Finale (Caraval #3)(70)

Tella clutched her breastbone and doubled over, suddenly dizzy and nauseous and unable to breathe. The ruins, Jacks, Legend, everything turned into a blur, and stars burst before her eyes as pain blinded her.

“What the hell—” Legend cursed, finally free of Jacks’s control.

“Don’t make another move toward her,” Jacks warned, “unless you wish her to die.”

“Jacks—” Tella gasped as she dropped to her knees, no longer able to stand. “Why…”

“What have you done?” Legend roared.

“I’m giving her a heart attack,” Jacks said calmly. “It will kill her very soon, unless you give me my full powers back right now. Tick. Tock. She doesn’t have long left.”

“Jacks…” Tella panted. She couldn’t believe he was really doing this. “Don’t … do…”

“I’ll do it,” Legend said. “Stop hurting her, and I’ll restore your powers with some of mine. But only if you swear right now, in blood, to never use any of your abilities on Tella or on me again.”

The prince’s mouth tightened and his eyes might have flashed back to Tella.

“Fine. You have a deal. I won’t, unless one of you asks me to.” Jacks took a dagger from his boot and sliced his hand, creating a spill of blood to seal the promise.

Tella started gasping, panting for air. “You’re a demon!” She might have cursed Jacks more thoroughly, but all she wanted to do was breathe. She’d trusted him. She’d thought that he actually cared about her, and he’d tried to kill her.

Legend’s arms went around her, holding her up as she continued to fight for oxygen. “You scared me,” he murmured.

“What will this cost you?” she asked against his chest.

Instead of answering, Legend carefully walked her to the edge of the fountain, seeming to have mostly recovered from his earlier use of magic, as he helped her sit on the rim. “Stay. I’ll be right back.”

He turned back to the Prince of Hearts. “We’re not doing this here.” Legend stalked into the ruins of the decrepit mansion without waiting for Jacks to follow.

As soon as Jacks and Legend were out of sight, Tella shoved up from the fountain with shaky arms and shuffled in the direction they’d gone. Jacks was only supposed to take a fraction of Legend’s power. But she didn’t trust him, and she’d seen the power exchange between Legend and the witch—she had watched as Legend drained Esmeralda of all her magic. She couldn’t let that happen to Legend.

Jacks might have left her too weak to do much, and even at her best, she wouldn’t be able to tear two powerful immortals apart. But it wouldn’t prevent her from trying if necessary.

She crept closer to the ruined mansion that Jacks and Legend had entered. The entire structure was skeletal, a corpse made of bricks and stones instead of bones. Tella pressed her hands against the dirty walls to keep herself from collapsing as she peered through a jagged hole.

She knew from her own experience with Jacks that blood exchanges could be intensely emotional. Jacks’s mouth was latched on to Legend’s wrist. Blood stained the corners of his lips, while his face twisted into something sadistic and hungry as he drank.

Unlike Jacks, Legend appeared to feel nothing. He looked like a study in apathy—until suddenly Legend ripped his wrist away from Jacks’s mouth with enough force to knock the Fate several steps back. “Tella isn’t yours.” The words were razor-sharp.

Jacks responded with a bloody smile. “She will be.”

Tella gripped the wall to stay standing as she again remembered the way he’d flashed his dimples and said, I suppose I’ll just have to try harder.

Was this his way of trying?

She continued to watch as Jacks wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “She forgave me before. She’ll forgive me again. And now that this transaction has taken your ability to visit her dreams, it shouldn’t be difficult to win her.”

Tella shoved away from the wall, ready to march inside and tell Jacks just how difficult and unforgiving she could be. But her legs had other ideas. They crumpled beneath her and brought her crashing to the hard ground. “Bastard!”

“I hope you’re not talking about me.”

She looked up.

Legend towered above her. But his coloring was off again—he looked pale instead of glowing bronze—and his dark hair had fallen out of place. “I asked you to stay by the fountain.”

No. He’d told her to stay. But she didn’t want to fight with him about it, not after what she’d just seen him do. “I’m sorry about the dreams.”

“I don’t care about the dreams.” His voice turned rough in a flash. “I care that you almost died.”

“I don’t think he really would have killed me.”

“Yes, he would have, Tella. He’s a Fate; you’re a human and the object of his obsession. There’s only one way your story with him ends—unless you let me make you an immortal.”

She didn’t even see him move, but suddenly Legend was on his knees in front of her. His eyes met hers in a way that was both fierce and tender all at once, while his warm hands cupped her cheeks.

“What—what are you doing?” she stammered.