The Serpent

by Sarah Fine

  Ernie felt for her own, snug in the pocket of her jeans, cold and quiet yet again. But the diamondback had come to her, and although it hadn’t been a perfect first date, it hadn’t been a complete disaster, either. “No problem. At least this way, I don’t get helmet hair.”

  Gabe offered his hand. “Ready? Just hold on to me.”

  She slid her palm onto his, and his fingers closed around her hand. He pulled her close, anchoring his arm around her. A tiny smile flashed on Gabe’s face as he played the cards, as they fell together, as Ernie’s thoughts went loose and dizzy. Then her feet hit solid ground, and the world didn’t right itself—the vertigo would have sent her flopping into the dirt if Gabe hadn’t kept a solid grip on her. He turned her toward the house. The windows were dark, just like before, but Ernie knew better than to believe the mirage. “Did they get in another fight?” she asked wearily.

  “Nah. I got ’em settled.” He took her hand and led her up the porch steps as she wondered whether he realized how obvious his false bravado was.

  When they walked through the door, Ernie sagged with relief. The Dealers were back on their couches, the fire was crackling merrily in the grate, and everything was just as it had been before the brawl. The fan vase was on the mantelpiece, looking like it had never been touched. The floors were clear of the dust that had been shaken loose as the Dealers had rattled the house. They might have destroyed it four or five times since she’d left, but she’d never know from looking at it. “Whoa.”

  “You came back,” said Virginia. “That’s a pleasant surprise.”

  “Shut up, Virginia. Gabe knew where she was the whole time,” said Trey, pausing in the middle of feeding grapes to Tarlae, who did not look like she was glad Ernie had returned. She grabbed the grapes and fed them to herself.

  Minh was sleeping on one of the couches, his mouth open, so Trey leaned over and dropped a grape in there. The Pot-Bellied Pig Dealer didn’t move.

  Alvarez was standing by the fire, leaning on his cane, looking Ernie up and down. He scowled at Gabe. “I still want to see her play,” he said.

  “Agreed,” said Tarlae. “You told us she could.”

  “She’s feeling the effects of the half deck, and Duncan is using a barrier rune tile to block the diamondback from leaving his side,” said Gabe. “She can play, though—that’s what she was doing when I found her, and it was impressive.”

  Ernie glanced up at him. That wasn’t entirely true—she’d said the snake had appeared, but he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.

  “But she needs a rest now,” Gabe continued.

  “Why are you coddling her?” asked Alvarez. “We should be hunting down the Diamondback while he’s weakened!”

  “He has my mother,” Ernie snapped.

  Alvarez waved away any concern for her mother’s life like he would a fly. “The Diamondback will kill more than your mother if we miss this chance to get rid of him.”

  Ernie flinched as a grape flew toward Alvarez, bouncing off his chest. Minh, who’d just spat it from his mouth, sat up. “You will have to play,” he said to Ernie. “If you’re the horse we’re going to bet on.”

  “Maybe he’s simply waiting for her to die,” suggested Tarlae, setting a denuded grape stem on the table. “Then the cards will return to him anyway, unless we take control of them first. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t set a deadline for the exchange. He knows he has more time than she does.”

  “I’d rather find him before he finds the Marks,” said Alvarez.

  Gabe crossed his arms over his chest. “He won’t find the Marks.”

  Alvarez made a dismissive gesture. “You want us to trust you with them—and with her.” He pointed at Ernie with his cane. “But if she can’t play, she’s useless to us.” He took a step toward Ernie, and Ernie stumbled back.

  Gabe moved between them. “If any of you want to challenge her, you’ll go through me,” he snapped. He held up his deck.

  Trey moved to Gabe’s side and tossed an apologetic look at his lady love. “And me,” he said.

  After a moment of thick silence, Gabe’s stiff posture relaxed a little. “Good. Now if you will excuse us, Ernie needs a bit of a rest. We can use the time to track Duncan’s allies.” Gabe took Ernie by both her shoulders and guided her down the hall to the sound of the Dealers muttering grimly behind her.

  “They’re not going to wait much longer to see what I can do,” she said once he’d bundled her into her mother’s bedroom.

