Endless Knight(22)

No. No way.

Finn looked at Matthew, his gaze haunted. “These Arcana are sick, and they aren’t just fighting each other. What the hell is the point of our existence?”


Matthew glanced up, startled. “Point? Cachet. We are champions of the gods!”


“Gods?” I croaked, peering up at the low ceiling. “Are there, like, deities running around, controlling the game?”


“They left—”


Suddenly Jackson yanked his crossbow over his back, aiming out the hut’s opening. “We got company.”


Selena had already risen to one knee, her bow and arrow aimed—a little too close to my head. “It’s a wolf,” she said just as I spied gleaming yellow eyes in the burned woods.

Big yellow eyes.

Though Jackson relaxed his aim a fraction, Selena looked even more deadly. Before I could say a word, her arrow zoomed past my ear toward the animal.

When we heard the creature speeding away through the mud, Selena bit out a curse.

“Why would you kill it?” I demanded. “That might be the last of its kind on earth!”


Even Jackson—a seasoned hunter—was giving her a look that said, Not cool.

“That was no ordinary wolf.” Selena looked uneasy. Selena never looked uneasy. “We’ve been scouted by the Strength Card. The Mistress of Fauna.”


I remembered that card, and Gran’s words: Fauna can control animals, Evie, borrowing their senses and making them her familiars.

“Why didn’t we hear her call grow louder?” Finn said.

Selena had already strung one of her makeshift arrows. “Because she isn’t near us, not yet. Only her familiars.”


I scrambled out of the line of fire. “Why didn’t she sic the wolf on us?”


Selena shook her head. “I don’t know why, but Fauna just wanted a look-see. And I think . . .”


“What?”


“I think she wanted us to know she’s watching us. That wolf has been stalking us for days, but I never caught sight of it. Now it reveals itself?”


I swallowed, and Finn said, “What do you mean, watching us? And why would the Strength Card be involved with animals?”


I remembered this one—I’d had the same question eight years ago. “People only started calling her Strength in recent times. She used to be the Fortitude Card, referring to her single-minded purpose. She thinks the way animals do, like beasts on the hunt, with a sole, blood-driven resolve.”


I drew out her card, showing them a delicate girl in a white robe, holding the mouth of a ferocious lion. “Her card is one of the most literal. She can manipulate animals the same way I do plants. Like Gabriel, she has animal senses.”


Selena said, “Not only that—she can tap into the senses of nearby creatures.”


I nodded. “I remember that. If she wanted to spy on us, she could get a crow to fly over and see us through its eyes.” Even Jackson was listening intently to this. “And if she exchanges her blood with an animal, it becomes her familiar, connected to her forever. I don’t know how exactly. Selena?”


“Trade secret. Sometimes we don’t know all the powers. Though Matthew would.”


He cast her a mulish look. “Not your psychic.”


“Matthew, please,” I murmured, “can you tell us anything?”


He gazed down at his hand. Yet now he seemed to be looking for something there.

Or maybe my paranoia was spreading like kudzu. I asked Selena, “Do you ever ally with Fauna? Does her family chronicle?”


“Not normally. Each game she’s allied with different cards.”


Finn stared for long moments at the image. “She’s got an infinity symbol on her card. It’s right above her head. Like on mine.”


Those shared symbols. Death’s card had a waterfall like mine and a rose upon his flag. In essence, he carried a single white rose—as the Fool did on his card. “. . . to be read like a map.”


Seeming to give himself an inner shake, Finn said, “So, to recap, we’ve got zombies on our trail and cannibal mines nearby, and now we’ve got another Arcana on our ass.”


“Look on the bright side,” I said. “How many animals can still be alive? This game, it would suck to be the Mistress of Fauna.” No sooner had the words left my mouth than a wolf howled in the distance.

With plaintive calls, two more answered.

8


Blood spilling from my mouth and wound, I writhe on Death’s sword.

Please. The word is on my lips, but I am too proud to utter it.

Though I want to live, I will never beg!

The Reaper removes his gauntlet, revealing a hand covered with icons. He must have nine kills.

Soon to harvest five more.

He reaches for me with that bared hand, a weapon in itself. I shudder with fear and agony. The more I shake, the more his sword slices at my entrails and raps against my spine. Tears blur my vision, spilling down my cheeks.

In the distance, a lion roars.

“This will hurt for nary a moment more,” he promises, his eyes intent on mine.

All the things I wish I’d done. At least my family will pass on to future Empresses what knowledge I’ve garnered. I made sure of that.