by Sarah Fine
“Rend,” Duncan said simply. “Crude but effective.”
He bent over to take the cards from Ernie’s limp hand. Her fingers scrabbled to hold on to them. Duncan was shuffling her cards back into his deck as a shout from the courtyard turned her head. It was Gabe, his face bloodied and his eyes desperate.
“Try it, Brother,” shouted Duncan. “See if you can save her. I can block anything you throw. But you’d better hurry—she has only seconds to live.”
A grim, resigned look crossed Gabe’s face. His eyes met Ernie’s. He blocked an attack from Rupert, making the Dealer disappear. He blocked an attack from Ruslan, sending some sort of cloud of noxious smog rolling back over the Dealer of the Komodo Dragon. And he ran toward Duncan, who stood up and faced his older brother with a look of vicious delight on his face. Duncan had taken most of Ernie’s cards. He almost had a full deck again.
Except for the one in Ernie’s pocket, the one she’d set aside for this moment. She was reaching in to retrieve it when Gabe played a card, a glowing card, its symbol a vertical line intersecting with a shorter diagonal one. It fluttered through the air and landed right next to Ernie.
Gabe hit the floor a moment later, clutching his chest. Ernie’s pain vanished.
He’d played the Sacrifice card. Blood trickled from his mouth.
“No,” whispered Ernie, rolling to her side and dragging herself to him. He was beyond speech, but his eyes said everything.
“You’re an idiot, just like you always were,” sneered Duncan as he watched his brother suffer. “You only bought her another minute or two!”
Gabe had absorbed her wounds with his own body, but she was still without her cards. Dying. But she still couldn’t give up. Ernie shoved her hand in her pocket. Maybe a minute was all she needed. “I’ll be right back,” she murmured to Gabe, kissing his forehead.
She pulled her Haven card and played it, and the last thing she heard was Duncan’s roar of rage.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
When she appeared in the clearing, a few yards in front of the tent, her heart was pounding and her breath was shaky. The knowledge that Gabe was bleeding and dying, probably wondering what the hell she was doing, maybe trying to defend his cards—it got her moving. She staggered toward the tent and fell to her knees to pull the zipper as a rumbling roar came from the woods beyond the clearing. She looked over her shoulder as trees began to crack and fall.
This was her haven. In her dreams, or so she thought. But something was coming for her, and she didn’t know whether it was her mind warning her that she’d better get a move on or an actual enemy coming to finish her off. She cursed and tugged at the tent’s zipper, which was sticky and catching on the fabric because of course. Once again, she felt a swell of anger toward her father, the absent Dealer. Finally, she tore the zipper from the fabric at the top and dove inside. This time, there were Fig Newtons and a few bags of Capri Sun sitting right next to the lockbox that held the blank card.
The mechanical growl that announced the presence of a massive engine had grown deafening, and the ground shook. Ernie peeked out of the tent and gaped as a tank roared into the clearing. As its cannon swung around, her heart stopped. Was this real? Was it a trick?
Or was it her brain reminding her she didn’t have much time left?
The cannon slowly lowered its barrel, and that’s when Ernie realized it didn’t matter. She had no time to be trapped here. Gabe needed her to fight. Legs needed her, too. Ernie could only imagine what it must be like to be bound to two Dealers determined to kill each other. She lunged for the lockbox, grabbed it with both hands, and heaved it into her lap. She was about to reach for her Revelation card when she remembered that Duncan held all her cards except Haven—and the blank in the lockbox. Even in this dream state, she felt a wrenching in her bones and knew Duncan was going through her pockets, shaking her body hard enough to break her neck. If she didn’t go back right now, she was going to die.
She didn’t have time to open the box. She needed to wake up. Now.
Hunched over her box, listening to the cranking sound outside as the cannon finished aiming, Ernie said a prayer and focused. This was it, her final play. A massive boom made her curl over the lockbox, squeezing her Haven card so hard that it was a wonder it didn’t crumple in her hand.
She came to looking up at Duncan, who was standing over her with a knife. His eyes lit on her Haven card, and then on the box, which Ernie had somehow managed to drag from her exploding dream world. “The Marks,” he whispered, leaning down to grab them.