  “My threat, along with Trey’s, will keep them with us for now.”

  “Why is Trey so loyal to you? Everyone keeps telling me that Dealers play alone, and I would think he’d be more eager to please his girlfriend than you.”

  Gabe smiled. “He owes me a favor. Until it’s fulfilled, he’s with me. And I’ll be honest and tell you I’m very, very glad of that.”

  “Me too.” She thought back to what Alvarez had just said, and it reminded her—“Where did you hide the Marks, by the way?”

  Gabe’s mouth twitched. “I put a case around them and hid them in a place no one will ever guess.” He whipped out his deck and showed her the card, the symbol an H with two horizontal lines instead of one. Beneath the symbol, she saw the box that contained the two remaining Marks.

  “The other Dealers can’t track the Marks anymore,” he added. “We need them to focus. And we need you to rest.”

  Ernie shuffled toward the bed. Maybe a nap would do her good. Maybe she’d be able to call the diamondback to her if she had a little more energy.

  Gabe knocked her onto the bed and pulled off her shoes. “Good girl.”

  “Shut up,” she mumbled sleepily.

  “I’ll handle this, all right?”

  “Stop being so nice.” It made things all cloudy and confusing inside of her. Her eyes closed, but then she felt the tickle of his hair on her cheeks. The warm brush of his mouth on hers sent shivers all the way down to her toes.

  “You’ll get through this,” he whispered. “Just remember what you’re fighting for.”

  He left the room, turning off the lights and shutting the door behind him. Ernie lay there in the dark, startled. He’d kissed her. Sort of. Like . . . was that a brotherly kiss or a real kiss? Her body was sparking with want, but the fire died quickly, snuffed out by her exhaustion. Confused thoughts moved sluggishly through her mind. She’d have to play when she woke up. She’d have to be strong. She needed to save her mom. She had to help save the world. And she wanted to find out whether Gabe actually liked her or whether he was just trying to give her what she needed to keep her from giving up. It all sank into darkness as she drifted—

  She sat up with a gasp, her left forearm burning. Something had just crashed into the closed bedroom door, shaking it in its frame. Running her hand over her heated skin, she wondered whether the diamondback was returning to her, and felt a burst of hope. She heard a scratching and a deep thump coming from the hallway outside the bedroom. Shadows moved in the crack of light bleeding in from under the door. Her eyes on the light, Ernie swung her feet to the floor, instinctively feeling her pocket once again to make sure the cards were still there.

  She screamed as something heavy slammed into the door. “H-hello?” she tried to ask, but her voice wasn’t working. It was nothing but an airless squeak. There was definitely something out there. She could hear a chattering noise, like a—

  The door splintered and bowed inward as huge, dark shapes spilled into the room, lit from behind by the hallway light. She heard growls and shrieks and saw the terrible silhouette of tentacles and claws reaching for her. And wings and talons. Was that the kestrel?

  Something charged at her, and Ernie threw herself over her mother’s bed to get away, her nose filling with the scent of fur and feathers and ocean. As she cowered in a corner, she tried to draw her cards with fumbling fingers. The room was a symphony of chaos, furniture flying, the mattress ripped from the bed to reveal Ernie squatting by the window, helpless. For a moment
, all she could see was the shadows, and the glint of hatred and murder in cold black eyes. They’d blocked the door, and they were coming for her. The Dealers had decided to kill her, and they’d sent their animals to do the job.

  The monkey, now the size of her mother’s bureau, leapt onto the box spring and opened its mouth wide, showing its fangs. A tentacle slithered from under the bed and grabbed at Ernie’s ankle. She screamed and snatched the lamp from her mother’s bedside table, then wielded it like a baseball bat, freeing herself from the octopus and knocking the monkey back. Survival thumping like a drum in her brain, she whirled around and slammed the base of the lamp into the windowpane, shattering it. As the animals lunged for her, Ernie launched herself through the window.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  She hit the wooden porch rolling. Her arms and back were probably shredded from the glass, but she didn’t feel it. She didn’t feel anything except the cold certainty that if she didn’t move, she would die. With the sounds of the raging animals behind her, she stood up and leapt to the ground, stumbling as her feet met the gravel walkway. She could hear the animals chattering and shrieking as they climbed and slithered and flapped through the window, and she had the crazy thought that they were talking to each other—about how they were going to kill her.

