by Kresley Cole
"Plotting? Like with that contraceptive. Now I know why you screwed me over."
He raised his brows in challenge: Do you?
"The Hanged Man is also known as the Traitor." His eyes grew heavy-lidded with pleasure, convincing me that he was like every other evil Arcana I'd tangled with--devious killers who liked to play with their prey. "I entrusted only two things to you: my grandmother's care and my birth control, giving you just two opportunities for betrayal. You stabbed me in the back both times." Actually, he was worse than the others; I never trusted them!
"Ah-ah, Evie, your hair's turning red. Since you can't be controlled, you must be destroyed." The wolves snarled, baring those lethal fangs. "I'll just nudge Lark into action." The light around his head flared.
A split-second later, the wolves vaulted toward me. My vines shot upwards to twine around them. Green barbs muzzled their snouts, then slammed their heads to the floor.
Claws bared, I lunged at Paul. I slashed the arm he raised in defense, my thorns hitting home. My poison would lay him out in seconds.
Through the slices in his shirt, I looked for injuries.
Not a mark on him.
How? How was that possible? "You heal like me?" But this had been instantaneous.
As the wolves struggled against my faltering vines, he tilted his head at his arm. "Damnedest thing, Evie. I can't be injured, can't die. I suppose the Hanged Man is already dead in a way. I transcend death."
A crash sounded as Aric broke down the door. "Come to me, Empress. Let's end this once and for all." I heard the rhythmic ringing of his spurs heading up the stairs.
I debated trying to stall him with more vines, but I wanted him to see Paul's tableau. "He's the Hanged Man. Come look at him." I glanced down at the stairwell.
Aric was ascending, his swords drawn, black armor glinting. "I know this. He's shown me the truth about you."
"The sphere is Paul's. You're brainwashed within it!"
"I see his sphere. I feel and welcome it. It protects me from your mesmerizing and gives me clarity such as I've never known." Yet his eyes were blank with fury.
I didn't want to hurt him--even if I could. The only place left to flee was the third floor. "Fine; hate me, but don't harm our child."
Raw grief flooded his gaze, and he thundered, "There is no baby!"
"Everybody in this castle knows I'm pregnant!" I'd been convinced of it when I'd gazed at that white rose. After days of my constant vomiting, there was no way anyone else could doubt it.
Paul chuckled, his smugness palpable. "Just now, while Death was breaking down the door, I mentally informed him about your plot--how you forced me to fake a pregnancy test, so he would sacrifice his life to protect you and your made-up kid. Now that he knows the truth, he's going to protect me and kill you for tricking him."
"You couldn't force him to hurt his child, so you're pulling a bogus pregnancy test out of your ass?"
Before I could claw the smirk off Paul's face, Aric leapt to the landing, his swords flashing out to slice my vines.
I screamed in pain, stumbling backward toward the next set of stairs.
Aric followed. "You're just as you've always been. Forever a temptress. Forever a liar. I knew you could never be trusted, but I wanted you so much. I was weak."
"Your mind is being manipulated." The Hanged Man was this powerful? Able to control the reigning Arcana victor? An immortal who'd lived for millennia? "Paul's wearing Finn's icon--I'm not!" I raised my hands.
Aric didn't even glance at them, didn't seem to hear me. "Throughout our history, you've sought to end me, but you've never connived quite like this. A pregnancy, Empress?"
"You are the one who had to convince me I was knocked up! I didn't want to believe. But I accepted it. We both did."
"A lie is a curse you place on yourself. Now it's time for you to pay for yours."
Nothing I could say would sway Aric. I whirled around, running full-out. Desperation spurred my powers, and I put up wall after wall of thorns, like rows of barbed wire.
His swords slashed through the blockade as he forced his way forward. He knew how much that would hurt me, but still he cut.
A nightmare greeted me on the next flight of stairs. Hissing snakes coiled around the banister and poured down the steps. With a shudder, I charged into that gauntlet.
Fangs jabbed my boots as I leapt and dodged. From the handrail, snakes struck my arms, ripping my thick jacket. Tufts of down wafted in the air. "Lark, enough!" Pain shot through my hand. Oh, shit! One had gotten me. Was it venomous?
I'd be immune, but would this kid?
On the third-floor landing, I chanced a look back at Death. I saw no hesitation in him as he annihilated my defenses.
Where to run? There was a tower similar to mine in this wing. Maybe I could reinforce the door with vines.
I staggered up the last flight of stairs, then locked the door behind me.
Struggling to concentrate over all the sounds--Death's spurs, the animal calls, Lark's wails, that ominous cracking of ice--I managed a couple of vines to create another barricade.
The windows in this room had latches, unlike the sealed ones in my tower. But then, Aric had never intended to imprison anyone in here.
I opened a window, wincing against a gust. I gazed out with watering eyes. The mass of river ice had buckled into gigantic white shards. It looked like the earth had fangs.
