Endless Knight(66)

I didn’t know why, but that insult piqued me worse than any of his others. Trading barbs about murdering each other was one thing, but this . . .

An obviously intelligent immortal had been inside my head and found me lacking.

Then I reminded myself that I didn’t give a damn what a serial killer thought of me. “So how does this supermax work? My incarceration?”


“During the day, you’ll have free range of the compound—with your guard, of course. Certain areas of the manor are off-limits to you. Fauna will point those out to you. You will respect my privacy.”


“Privacy? Or is it caution? Your request has nothing to do with the fact that I almost spanked your entire alliance out on the road?” When I bit into a perfectly crisp piece of bacon and couldn’t stifle a moan, he gazed at me with a peculiar expression.

A forkful of eggs confirmed they were fresh as well. So in addition to a dairy cow and pigs, they had chickens too?

“That cuff has made you a non-threat, the weakest of the Arcana,” he pointed out. “Further, I don’t make requests. I give orders. If you follow them, you might keep your head a little longer.”


“No ganking me today?”


He stowed his paper, surveying me. “Not yet, creature.”


“Not that I’m complaining, but why are you holding off?”


“At present, I don’t have enough information to make that decision.”


My mom used to say that, refusing to be pushed into any decision she wasn’t prepared for. No one can make you choose anything before you’re ready. No one, Evie.

I supposed Death’s decision was whether to “keep me.”


“And of course,” he continued, “I enjoy tormenting you with your upcoming execution.”


Or not. “How about you stop killing altogether? If you free me now, I might consider allowing you to enter the truce.”


“Which involves trust. Understand me, Empress, I listen to your call. I know you don’t say those words lightly.”


“Your loss.” I noshed another slice of bacon.

“You truly believe your plan will work? Strange, you weren’t willfully na?ve in any of your other lives.”


“My truce has already proven itself. Joules and his crew could’ve killed me, but they looked out for me instead.”


He gave a mocking laugh. “You and that boy allying? Did you know that one of the first Tower cards had an image of lightning striking a tree? Not a castle tower. Hmm, why do you think that might be?”


I hadn’t known that. “Fascinating. But if Joules and I had grief in the past, it’s ended. You said history repeats itself—I don’t believe it has to.”


Another puzzled look. “Does it not?”


“Nope. Which means I have a solid alliance of seven Arcana, all bent on taking you out.”


He exhaled. “Your ‘solid alliance’ will devolve as soon as the necessity of allying wears off. They always do.”


“I told you—there won’t be a necessity. Because I’m going to stop the game. I never agreed to it. Want no part of killing.”


Death gazed at me with that unnerving intensity. “Did you decide this before or after the Alchemist? Perhaps after you poisoned the cannibals’ limbless captive? Tell me, did you already know you were going to envenom his corpse when you volunteered to murder him?”


I set down my fork, tossing my napkin on my plate. “His name was Tad. And no, I’d never thought to use him after his death. I just wanted to end his suffering.”


“Don’t tell me you possess empathy this time around.” He sounded amused. “Do you think other cards are of like mind? Do you believe, for instance, that the Lovers will honor your truce?”


Their powers were temptation and mind control, among others. What had Gran said? The Duke and Duchess can control any who love, warping them, perverting them. Pain becomes pleasure. . . .

Okay, we might have to take the Lovers out too.

“They have an army,” Death continued, “larger than any in all the history of the game. Exponentially larger than the Hierophant’s miners. They drive north toward us now.”


“Great. Then all signs point to you finally losing. Even you couldn’t defeat an army, huh?” Then I frowned. “Which army?”


“One you’re familiar with. The Army of the Southeast.”


My mouth went dry. Vincent and Violet, the twin children of General Milovníci, were the Duke and Duchess Most Perverse?

“The twins will not be brought to heel as easily as you think,” Death said. “They marched thousands of men on your home just to capture you.”


The Army grinds on, a windmill spins—Matthew’s words, and now I understood them. Haven, that army’s destination, had been equipped with windmill pumps. In his own way, Matthew had been warning me about the Lovers.

Death steepled his fingers. Such a condescending, king-of-the-castle gesture. “Before taking your head, they had intended to torment you with their . . . contraptions.” In a dry tone, he added, “I’m told capture by the Lovers is a fate worse than Death.”