  Adrenaline surging, she sprinted, first heading for the woods, then thinking to make it to the road, where maybe she could flag a passing car. Not that anyone would stop when she was being chased by a giant raccoon and a rabid monkey, but her mind was in reptile mode—run, survive. Her feet crunched on the gravel drive, and she skidded a little as she lunged to the right, trying to maintain her speed. She’d done the Spartan Beast in March. A half-marathon race with a few dozen obstacles, forcing her body to focus on muscles and power, on only that. Her heart pumped hard, and her legs didn’t let her down. They’d done this before.

  She wasn’t sure how far she had run—she had passed the drive for the sewage plant and the chicken farm, with no plan for what to do next. The river flowed lazy and cold and muddy on her left, and for a moment she considered hopping the fence and trying to make it across—then remembered the octopus. The thing was probably clumsy on land, but in the water? Her arm was still stinging. If the snake returned, she could play from her deck and defend herself somehow. Maybe. Unless the other Dealers were right behind their animals, planning to pull their decks. She hazarded a glance over her shoulder, hoping she’d put some distance between her and the beasts.

  They were gone. Nothing behind her on the road. Only woods to the right and the river to the left, and complete silence except for the soft whoosh of flowing water. Ernie stumbled to a stop, blinking. Beneath her feet, she felt a faint tremor, maybe a car coming, but she couldn’t see any oncoming headlights from either direction.

  “That can’t have been just my imagination.” The moon hung fat and glowing over her, clouds slipping over its round white face, revealing a quiet country road and nothing else.

  Another tremor rumbled beneath her feet, this one stronger. Ernie turned in place as a crashing met her ears, like the sound of branches breaking and brush being crushed underfoot. She staggered backward, her heart picking up its primal pace. Her breath came sure and fast but cut off with a silent scream as something vast and misshapen burst out of the woods and onto the road a few hundred yards away. It was between her and the house, and was the size of a delivery truck, with four legs, tentacles sprouting from its shoulders, and wings. Holy crap. It was like they’d combined to become the mother of all nightmares, but with the way the ground shook as it bounded toward her, letting out an inhuman roar, she knew it was all too real.

  Her body propelled her into action even as her mind tried to process what she’d seen. She ran faster than she ever had, almost flying. Her arm—a quick glance down at it revealed the dark shape of the snake. If she could keep running, just long enough to find a place to hide and pull her cards, she knew the diamondback would help. An earthy, animal whiff of wind met her back, and Ernie dove to the ground just in time to avoid the talons reaching for her. The creature had taken flight. It swooped past her and landed on the road in front of her with a thundering impact, so Ernie darted to the right and took off for the woods, running up a short embankment with brambles scraping her limbs and face. It was the only place she could think of that might slow the thing. Once she made it up the hill, she kept her arms up to shield her face from low-hanging twigs as she headed deeper into the woods.

  Ernie ran with her knees high through weeds and brush, bumping against trees, nearly falling. A clearing. A big log to shield her. She just needed something. Anything to give her a moment to think before that monstrosity got to her. She could already hear it behind her, sending trees to the ground, snapping branches like tiny twigs. She stomped helplessness and hopelessness beneath her bleeding, bare feet with every step. She was a survivor, and she couldn’t give up.

  Her toe caught on a root and sent her tumbling down a shallow incline, rolling until she hit soft leaves and mud at the bottom. She’d asked for a clearing, and she’d gotten it—the moon lit the space like a spotlight.

  And there, on a nearby log, lay the diamondback, coiled and watching her.

  “Thank god,” Ernie sobbed, pulling her deck. She held her cards up, hoping the snake would help her choose a play.

