The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)(39)

Inside, Jack gently laid me down next to the fire. “When’s the last time you guys ate?”

Joules said, “’Bout to ask if you had any grub.”

“Non. The leather of my belt’s starting to look good.”

Need to see him! I blinked open my eyes. “You . . . you’re alive. H-how? I saw you . . . I watched you die.” Tears streamed down my cheeks, blurring my vision. I swiped angrily at them. Nothing could mar the sight of Jack.

He’d lost weight—was as leanly muscled as Aric now. “I’m here.” Sitting beside me, he took my hand and brought it to his lips. “Selena saved my life. She sensed the Emperor seconds before he struck and shoved me into an abandoned mine.”

My God. “She protected you till the end.”

“Ouais. She did.” Jack pulled a canteen from his bug-out bag. “Here, bébé.” Unscrewing the top, he lifted it to my lips. “Why’re you out in the Ash? You’re supposed to be safe in Domīnija’s castle.”

I drank. “How did you know that?”

“Coo-y?n told me.”

“Where is he?” No longer could I blame Matthew for letting Jack die.

“We were on the road together for a spell, but he split.”

“Then why didn’t he tell me you were alive?”

“Richter was in the area, so coo-y?n didn’t want to turn on the Arcana radio to contact you. Didn’t want to give anyone’s location away. Plus, it wasn’t a sure thing that I would pull through.”

“That close?”

Stoic nod. “He told me that Death saved you from Richter. So where’s Domīnija?” Jack’s gaze slid over my wedding ring. His brows drew together, and raw pain filled his gray eyes.

I’d betrayed him with Aric. I should’ve believed Jack would somehow come for me. But then I wouldn’t know what it was like to love Aric.

Of course, I also wouldn’t be knocked up and stranded in the Ash.

What should I say? Damn this dizziness and shock! I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t sort my chaotic thoughts.

“If the Reaper isn’t here, I know he’s on his way.”

I shook my head.

In a voice that might have been just shy of hopeful, Jack said, “Dead?”

Joules sat on the other side of the fire. “I wish. That fecker tried to off her. Chased her right out of the castle.”

Jack’s jaw slackened. “Bébé?”

“It’s complicated. He’s been brainwashed. Lark and Gabriel too.”

“Like the Hierophant did?”

“In the same vein.” I wasn’t ready to tell him that Aric might have succumbed to buried hatred, a murderous rage, and the inability to let go of the past.

Joules said, “Paul, their medic, was the inactivated Arcana, the Hanged Man. No one inside that big, warm, food-filled stronghold knew. So Paul poisoned Finn to activate his powers. Offed the Magician straight out of existence.”

“Not Finn.” Jack swore under his breath, his expression shaken. “I’m goan to gut this fils de pute.” Jack had spent more time with the Magician than anyone still alive.

Joules tossed more wood on the fire. “The Hanged Man’s got this yellow sphere that spread over Death’s castle, surrounding the entire mountain. If an Arcana crosses the boundary, he gets brainwashed. When Gabe heard the Empress screaming, he flew off to save her. Then he got nabbed like the rest of ’em. No good deed . . .”

I said, “Paul convinced Aric, Gabriel, and Lark that I killed Finn. Her wolves had me and Joules surrounded. We’d be dead if the Chariot hadn’t arrived.” I waved toward Kentarch, standing off to the side.

Joules added, “He teleported us—or ghosted more like—through a giant grizzly. Then he materialized the truck and exploded that bear’s arse.”

Kentarch looked uncomfortable with this praise, but he did take a seat by the fire.

“Teleporting, huh? My sincere thanks.” Jack gave him a nod, taking this new Arcana craziness in stride. Then he turned to me. “What happened to your grand-mère? Coo-y?n told me she was at the castle.”

“Paul killed her. She would’ve died of natural causes, but he accelerated it.”

“He got her too? Condoléances, Evie.” He brushed the backs of his busted-up knuckles across my cheek. “You guys got a plan to fight this Hanged Man?”

I nodded. “Circe, the Priestess Card, is a witch. She might be able to cast a spell to neutralize Paul’s power. We’ve been trying to contact her in rivers and ponds on our way to the coast.” As Jack seemed to let everything percolate, I said, “Where have you been all this time? Why didn’t you return to the fort?”

“I got knocked unconscious in the floodwaters down in the mine. When I woke, I was in slaver chains.”

I had so many questions. How had he escaped from them? Where had Matthew been going when they split up? But first . . . “I’m so sorry about your army.”

That muscle in Jack’s jaw ticked, his tell. Whenever I saw that, I knew he was barely keeping his emotions in check—the levee about to be overrun. “I’m goan to make Richter pay for that. Somehow, someway.”

He sounded like Jack, looked like Jack. But he seemed changed. Older. Even more hardened. How could he not be?