw her collar off.

“It’s okay,” she murmured.

“NOT okay!” I wrenched the piece off her neck, throwing it away.

She turned toward me. “I saw . . . his thumb slip . . . nothing happened. The sensor for the collar is broken, has been broken.” Without warning, she lunged at me.

“Selena, wait!”

“Evie!” she cried, hugging me tight. “You came for me.”

“Oh! Um, you’re going to be all right,” I assured her as I stroked her tangled hair. “But we have to take Violet out too.”

Selena pointed at Vincent. “Look at him.”

He sprawled on his back, his pale glazed eyes fixed on the ceiling. His shirt had shifted to reveal a weird tattoo on his chest.

“He has his own brand,” she added.

“I don’t understand. Let me go look.” I pried myself free from her, then took a step closer to him—

“AH!” I scrambled back, slipping in the blood, arms pinwheeling as I busted my ass. Below Vincent’s collarbone, right over his heart, a wide-open eye stared at me.

Pale blue. Like a dead fish’s.

“Oh, my God! What is that?” Never taking my gaze off it, I managed to turn over on my knees. When the eye blinked, I stifled a shriek. Real? Unreal?

“That is Violet,” Selena bit out. “He told me he loved her so much, he took her into him before they were ever born. So the Empress could never separate them again.”

Vincent had absorbed his twin in the womb. His sister had never been a . . . person.

Matthew’s words: The twins—inseparable. Never parted. “B-but Vincent talked like she existed. The general did.”

“Because they were crazy!”

No wonder Matthew had been confused. No wonder the twins had never used their most potent powers. They couldn’t whisper together or clasp hands and swing arms.

The eye darted. Right. Left. Then it stilled, wide open, as glazed as her brother’s.

Violet was dead.

I couldn’t breathe, was ready to lose it, but as Matthew had told me, we weren’t out of the woods yet. “Selena, I’ll be right back. Getting your clothes. Okay?” I stumbled to the outer door. Combination-locked. Could Death break it down?

Aric? What’s happening?

—The remaining carnates collapsed.—

Vincent’s dead. The Lovers are gone. Are you and Jack all right?

—We will be if we can find you. Are you safe?—

We’re okay. Just stuck in here.

—Help me find you.— I heard him yell, “Empress!”

You sound far away!

—And now?— He yelled, Jack joining him.

Closer.

While I waited for them to call out again, I went to the sink, hastily washing off the worst of the blood. Then I grabbed Selena’s clothes and a roll of paper towels, returning to her. “Let’s do a temporary bandage for your hand.” I couldn’t tell for sure, but I thought the nail had missed the bones. I folded paper towels, fashioning a wraparound covering. “Okay, time to get you dressed.”

“Wh-where’s J.D.?”

“He’s coming. He’s good. All the carnates dropped dead.”

She nodded, kept nodding. Still nodding as her face crumpled. “Evie, he branded me.” I didn’t know what rattled me the most in this room: Violet’s location or Selena’s reaction.

She needed to cry. But the tears had been trained out of her.

I grabbed her good hand. “We’re here. We’re going to get through this.”

I heard Aric’s yell. You’re getting closer.

“That’s not J.D.”

“Uh, let’s get your shirt on.” I helped her pull it on. “Boots, next.” Once I’d gotten her dressed, I said, “Hey, you should know, Aric is here with us. He’s the reason we were able to get to you.”

She jolted back. “Death?”

“He and Jack took on the carnates together. Baggers and slavers before them. They’ve been fighting side by side for days.”

Pounding footfalls sounded as they closed in. There’s a combination lock on the door. Can you break it down?

—What can’t I do to reach you, Empress?—

At the revelation that Death was here, Selena started looking spacey. “No, no, stay with me, girl! He’s not going to hurt you. He’s helped us every step of the way. They’re busting us free, okay?”

Seconds later, Aric’s armored boot pounded the metal door. And again.