Ernie braced herself and slammed the lockbox into the side of his face. He pitched to the side with a strangled roar, and Ernie kept hold of the metal box as she pulled herself from the floor, leapt over Gabe’s limp, barely breathing form, and ran for the suit of armor, the only thing in the room large enough to hide behind. Outside in the courtyard, the fight was still going on but without Gabe. It looked grim. The only good thing she could see was that Alvarez was on his feet and helping Minh fight Virginia, which meant that Minh had gotten the older dealer at least a few more of his cards back. Now Alvarez was in the fight of his life, leaving Tarlae and Trey to battle Ruslan, Rupert, and Akela.
“Give them to me,” Duncan shouted, lurching toward her as she crouched behind the armor and fumbled with the lock. The combination was her fastest mile time ever: 7:36.
“Give them to me, or I cut his throat.” Duncan’s voice was a roar now.
Her head throbbing, her bones burning with pain, Ernie peeked out from behind the armor to see Duncan crouched over his brother with a knife at Gabe’s throat. Ernie looked around for Legs, and her stomach dropped as she saw her beautiful diamondback on Duncan’s arm. She’d returned to her master, but hopefully she hadn’t made her final choice. Maybe this last play would be enough to win her back for good.
Blood was coming from Gabe’s mouth, and his eyes were barely open. He was too hurt to fight. The Rend card had been worse than anything she’d ever felt; she hadn’t even been able to move her limbs after Duncan played it. If Gabe hadn’t pulled his Sacrifice card, she’d already be dead. “I’ll give you the Marks!” She heard the quiet click that meant she’d gotten the lock open.
“Take them out of the box and show them to me,” said Duncan, clearly remembering the stunt she’d pulled with the red rune tile. “Hold them in your hand.”
“Okay. Just back away . . .” Her voice cracked. Her breath barely pushed the sound from her throat. Her head spun, her lungs not strong enough to pull air. “From Gabe,” she whispered.
Duncan smiled. “Not a chance.” He pressed the knife to Gabe’s throat, and blood welled over the blade. Gabe’s hands twitched, the only sign he’d felt the slice of the knife.
Fury sparked in Ernie’s chest as she opened the box and looked down at the blank card, realizing that her hands had become skeletal, just fragile skin stretched over bones. She had only the Haven card and the blank card now.
But Ernie didn’t know what play to make. What could the card do? The Forger had told her that if she played it at the right moment, it could save her. She looked at Gabe, who was barely conscious. The only part of him that was moving was his hands—over his cards. Duncan had assumed his brother was done, but Gabe still had his deck and was trying to deal. He hadn’t given up.
And neither would she. Pulling the stark white and strangely heavy card from the lockbox, she thought about the only thing that might be able to save her and Gabe if neither of them could play another card. Teamwork.
She shoved the box off her lap, and the sound of it clattering to the floor echoed throughout the stone chamber. She rolled to her hands and knees, feeling the give in her bones, how they would shatter if she were hit with one more strike.
Duncan pulled the knife away from Gabe’s throat and stood. “Bring them here.”
Ernie sat up just as Gabe opened his eyes and abruptly wrenched himself from the floor, grim and bloody and determined, a newly conjured hunt
ing knife in his fist. He’d been waiting for Duncan to turn his back. But Ernie could see the terrible, knowing look on Duncan’s face. Before she could cry out to warn Gabe, Duncan spun around and slammed his own knife into Gabe’s stomach. Gabe’s eyes went round and met Ernie’s. His cards began to fall from his hand one by one, sliding across the floor at his feet.
Her heart tearing, her mind a white star of agony, Ernie played her blank card, letting it fly from her fingertips. A Hail Mary, just as her body gave out. She fell back against the stone wall and watched as the card flew forward and sliced across Duncan’s cheek before joining the few cards remaining in Gabe’s grasp. Duncan hissed and let go of the handle of the knife he’d buried in his brother’s body. Gabe hit the ground on his knees, but his cards were glowing now. So was Ernie’s Haven card, becoming so hot in her palm that she grimaced and looked down at it. The symbol, a crooked-looking square, was flaring so bright it nearly blinded her, and when she turned it over, she gasped. The diamondback on the card had transformed.
Now it had wings.
