The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)(51)

“Sol said you were pretty. Pretty doesn’t do you justice.” Those beady eyes roamed over me. “And you regenerate? Maybe you could live through my special brand of attention. Some last longer than others.”

Vomit rose in my throat. “Sol?” I had to act like I hated the Sun Card. “Where is that coward? Too scared to face us?”

“He’s back guarding our lair with his Bagger horde. When you own as much as we do, it’s best to keep watch.” He gazed past us. “And where’s your ally Death? Trouble in paradise?”

“On his way here to meet us. He defeated you once before, and he will again. You better hurry along.”

“He’s not coming,” Richter said, sounding so confident I wondered if he knew about Paul. “In our last shoot out, you needed four Arcana to rescue you. Who’s going to save you now?”

“What do you want, Richter?” Circe had said he craved cataclysm, but there had to be more. “Why are you destroying food stores?”

He shrugged, and a wisp of flame rose from each of his shoulders, taking to the air. “Why does fire burn? Because it consumes to live. I consume to live. Empress, my hunger is never-ending, but there’s not much in the world that the Flash didn’t consume first.”

He incinerated things to harvest strength? “Why hurt people?”

A repulsive smile creased his meaty face. “Nothing ever satisfies me, but roasted bodies come the closest.”

My fists clenched. I was facing yet another Arcana who wouldn’t respond to reason, who’d just keep killing unless we stopped him. “You don’t strike me as a deep thinker, so let me lay this out for you. Sooner or later, you’ll have nothing left to burn. Then what?”

“I’ll win the Arcana game. Because that’s what I am—a winner. When the world comes back, I’ll fry anything new that grows.”

“Then why are we still alive?”

Richter waved in Zara’s direction. Her spotlight swept the ground. She was trying to land. “Right before Zara got to steal your luck, Fauna’s creatures arrived. Zara gets pissed when luck doesn’t flow her way. She’s going to fix that now.”

Jack grated, “So she’ll steal our luck, then you’ll torch us?” Just as in my dreams.

“I’ll keep the Empress alive for a time. Let her recover between my visits.”

Two games ago, he’d tortured me for months, searing away my regenerating limbs, until he’d finally taken my head. My stomach roiled. “Now I understand what hell is.”

How could I stop him? I kept hearing my grandmother’s words: Until you fully embrace your viciousness, you have no chance against the Emperor.

What else had she taught me? Desperate, I mentally plumbed the earth for buried seeds.

I could dispatch plants underground. If I made them thick enough, maybe they could reach Richter before burning away.

There! My eyes widened. I detected seeds deep in the ground, even below the rock—what must be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of potential soldiers. They were ancient. How to fuel them?

“Hell?” Richter flared brighter, the heat making me lightheaded. “You shouldn’t anger me. My temper is truly explosive—”

“Oi, this is for Selena and Tess!” From the top of the crater wall, Joules hurled javelins at Richter.

His arm moved like a blur as he launched five—no, ten—no, fifteen spears. They rained down on the Emperor.

Yet Richter just bowed his chest. We braced for explosions that never came; the spears melted like hot ore. Over and over, silver goop merged with his lava.

“Show your face, Tower!” Richter produced an ominous fireball in his hand. As he scouted for Joules’s location, he bellowed, “Stop being a pussy!” Taking aim, Richter tensed, about to lob that fireball . . . .

A rifle boomed from the opposite side of the crater. Kentarch! Three thunderous shots rang out.

Please, God, let this work.

A few feet from Richter’s skin, those bullets turned into a trio of smoke puffs. The bullets had crumbled into nothing.

Jack muttered, “Jesus.”

Suddenly, I spied Kentarch in the air above the crater. He was teleporting from one side to the other—with a boulder as big as a car. Could the Emperor be crushed? Halfway across, Kentarch dropped it on him.

I held my breath.

Flames radiated from Richter’s body. Even more smoke erupted around him as the rock turned to lava. He saluted Kentarch. “Thanks for the top-off, asshole.”

The heat . . . too much. Why wasn’t the Emperor weakening? Gasping for air, I stared at the lava bubbling all around us. Time seemed to slow as my mind struggled to process this scene.

For once, I could see the future. When Richter won, he would usher in hell on earth. Fire and brimstone. Lava and smoke. The entire world would look like this.

A hellscape.

Jack stumbled, barely keeping me on my feet.

I told him, “We’ve got to get in the water.”

“Non. It’ll boil.”

The ice was long gone; steam wafted off the surface.

Through the haze, I spotted Kentarch and Joules on the crater rim. Kentarch was soaked with sweat, his outline wavering. Moving his truck and that boulder had weakened him.

Even the Arcana able to strike from afar weren’t threats anymore.