The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)(53)

“I boiled half of your wave away.”

“And I turned all of your lava back to rock.” The water wall crested over our heads toward him, as if she were getting up in the Emperor’s face. “Do you know that I can feel my victims’ screams in the deep? They always scream, right before I replace the air in their lungs—with me. Tell me, little boy, who will you scream for?”

His red eyes scanned her wall again, sizing her up. “You’ll get what’s coming to you, Priestess. My enemies always do.” Signaling Zara, he turned to ride away on that lava flow. It undulated snakelike over the ground, leaving a charred scar.

The chopper drifted for a menacing moment before banking to follow Richter’s direction.

Over his shoulder, he called, “I’m coming for you, Empress.” His laughter echoed. “Soon it’ll be your turn!”

Once they’d gone, I cried, “Why didn’t you kill him, Circe?”

Her wave drew back, wobbled, then sloshed over the lake bed. A surge of hot backwash slapped me and Jack, toppling us. He had to hang on to me until the water settled.

As he helped me to my feet, I sputtered and cursed. “With allies like these . . .”

Circe sniffed, “You’re welcome for saving your lives.” A small column of water arose, then shakily morphed into a flat expanse, a window into her temple where she sat on a coral throne.

On the few occasions I’d seen her through the window, she’d always been perfectly coifed and calm. Now her long black hair was tangled, her fawn-colored eyes harried. Her sea-foam garments looked askew, and she held her trident in a trembling hand.

Jack blinked at the sight of her, then said, “You might’ve saved us tonight, but he’s got Evie in his crosshairs now.” If he was shocked by Circe’s water window, he got over it. More Arcana insanity he should never have to deal with.

“Well, if it isn’t the hunter, General Jackson Deveaux.” Her island accent was thicker than usual. “I watched over your fort for some time.”

“Not for long enough.”

“I was busy avenging your army. Speaking of which—aren’t you supposed to be dead among them?”

Tick, tick, tick went his jaw muscle.

“Easy, Jack.”

“To answer your question, Evie Greene, I didn’t try to kill Richter because I’m weak, which means my control is suffering. I didn’t want you to boil or drown. Well, not you, especially. Your baby.”

My head whipped around to Jack.

His lips parted. “You’re pregnant?”

“He didn’t know about my godson?” Circe’s titter turned into a cough.

“I-I was about to tell him.” I twined my fingers. What to say? “Jack . . .”

Anguish and bafflement warred in his gray eyes.

“You two discuss this later,” Circe said. “The Emperor might return, and I only have so long.” To Jack, she said, “I’d like to talk with the Empress alone. You should go check on the others anyway.”

Jack blinked rapidly, as if regaining his senses. He looked from me to Circe and back. “You safe with her?”

“Relax, hunter,” Circe said. “If I wanted the Empress dead, she would be so. For months, I had her trapped within my watery noose, but I never struck.”

He peered at my face, then in the direction of my belly. “I’ll be back, me.”

“Be careful,” I called as he started through the pass.

Shock hammered me. We’d just faced Richter—smoke still oozed up from doused lava—and now Jack knew my secret.

But I’d learned about another one: my devastating full potential. I’d been playing host to unlimited wrath this entire time.

Had I actually worried about the lack of sun or Bagger contagion undermining my power? Nothing could undermine it.

Nothing but me. Aric had been right: I’d bottled up my feelings so totally that I’d weakened my abilities.

“Oops,” Circe said. “You really ought to have told him.”

I was still staring in his direction. “I’m going to get him killed before all is said and done.”

“With villains like Richter around, yes. Unless the Emperor weakens as well. Eventually, that little fire starter will run out of fuel.”

Such as roasted bodies. I shuddered.

In the past, Death had waited to attack until the Emperor had drained himself. Yet just now Richter had looked like he was only warming up.

“But you weren’t summoning the great Priestess for help with Richter. Not yet. You want to defeat the Hanged Man. I sensed his activation at the castle.”

My gaze shifted toward Circe. I needed my eyes on Jack, but I’d waited weeks to talk to this woman. She was the key to my future, the ally who’d just saved our lives. “Yes. He poisoned Finn and reversed the others’ cards.”

“The dark calling.”

I frowned. “My grandmother spoke of that.”

“We’re all at risk for our card turning. Any uncontrollable emotion can reverse an Arcana. Fury, pain, sorrow. Remember, the Lovers’ tableau was reversed.”

Matthew had described them as reverse, perverse. “I’ve felt fury before, but I didn’t succumb to the dark calling.” So what would happen if I tapped into my well of wrath? Every time I called on my Empress gifts, I played with a primal force—and I had no idea of the cost. “After Richter’s massacre, I nearly lost my mind.”