Gabe seemed just as puzzled with his deck, which leapt from the floor and fluttered around him like a tornado of fireflies, sparking and glowing. Duncan yelped and pulled the Diamondback deck from his pocket as his pants began to smoke. The cards flew from his hands, and Legs yanked herself from his arm, landing in a graceful coil at his feet. The freed Diamondback cards flew around the room, too, glowing like Gabe’s. And as a few zipped past, Ernie realized they had also changed. The white card was now among them, leading the way as it turned and soared back to Ernie. She flipped her palm up, and several of the cards landed in her grasp, all of them hot enough to burn.
Gabe pulled the knife from his gut with a groan as Duncan went after any Diamondback cards within reach, snatching them from midair and cursing as they scorched his skin. Ernie could smell charred flesh and hoped it was only his, not Gabe’s, not hers. The cards in her hand hurt, but they also felt like they belonged with her.
“Legs,” she called. “I need you.” The words came out of her in a strange unison—Gabe was calling Caera, who shot through the open window from out in the night, shrieking. She flew down and landed next to Legs, and the two animals regarded each other while Duncan continued to grab cards. Ernie looked down at the blazing deck in her hand. Some of them she didn’t recognize, but to her amazement, she felt their meanings as she ran her thumb over their symbols. She had Weapon—a vertical line with a barbed, curved hook at the top. But she had no strength to wield a weapon now. She needed Strike. Just as the thought crossed her mind, she looked up and saw Gabe again. He held out his hand to her, and a card flew from it, straight to her. The symbol was a vertical line with a triangle jutting to the right from its center, and the moment she touched it, she knew it was exactly the card she needed. She crossed the cards with the Enemy card that had also flown into her possession, the symbol an upside-down check mark with an extra diagonal line slashing downward from the shorter line in parallel. Her muscles were coming back to life after being so close to dissolving into dust, and with her focus on the attack, she sliced the cards through the air at Duncan.
Duncan staggered back, an ax in his chest. He’d been so distracted trying to capture as much of the deck as he could that he hadn’t had the time to play a single defensive card. Energy and hope surged through Ernie as she pushed herself up from the floor. She was still hurting, still struggling, but it was time to deal. Gabe, his shirt covered with blood, planted his feet. Duncan ripped the ax from his chest and stumbled through the space between Gabe and Ernie. “Cathubodua,” he roared, staggering forward to grab her, but the snake reared back, rattling and writhing.
“Legs, get yourself out of the way!” shouted Ernie, just as Caera pecked at the snake’s tail. “Hey!”
“She’s trying to get her to safety,” said Gabe, his voice ragged. He looked at Ernie, a half smile on his face as the two animals made their way to a corner. Time to play, he added.
Ernie flinched. His lips hadn’t moved as he’d said those words; she’d heard his voice in her mind. She looked down at her pulsing new cards, with their hybrid creature wrapped around the world. She played Enemy and Sea, the symbol a two-crested wave, at the same time Gabe played Transport, which looked like an R drawn in straight lines.
Duncan disappeared.
Did we do that together? she thought.
His brow was furrowed. What did you do to my deck?
Before she could answer, Duncan reappeared, his hair and clothes dripping, holding a machine gun. Ernie ran as he began to shoot, the bullets sending shards of stone bouncing off walls. She pulled the card for Ally just as Gabe played Shield, and she crashed into him as the bullets caught up with her—only they hit a gelatinous barrier that had appeared, absorbing the projectiles but not letting them through. Duncan fired all he had into the barrier, shouting with frustration when he ran out of ammunition.
Ernie dealt her newly acquired Draw card just as Gabe played Tool, and several more of Duncan’s cards flew from his grasp and fluttered straight to Ernie’s hand as the shield disappeared, leaving a pile of bullets on the floor in front of them.
“You cheated,” Duncan shrieked, spittle flying from his lips, his face white, his hair dripping, his shirt stained with his own blood, which was still flowing freely from his chest wound.
Ernie had the Healing card in her own deck. She held it up. “Time to fold, buddy.” She began to shuffle her cards, not completely smoothly, but the movement felt natural and right.
“Help,” Duncan shouted toward the courtyard. “Help me, you idiots.” He pulled a card and played it, and Ernie recognized the symbol. Aid. Rupert came running, his hyena keeping pace. The Dealer was covered in some sort of black ooze, but his cards were still in his hand.
