Dead of Winter (The Arcana Chronicles #3)(89)

“What if the guy’s perfect for you in every other way?”

“Not in the way that counts most.” She admitted, “I even fooled around with Finn—in the form of Finn, mind you—to distract me. But the Magician’s still hung up on Lark.”

“What about Gabriel? You don’t remember this, but before we went back in time, we got chased by the soldiers. The first person he evacuated was you. The Archangel has fallen for the Archer.”

“Whoa, I was talking about hooking up with another card. But to fall for an Arcana?” She met my gaze. “Only an idiot would do that.”

I didn’t argue. I’d fallen for Aric, despite loving Jack. Idiot seemed fair.





42


FORT ARCANA

“You bagged the Lovers!” Finn hobbled into the courtyard to meet us, Cyclops at his heels.

When Selena paled, Jack stepped in to say, “They’re done, podna.” He dismounted, then helped her down. “I’ll tell you about it once we’ve rested up.”

Rest. All I wanted was to drop facedown and starfish my cot. But I was itching to check on Matthew.

Plus, my decision. I gazed at Jack, then Death.

After the Flash, life was so precarious that time seemed to pass differently. A day, much less a week, was an eternity. I couldn’t string this along. In any case, the army was leaving tomorrow a.m.

Jack would need to know if he was setting out with them—or heading to North Carolina with me.

Aric had waited long enough.

He alighted from his saddle to help me from mine. On the ground, I turned from him, from the question burning in his amber eyes.

Yes, I needed to give them an answer. I just wished I had one.

I faced Finn. “Where is everyone? Where’s Matthew?” I hadn’t heard any calls. But then, I’d been asleep in the saddle all the way up to the minefield.

“Joules and company vamoosed a couple of mornings ago. They smoked out the remaining traitors and exiled them. According to Joules, they were ‘big feckers.’”

“Gabriel was okay with leaving?” He’d been so worried about Selena.

Finn sliced a glance at Death. “With you guys all heading home, and the Priestess hanging around, Matthew warned about convergence, was kinda stern about it.”

Circe remained? On the way back here, whenever I’d passed a stream, memories of the High Priestess arose. In one, she and I had laughed so hard we’d cried. We would finally stop, look at each other, only to burst out laughing again. . . .

“Joules & Crew told me they’d check back in over the winter,” Finn said. “Maybe spend the holidays with us.”

Did holidays still exist? Okay, sure. “Is Matthew in bed?”

Finn’s excited demeanor dimmed. “Uh. He kind of . . . split, too. Rode out the other day. I don’t know where to.”

“What do you mean by split?” My glyphs began to glow.

“Hold it, blondie, Matto’s a grown dude, and there was no stopping him.”

I shoved my hair from my face, my gaze darting. “He’s got a huge head start.” He’d already been on the road when he’d visited me in that vision! Had he been telling me good-bye, for good? “I have no idea how to find him.”

“Don’t,” Aric said quietly.

“Excuse me?”

“The Fool knows this game and this world better than anyone. He can take care of himself.”

“But he can’t see his own future! And he was so sick.” I glanced at Jack and Selena. Both looked torn.

“Matto was doing tons better than before,” Finn assured me.

“Sievā, he’ll travel with another person, reading his companion’s future to safeguard his own. You know his weaknesses, but you ignore his strengths.”

“What does that mean?”

His blond brows drew together. “Again, Empress, let him rest.”

Could I? I ached to make sure he was okay. But I didn’t want to be part of the problem. “Wh-when will he come back? Will I ever see him again?”

Aric’s eyes were grave. “He’ll find you when you least expect it. . . .”

In Finn and Selena’s tent, I dropped onto a spare cot, still numb over Matthew’s disappearance.

Jack and Aric followed me inside. They both stood so tall and built, seeming to soak up all the oxygen in the area.

“Coo-y?n will be okay,” Jack said. “He sometimes went off by himself.”

Even if I accepted that Matthew wasn’t in danger, I couldn’t accept that he’d gone out on the road alone. Months ago, I’d left Finn’s by myself, and I had never known such loneliness. For the first time in my life, I’d had no friends or family to talk to, no one expecting me.

Kind of like Aric Domīnija’s life for the last two millennia.

My couple of days versus his eons.

Too much to process. “Can we please talk in the morning?” I fell back on my old argument: no one could make me choose before I was ready. “Is there an extra tent where Aric can stay?”

“Ouais.” Jack rubbed his hand over his black stubble. “But, Evie, before you make a decision, you need to consider something.”

“What?”

He turned to Aric with an almost guilty expression on his face. “You saved my life, Domīnija. You’ve done me right. But I can’t lose my girl again.”