The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)(36)

Paul’s words grated on me. Despite my hatred toward the Empress, she was still my wife. Though I could threaten her . . . others may not.

“This kid might save the world, and you plan to off us?” she asked, and I considered for a moment if she believed she was pregnant. Caught up in her own lies? “What’s in it for you, Traitor? Just plain evilness?”

“I do get a certain satisfaction that you are enjoying the sentence you’d intended for me.” His smile was smug.

The Empress was a liar, a temptress, and a killer. But over all our histories, she had also been a formidable foe. Respect was due to her from this upstart card. “Enough.”

Picking up on my annoyance, Paul quickly said, “Gotta run, Evie. Let’s keep in touch.”

“Oh, Paul”—her voice dropped to the breathy whisper of her Arcana call—“we’ll see each other real soon.”

_______________





The Empress





As I hung up, I struggled to bite back my helpless rage and hopelessness. The call had only worsened my depression.

Aric, come back to me.

At Joules’s and Kentarch’s questioning looks, I said, “Gabe’s still there. The three are all still under Paul’s thrall. We’re still out here starving. My husband is being controlled by pure evil.”

Kentarch’s hands clenched the wheel. “Which means the Hanged Man is winning.”





16


Day 543 A.F.





For the last week, I’d hailed Circe with more and more desperation. Not so much as a ripple from her. Nor a flicker from Matthew.

Each time I tried to communicate with him, I wondered anew if I’d imagined Jack’s voice. As ever, I didn’t feel like I had a firm grasp on what was real/unreal.

Replaying Aric’s tone on the phone didn’t help my mental state. It’d reminded me of his hostility when he’d first captured me in this game. He’d threatened me constantly, taunting me with my demise: Is this the day I decapitate the creature?

Since then, I’d come to depend on him, counting on his love. He was my soul mate; we belonged together. So how could he say those hateful things to me?

If my mind was as screwed up as everyone kept thinking, then maybe the months I’d had with Aric in his castle were the dream. Maybe I’d been asleep this entire time and would wake up tied to Thanatos, a captive walking barefoot across a punishing terrain.

I’d probably prefer that to being pregnant.





Day 545 A.F.





Still no sign of Circe.

We’d started going stir-crazy in the Beast. Truck cabin fever. So whenever we found a decent-looking shelter, we’d overnight inside, starting a fire. Kentarch was handy at sourcing precious wood. A door. A chair. A cradle.

But nothing to eat. Cat food was beginning to look good.





Day 546 A.F.





I was right. Cat food tasted worse on the way up. As my best friend Mel would’ve said in my situation: “Somebody better get some mothertrucking filet mignon up in this bitch, or I will MUTINY.”





Day 548 A.F.





The big, bad Empress sobbed when we got down to our last cans of Sheba.

Aric, you bastard, come back to me.





17


Day 550 A.F.





“What can I do for you, Empress?” Death asked me in a pleasant tone.

Half delirious, I’d filched Kentarch’s phone from the truck, then sneaked back into our current accommodations—a firelit cave—to place a call. “Aric, I need to come home.” I’d feared that Kentarch would leave our fragile alliance, but here I was, breaking ranks first.

“Home?” God, how could he sound so snide? “Do you mean my castle?”

“You have to come get me.” I knelt beside the cave’s trash pile, picking up an empty cat-food can. Tears welling, I ran my finger along the edge for another crumb. Nothing. I’d already licked it clean.

At that moment, I despised Aric.

When I tossed the can away, my ring caught the firelight, the amber stone drawing my eye. The band hung so loosely on my finger I’d had to coat it with sap to keep it on.

“I burn to come get you, Empress. Alas, I can’t leave just now.” His voice was a perfect mix of good humor and callousness. “You see, I have a particular susceptibility to your charms.”

As he spoke, my gaze darted around the large cavern. No one was in here with me, and yet I again got that feeling of being watched. I told him, “I feel their eyes on me all the time.” It was driving me crazy!

“Whose eyes?”

“I-I don’t know. I feel them.” Matthew had told me to beware of Bagmen, slavers, militia, cannibals, and Minors. I’d fought every group except for the last. He’d said they watched us, plotting against us.

Could they be following us?

I’d asked Joules if Cally’s chronicles had mentioned the Minors. He’d said, “In parts. Basically the only way you’ll know they exist is if something goes really wrong with the game. They’re not allowed to hurt us, and we can’t hurt them.”