The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)(59)

26


The EmpressDay

556 A.F.





“I’ve never been on dunes this high,” I told Jack as we climbed a mound of blackened sand under a lightning-streaked sky. He’d insisted on going before me, making me follow in his tracks.

“Me neither.” He paused, and I caught up with him. Gazing down at me, he said, “This is just like we planned all those months ago.”

“Yeah.” Somehow we’d made it to the Outer Banks. Together. It’d been our mission, the reason we’d banded together in the beginning.

Back then I’d had no idea what Aric would come to mean to me—or how strong my feelings for Jack would become.

For the last few days, I’d felt his eyes on me constantly. I’d see him reach for me, only to lower his hand, as if he no longer had the right to touch me. Or maybe he was trying to keep his distance. To protect his heart.

But whenever he finally pulled over to sleep, I’d curl up next to him, yearning for the physical contact, the comfort of his strength.

After a hesitation, he’d always pull me close. He’d needed the contact too.

“Let’s take a breather.” He opened his canteen and handed it over. All we had left was water, a few rations of lion, and Kentarch’s sacred bottle of Tusker beer.

I accepted the canteen, but said, “I’m fine.”

“Not stopping for you.” He jerked his chin at my midriff.

Jack had shown more concern for my kid than I’d managed to. His loyalty was so strong, he would even protect another man’s child.

As I took a drink, I gazed down at the truck. Joules and Kentarch had stayed with the Beast. Joules laughed as he balanced a sparking javelin on his forefinger, while Kentarch practiced throwing his blade. He now holstered his pistol and knives in reach of his left hand.

We were fortunate that the Chariot was healing up well; the one place we could get help wasn’t an option.

We’d started picking up a recorded radio message from the very place Hal and Stache had spoken of—the Sick House: “Do you or a loved one need medical assistance? At the Sick House, we can help. Our doctors are on standby to save lives. Come to us with goods to trade and get treated today!” The spokesman had sounded like a smarmy lawyer: Have you been in an accident?

Jack had heard on the road that the Sick House was a military base commandeered by a gang that traded drugs, medical care, and women.

His pensive gaze took in our surroundings. Here on the coast, the snow had dissipated. We’d gone from pristine blankets of white to the ash we all hated—like ripping off a clean bandage to reveal a festering wound. “I always thought it was my job to get you here. Non. My job was to get you to safety, to a place you could call home. I haven’t succeeded yet.”

“We’ll find that place, Jack. Somehow.” Would it be the castle? Everything depended on Circe.

“So this is where your grand-mère rode out the end of the world?”

“Yep.” I surveyed the coastal town. Apocalypse: Beach-Style! How had she survived here for so long? The towns we’d driven through had once been filled with seashells, sun umbrellas, and beach towels—not canned goods.

“How’d Domīnija find her?”

“Like you, there’s little he can’t find.” Both men had an innate talent for sourcing.

“He’d had her at the castle the whole time the three of us were on the road together?” I nodded. “Why didn’t he play that card when you were about to make your decision between us? Seems that would’ve made him a shoo-in.”

“He realized how much I would resent the coercion.” I admitted, “He said he’d felt so strongly about me that he believed I must have felt the same.” At Jack’s troubled expression, I changed the subject. “I told Gran about you. She said she would’ve liked to see me with a bayou boy.”

That muscle ticked in his jaw. “Why you tell me something like that?” he grated. “You’ve never been more out of my reach.”

“Jack?” He looked exasperated with me, like I’d forgotten my bug-out bag or something.

“Sorry.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I told you how the future would play out, and I’m not liking my odds.”

“You said you had to be convinced that Aric would return to normal and keep his rage in check. I’ve been replaying my escape from him, and maybe I’m not liking his odds.” If the trust Aric and I shared had vanished like a desert mirage, I wasn’t eager to trudge across scorching sand in that direction again. “And don’t forget, when I accepted him as my own, I believed you were dead. It’s like I explained to Joules—you and I didn’t break up. We were planning a future together. Now . . .” I bit my lip.

“Now we doan have enough information to make a decision. So we live in limbo.”

Which wasn’t fair to Jack. “I don’t know what else to do.” At present, my missions were to meet up with Circe, plan a takedown, and rescue Aric.

After that? Beats me.

“Your kid’s goan to need his father.”

“I didn’t have mine for long. And look how mentally well-adjusted I turned out.”

“I’m serious, I know this better than anyone.” Being abandoned by his father had shaped Jackson. But I’d come to realize that all his hardships before the Flash had strengthened him, preparing him for ever more challenging trials.