Ernie played Rest—a P facing downward—at the same time Gabe played Enemy. Rupert swayed in place and dropped to the ground, already snoring. The hyena curled up by his side. Duncan ran over and kicked the sleeping animal, then the snoozing Dealer, still calling for help.
Ruslan and his Komodo dragon were the next to arrive. They were racing from the courtyard when a brick wall landed in their path.
Was that you? Ernie thought at Gabe.
No!
That was when Akela sauntered in. “This is a losing fight, Ruslan,” she called out. “Look.” The brick wall disappeared and she pointed at Duncan, who had sunk to his knees in a pool of his own blood. “And that animal-abusing sack of shit doesn’t deserve our help anyway.”
“No,” cried Duncan. “Help me and we’ll take the Marks!”
Akela scoffed. “This was a fool’s errand.” She drew a card and disappeared. Ruslan followed her lead.
“Virginia!” Duncan’s voice was desperate now.
No answer. Ernie peered out into the courtyard. Minh and Alvarez were gone, too.
“Looks like your allies have abandoned you,” said Gabe. “Perhaps you should have been nicer to them.”
“You won’t kill me,” Duncan said, panting and bracing himself with his palms on the stones. “You can’t. I’m your brother.”
Gabe looked over at Ernie. She didn’t hear him in her head, but something passed between them anyway, as if he were giving her a look at his soul. If he killed Duncan now, perhaps the Forger would give his Wild card back, completing his deck. But his heart was full of his family, and he had long ago grown weary of killing. It scared Ernie, feeling it like this, knowing the depth of his fatigue. He was torn, not wanting to slay his brother but knowing that he had to—if not for himself, then for all the people Duncan might yet destroy if he had the chance.
Ernie took a deep breath. For the first time in a long while, it didn’t feel labored. She looked down at Legs and put out her arm. “Come here, lady. You belong with me.”
Duncan snarled and picked up the knife Gabe had pulled from his body only minutes ago. With hatred in his eyes, he whirled on his knees, bringing the blade up and hurling it toward the serpent.
Ernie didn’t think—she only acted. She dove in front of Legs, blocking the blade with her body. It buried itself high in her chest, sending sick, suffocating heat thundering along her bones and nerves.
Duncan inched toward her and played his Shield card, one of the few he had left. A metal wall encircled Legs, Ernie, and Duncan, shutting out Gabe, who began to slam his body into it and call Ernie’s name.
Wearing a ghastly smile, Duncan watched Ernie writhe before him. He held up his remaining cards and took his time as he pulled one away from the deck. He turned the card to show her—Death, an upside-down Y with a line jutting down from its center—and reached for her cards.
As a loud rattling came from behind Ernie, Duncan looked up, his eyes wide, his mouth dropping open in horror. His cards tore themselves from his grip and soared like a storm toward Ernie, who put out a limp hand to catch them all.
Cool scales slid against her back as the knife pulled itself from Ernie’s body and the pain disappeared. Ernie turned to see that Legs had grown huge, and she looked pissed, hissing and rattling as she glared down at Duncan.
Duncan threw his arms up just as his onetime companion struck him in the shoulder. He fell back, aging before Ernie’s eyes, his hair turning white, his skin sagging. He stared up at the diamondback, a quiet whimper coming from his mouth. “Cathubodua,” he wheezed.
The rattlesnake struck again, hitting him in the chest this time, right where the ax wound was. A tremor rolled beneath his skin as his final breath burst from his mouth. His eyes closed as his body began to fall apart like charred wood and cinders, swirling in the wind as the shield he’d conjured disappeared. Gabe stumbled forward and took in the scene before him: his brother in ashes, the serpent looming while Caera circled above. Gabe held up his arm for the kestrel while he stared at what remained of Duncan. “You killed him,” he murmured. Ernie couldn’t read the blank, veiled look on his face.
“Legs killed him,” Ernie replied as the diamondback returned to her normal size. Ernie knelt and held out her arm. “You’re amazing,” she whispered as the snake shimmered into nothing and appeared in a burst of iridescence on Ernie’s skin. Ernie stood up, which didn’t hurt for the first time in days. She held up her cards and looked at Gabe. “I guess we did it.”