Endless Knight(20)

With a condescending smile, she opened her bag—and took out a deck of Tarot cards.

“You had a deck the whole time! At moments like this, I can see the appeal of the game.”


She shrugged, laying them out atop her silvery reflective heat blanket.

“If you were trying to get me into an alliance, why keep all this secret?” I persisted.

“Because of that whole I-don’t-remember-the-game line you’ve been feeding us. I thought you were lying.” She dealt the cards in a cross formation, much like Gran used to. As soon as I saw the Tarot images, memories came into focus, springing to life like poppies bursting through a layer of snow.

Trying to draw Matthew into our conversation, I said, “Look, here’s Matthew’s.” I pointed out his card; on it, a smiling young man with an oblivious expression walked a desolate land, carrying a rucksack and a single white rose. A yapping dog nipped at his heels.

Matthew tilted his head at the likeness. “In a place where nothing grows, I carry a flower. The memory of you.”


I smiled at him. “That is so sweet.”


He frowned. “That literally happened.”


“Oh.”


Finn said, “That’s just like the image I saw the first time we met. It flashed over him.”


I nodded. “We all have those. They’re called tableaux.”


Finn held the card up next to Matthew’s face, comparing the likeness. “You look stoned, Matto.”


Matthew sighed with contentment. “Thank you.”


I held up Selena’s card. “The Moon.” Hers depicted a glowing goddess of the hunt.

Finn’s expression darkened. “Not interested. Next.”


Selena glared at him.

I pulled another card. The lightning-struck tower. “You guys already know the Tower, that pleasant Irishman who was such a joy to meet. And here’s Death.” I pointed to his card. The Reaper was clad in that black armor, scythe at the ready, riding a pale horse with evil red eyes. He carried a black flag emblazoned with a white rose.

Finn muttered, “Jesus. That dude’s real?” He wadded up his Mayday wrapper, tossing it into the shadows. “So what are his powers?”


Everyone looked at me for an answer. Even Matthew, as if he were quizzing me.

“He’s a horseman and knight with supernatural speed and strength. He uses two swords and can strike with them so fast they’re a blur. His armor is impenetrable, even to my claws. He’s fearless. In one of Matthew’s visions, I saw him walk into Joules’s lightning shower like it was nothing.” Kind of the way I imagined Jackson had walked into a hail of militia bullets. “His touch is deadly.” And he’d been able to read my mind for weeks. Though not without detection; I felt him even now.

“Weaknesses?” Finn asked.

“One,” Selena answered. “The Empress.”


“Yeah, so I keep hearing,” I said.

Finn frowned. “If he’s a swordsman, what’s to stop him from chopping down your trees, going all Paul Bunyan on your ass?”


Had Jackson eased closer to us? To me?

Selena said, “It must be her poison, then.”


“So how do I get close enough to him to deliver a toxin without getting stabbed myself? How do I get past his armor?”


Selena pinned me with her gaze. “We’ll have to figure that out if we want to live.”


After a moment, I looked away. “To think I used to feel sorry for him.”


—I do not want your sympathy, creature!—


You no longer have it!

—I’ve missed our times together. Missed touching you.—


Because he killed with his touch.

You’re sick!

“Evie?” Finn snapped his fingers in front of me.

“What? What’d you say?”


“Your card.” He held it up.

The Empress sat upon a throne with her arms opened wide. In the background were rolling hills of green and red, from crops—and blood. A waterfall cascaded in the distance.

“You look scary. And sexy.”


I was about to say, Not me. But it had been me, in a previous life.

Finn showed the card to Jackson, whose gray gaze flicked from the card to me and back.

“Okay, so you’ve got poison in your claws,” Finn said, “and a lotus thingy that pops up from your palm to choke and paralyze people, and a tornado of thorns, and your blood revives dead plants. Oh, and wound regeneration. Did I miss anything?”


Toxic spores from my hair. I could lay waste to an entire city with them. Hearing someone else outline these things, I felt even more like a freak. I gazed at Jackson, wishing he could understand that no one wanted to be a monster, to be feared. Hell, even a fiend like Death called me creature.

One of the good things about going full-on Empress? When I was burning with that white-hot battle fury, there was no room for doubt.

Now, as Jackson tilted his head at me, I was awash in it.

Selena happily added, “She can also mesmerize guys.” Revealed, no doubt, for Jackson’s benefit.

He narrowed his eyes, his expression saying, Son of a bitch! That explains a lot.