The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)(21)

“Not seeing much of a difference from where I’m standing, Paul.”

“Oh, Evie, a card reversal means that I can only work with what’s available.”

So he couldn’t manipulate Aric and Lark to hurt me—unless they were already inclined to do so?

As if to illustrate, Lark shrieked from outside, “I’ll kill you, Empress! Why him?”

Paul tsked. “She can’t decide whether to end you or herself.” Then her most marked Arcana trait—her single-minded determination—was gone. “Of one thing I’ve recently convinced her: the need to protect me at all costs.” He petted Scarface.

BOOM . . . BOOM . . . BOOM. The hinges screamed as the door bowed.

Poison finally welled in my claws, my vines slithering higher. Would I get to Paul before Aric got to me? “And Death?” His card was all about embracing change, letting go of the past and bitter resentment. The reverse of that meant he’d be mired in the past, and our history was filled with mistrust, hatred, and murder.

The present that we’d built for ourselves would be destroyed.

Paul grinned again. “Hating you is the knight’s factory setting, if you will. Which works for me.”

“Lark will hear everything you’ve said through her wolves.”

He glanced at the slavering beasts. “And she’ll thank me for plotting against you. She despised your grandmother, was happy to see her go. I’ve been of service to Lark, to everyone here but you.”

“Plotting? Like with that contraceptive. Now I know why you screwed me over.”

He raised his brows in challenge: Do you?

“The Hanged Man is also known as the Traitor.” His eyes grew heavy-lidded with pleasure, convincing me that he was like every other evil Arcana I’d tangled with—devious killers who liked to play with their prey. “I entrusted only two things to you: my grandmother’s care and my birth control, giving you just two opportunities for betrayal. You stabbed me in the back both times.” Actually, he was worse than the others; I never trusted them!

“Ah-ah, Evie, your hair’s turning red. Since you can’t be controlled, you must be destroyed.” The wolves snarled, baring those lethal fangs. “I’ll just nudge Lark into action.” The light around his head flared.

A split-second later, the wolves vaulted toward me. My vines shot upwards to twine around them. Green barbs muzzled their snouts, then slammed their heads to the floor.

Claws bared, I lunged at Paul. I slashed the arm he raised in defense, my thorns hitting home. My poison would lay him out in seconds.

Through the slices in his shirt, I looked for injuries.

Not a mark on him.

How? How was that possible? “You heal like me?” But this had been instantaneous.

As the wolves struggled against my faltering vines, he tilted his head at his arm. “Damnedest thing, Evie. I can’t be injured, can’t die. I suppose the Hanged Man is already dead in a way. I transcend death.”

A crash sounded as Aric broke down the door. “Come to me, Empress. Let’s end this once and for all.” I heard the rhythmic ringing of his spurs heading up the stairs.

I debated trying to stall him with more vines, but I wanted him to see Paul’s tableau. “He’s the Hanged Man. Come look at him.” I glanced down at the stairwell.

Aric was ascending, his swords drawn, black armor glinting. “I know this. He’s shown me the truth about you.”

“The sphere is Paul’s. You’re brainwashed within it!”

“I see his sphere. I feel and welcome it. It protects me from your mesmerizing and gives me clarity such as I’ve never known.” Yet his eyes were blank with fury.

I didn’t want to hurt him—even if I could. The only place left to flee was the third floor. “Fine; hate me, but don’t harm our child.”

Raw grief flooded his gaze, and he thundered, “There is no baby!”

“Everybody in this castle knows I’m pregnant!” I’d been convinced of it when I’d gazed at that white rose. After days of my constant vomiting, there was no way anyone else could doubt it.

Paul chuckled, his smugness palpable. “Just now, while Death was breaking down the door, I mentally informed him about your plot—how you forced me to fake a pregnancy test, so he would sacrifice his life to protect you and your made-up kid. Now that he knows the truth, he’s going to protect me and kill you for tricking him.”

“You couldn’t force him to hurt his child, so you’re pulling a bogus pregnancy test out of your ass?”

Before I could claw the smirk off Paul’s face, Aric leapt to the landing, his swords flashing out to slice my vines.

I screamed in pain, stumbling backward toward the next set of stairs.

Aric followed. “You’re just as you’ve always been. Forever a temptress. Forever a liar. I knew you could never be trusted, but I wanted you so much. I was weak.”

“Your mind is being manipulated.” The Hanged Man was this powerful? Able to control the reigning Arcana victor? An immortal who’d lived for millennia? “Paul’s wearing Finn’s icon—I’m not!” I raised my hands.

Aric didn’t even glance at them, didn’t seem to hear me. “Throughout our history, you’ve sought to end me, but you’ve never connived quite like this. A pregnancy, Empress?”