  There was nothing behind her except silence again. Her muscles were so tense they felt like they were about to give. She didn’t breathe. Then the diamondback began to rattle, that angry buzzing that told her it was unhappy with something. She turned toward it, smiling and incredibly relieved at the sound, something she never would have guessed was possible twenty-four hours ago. “It’s all right,” she said. “I—”

  A quiet laugh cut her off. “You are a little fool.” Duncan appeared right next to the serpent, not even ten feet from where Ernie crouched with her cards. “Did you think she was here to help you?”

  The snake was still rattling like she was seriously pissed, but Duncan reached down and scooped her up, allowing her to coil around his arm. Then, smirking, he pulled the serpent tile from his pocket, flipped it into the air, and put it away again. “I sent her to get into your head,” he said as he stroked the snake’s back. Despite the triumphant expression on his face, he looked haggard, his youthful, handsome features gaunt, his eyes in shadow, as if they’d sunken into his head a bit. “I asked her to bring you to me. She wants the deck made whole again as much as I do.”

  Ernie tried to swallow, but her mouth had gone dry as a ten-year drought. “I think she’s considering a new partner, though.” She slowly rose to her feet. “How do you know she’s not going to choose me?”

  Duncan’s fingers closed around the diamondback, just beneath her head. She rattled again, but he brought her face close to his. “Because she knows which of us is stronger. She knows which of us is without fear.”

  “And she knows which of us is a total asshole,” Ernie said, keeping her eye on the snake.

  “The decks respect power,” Duncan snapped. “Everyone should.” His bitterness was palpable. “Give me the Marks, and this can all be over.”

  “Where’s my mom?”

  “Safe and sound. I’ll return her to the shop once I have what I need.” Now he sounded bored, which made rage spark in Ernie’s chest. These Dealers, none of them cared about her mom, except maybe Gabe. But she’d seen the kestrel join with the other animals in attacking her just now. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation talking, but it seemed like she was on her own. Again.

  “Were the other Dealers on your side the whole time?” Ernie asked, running her thumb over her cards, hoping she wasn’t just imagining the faint warmth she detected there. The diamondback was in Duncan’s grasp, its body wrapped around his arm.

  Duncan laughed. “You thought that whole thing was real?” He tsked at her. “No, she is brilliant, my diamondback. She needed to bring you to me, and she knew the perfect way. No force, just a ruse to isolate you from your all
ies. You came here yourself! All because you were too weak and stupid to see through the mirage.”

  The snake had gotten Ernie to run just far enough—down the road, into the woods—so no one would hear or see what came next. Even if the Dealers had been aware of her abrupt and dramatic exit from the house, she’d darted away so fast that—Wait. Gabe would be tracking her. A spark of hope ignited inside her.

  Duncan must have seen it in her eyes. “Don’t think they’ll come for you,” he said. “I’m realizing that the Kestrel is weaker than he seems.” He kissed the top of the snake’s head. It rattled but stayed on his arm. “He’s a sentimental fool, that one. Always has been. I used to respect him, but now . . .” He shook his head.

  Gabe. He’d been using all this energy to protect her when he probably needed every bit of it himself. He’d said Duncan didn’t want to face him, but something had clearly changed. Ernie was squeezing her deck, wondering if now was the time to try to play the blank card the Forger had given her. Would it get her out of this? Would it give her a chance?

  What if she played it and nothing happened? Her cards were gummy from her sweat, warm from her hands. Not hot and glowing like they’d been when the diamondback had really, truly been with her that first time. “I guess it’s just you and me, then,” Ernie said, still making hard eye contact with the snake. Come to me, she thought, focusing all her energy on the reptile’s eerie eyes. Come to me and we can unite the deck.

  Duncan’s eyebrows rose, and he turned the serpent so they were nose to nose. Her tongue darted out, almost touching his skin. “Oh, did you want to go to her?” he asked the snake. “Really?” He was grinning now, all his teeth showing. He pivoted toward Ernie, pulling the diamondback’s body from around his arm and holding it with both hands. “Go to her, then!”

  He threw the snake at Ernie. As it flew toward her, she caught a flash of light and movement—Duncan drawing his cards. The snake’s mouth opened midair, fangs showing, and Ernie screamed and dove out of the way. The diamondback hit the ground and came up hissing, its head high and its tail rattling.