“Do you know what you really want? I see it. I feel it. Think, Empress. See far.”
I was trying! “Help me, then. I’m ready. Help me see far!”
“All is not as it seems. What would you sacrifice? What would you endure?”
“To end the game?”
His voice grew thick as he said, “Things will happen beyond your wildest imaginings.”
“Good things?”
His eyes watered. “Good, bad, good, bad, good, good, bad, bad, good-bye. You are my friend.”
“Wait!”
But he was gone, leaving me there, in the company of corpses.
I exhaled, gazing out—
My heart lurched; a girl lay among them. She was on her front, swords jutting up from her savaged back. Ten of them.
She turned her head, and it was me, crying blood. . . .
I woke from that disturbing vision—to find just as disturbing a sight.
Jack was shirtless, kneeling before the fire, about to press his red-hot bowie knife over the wound on his chest.
Sitting nearby, Aric looked on, as if this was cool or something.
I shot upright. “What are you doing??”
“Prend-lé aisé, bébé.” Take it easy? Was Jack buzzed? That bottle lay empty beside him. “I’d rather a knife mark than the twins’ brand. Can’t stand to see it, me. To feel it.”
I turned to Aric. “And you think this is a good idea?”
“Your squire entertains.” His accent was thick, his words slurred.
Jack flipped him off with his free hand. “Reap. This.”
I gaped. They’d gotten drunk together.
Aric shrugged, telling me, “I’d do the same at the earliest opportunity.”
I would never, never understand males. These two despised each other. They sniped at each other. Yet they’d worked together.
Then I thought of Selena. Maybe I didn’t understand females either.
Because she and I had done the same.
Jack inhaled, holding his breath. His bravery burned as bright as the metal inching closer.
Closer. The fiery red reflected off his sweat-dampened skin, off the beads of his rosary. Closer.
When Aric jerked his chin, Jack pressed the blade down.
Contact. The knife seared his chest. His flesh sizzled, his breath leaving him in a rush.
Jack’s head fell back, muscles straining as he silently took the pain.
Years seemed to pass before the blade cooled. He lowered his head, and his glinting eyes met mine. “They got no hold on me.”
36
DAY 378 A.F.
“That is a serious goddamned door,” Jack said at the entrance to the bunker.
Aric pounded an armored fist against the damp metal. “Must be three or four feet thick.”
Across sheer mountain passes and through winding canyons, Aric had tracked Selena’s call, leading us directly here. A couple of hours ago, I’d begun hearing her as well: Behold the Bringer of Doubt. The Lovers’ call had sounded too. Their real one.
I regarded the mountain enveloping the Shrine. The peak was wreathed in fog, the rock scorched. “Will the explosives work?”
Jack cast a glance at Milo, gagged and tied some distance away. “Non. Door’s even thicker than I expected. We need some way to worm our way into the metal.”
“So what do we do now?” I scouted, searching for an opening, a weakness of some kind—as climbing ivy would. “We can’t get in, and we can’t get them to answer us.” They’d ignored today’s attempts.
Suddenly Aric went motionless.
“What’s wrong?”
He put his forefinger over his lips and cocked his helmeted head. “The Archer’s call just went silent.”
My stomach dropped. I couldn’t hear her either! “Is she . . . ?”
“I sense she lives still.”
“You told me a call could go silent short of death—how?” My glyphs began to glow. “Why?”
Aric’s expression was grave. “When an Arcana enters a catatonic state.”
Jack swore under his breath.
“I don’t understand.” My gaze darted from one to the other. “She’s been with the twins for days. What would bring this about now?”
“She must have reached the tipping point,” Aric said.
“Or faced a new horror.” Jack stabbed his fingers through his hair. “My mind nearly flipped when I saw that crank.”
“So basically her brain is breaking? Oh, screw this! We have to get inside now.”
“I’ll try the explosives.” Jack marched to his horse, retrieving those munitions: a detonation kit and several blocks of plastic explosives.
While he rigged the door, I paced. Aric looked lost in thought.
Minutes later, Jack held up his detonator. “Doan get your hopes up. These explosives couldn’t bust open even a foot-thick door.”
“Then I’ll seed vines.” I’d wanted to use my powers to help anyone in need. This was Selena. “They’ll burrow. Or I’ll sand this mountain down with thorns. Somehow we will get in!” I raised my hands to puncture my palms.
“Wait, Empress,” Aric said quietly. “I can get us past the door.”
Jack looked like he was about to roll his eyes. But then he said, “For true?”
Aric nodded. “I can blow it with something very old. And very strong.”
“Then do it!” I clasped his gauntleted hand. “As Selena would say, smash and grab! Let’s bring her home.”
“Let’s? As in let us?” Death peeled his hand away “You don’t understand. You were never to be risked in this endeavor. Never. We wouldn’t be facing mere Bagmen or mortals, and you still haven’t learned to invoke the red witch fully.”
Jack scowled at me. “You told him about the red witch?”
I breezed past that, facing both of them. “There could be more danger out here. An army of carnates could be lying in wait around the mountain. Besides, the twins don’t want to kill me right away. So as long as I’m near, you’ll be safer. Not to mention that we have their father. Maybe they’ll be protective of him.”
“Oh, ouais, we’ll just use you as a human shield.” Jack raised his brows. “Not having it.”
“We’ve come this far, and we will save her. Aric, you’re going to blow the door, and Jack, I’m coming with. If you two try to leave me behind, then you better shackle me.”