Paul's yellow dome had spread down the mountain to capture Circe's river and my thorns. Maybe the Priestess wouldn't be touched by his influence. Her mind and body weren't actually here.
I peered down at the long drop. Normally, I wouldn't even think--would just jump. If I could regenerate from a fall out of a helicopter while Bagman contagion fouled my blood, I could regenerate from anything.
But the kid . . .
Ice coated the slippery shale roof, the tiles glistening in the continual lightning. I'd grown rose vines on the other side of the castle, but they'd been frozen in the storm. I called on them to spread across the roof. Sluggish to respond, they needed me to rejuvenate them.
But I had nothing left in me, no way to fuel them.
Aric gave a yell; I whirled around to see a sword tip breach my vines. He was slicing through the door and my barricade as though through paper. "You will pay, Empress." He kicked the remains of the door open. "Pay for making me believe."
Heart pounding, I climbed up onto the windowsill. Another gust nearly knocked me back into the room. "We love each other, Aric! Shake off Paul's power."
Swords raised, he stalked closer--an assassin in black, with one target. The eerie sound of those spurs was about to drive me crazy!
I swallowed and stepped outside. Balancing my boots on the slick roof, I inched away from the window. Despite my coat, the cold punched the breath from my lungs.
Dizziness surged as I craned my head up. The only place left for me to climb was to the pinnacle of the castle.
I looked back over my shoulder. Aric leaned out the window, eyes enraged. He offered a hand to coax me closer, so he could strike.
I'd experienced his fury in the past, but this was different. Before, even when I'd been his prisoner, his gaze had betrayed longing. Now there was nothing but rage. He looked crazed with it.
Tears welled. "Please, come back to me, Aric. I'm wearing your mother's ring."
"And I will rip it off your cold dead finger--just as I collected that choker off your headless neck."
I nearly vomited. "You will regret this for eternity. You killed your mother when she was pregnant. Now you'll kill your wife and child."
He hesitated for a split second. Battling Paul's influence?
"Yes, Aric, fight him! Paul's the Traitor."
But the reversal was too strong. Aric's mistrust and bitterness won out. "Speaking of rings." He sheathed his swords, then removed one gauntlet. He tore off the wedding band I'd made him. "I forsake you, Empress." He raised his fist.
I whispered, "Don't do it.
"
He used his ungodly strength to crush that ring. When he opened his hand, black dust scattered on the wind. His hatred was stronger even than the wood of life. "You're next, Empress. You've got nowhere to go."
A raven dive-bombed right for me! "No!" A vine shot from my palm to deflect it. The bird crashed beside me, breaking the shale tile, its head exploding. Brain and skull bits spattered my face. "Damn it, Lark!"
A second bird dove for me. I blocked with vines, but another followed it. This can't be happening. By the staccato glow of lightning, I saw a black swarm closing in. Bats.
They teemed around me, tearing at my hair, clawing at my face. "Oh, God, oh, God!" My footing shifted, sending me off balance.
I pinwheeled my arms. Teetering, teetering . . .
Over the winds, I heard a shrill whistle. A figure swooped down from the clouds. "Gabriel!" He was heading for me--right into Paul's yellow haze.
The tile cracked. I slipped.
To the sound of Aric's laughter, I plummeted.
10
My feet . . . floated.
The Archangel had snagged me in midair! He gripped me under my arms, his razor-sharp talons poking through the ends of his gloves.
"Empress, are you all right?" Frost covered his long black hair and gaunt face. His lips had a bluish tint.
"Get us out of the yellow sphere. Hurry, Gabriel!"
He didn't ask, just sped higher and higher. Old bullet holes in his black wings funneled little blasts of arctic air at my face.
When Aric roared with frustration, Gabriel tossed me upward, catching me against his side. "Hold on."
I clung to his billowing coat as he banked sharply to the left. Then right. Two swords zoomed past us. Aric had hurled his precious weapons at me.
Birds and bats kept coming. Gabriel dodged them, bobbing and twirling. Winds gusted, flinging the other winged creatures away.
We were free. We were . . . falling?
More gusts sent Gabriel spinning in the air like a mimosa bloom. We were heading right for Circe's ice shards! He groaned as he flared his bullet-riddled wings. I squeezed my eyes closed, bracing for impact.
Our trajectory shifted.
I peeked open my eyes. We'd missed the tips of those shards by inches. "That was close!"
"What is happening, Empress? Joules and I heard you screaming and the animals behaving erratically. Why would Fauna and the Reaper target you?"
"Our medic is the inactivated Arcana card. He's brainwashed the others. Where's Joules?" The Tower was never far from Gabriel and rarely out of the fray.
"I left him on the next mountain . . ." He trailed off. "How . . . what . . . ? Ah, my mind. My mind is so clear."
Paul's influence was affecting him. "Get out of the yellow haze. Fly past the boundary!"
The Archangel's tableau flickered, then turned, like a slow roulette wheel. It clicked into place--in the reversed position.
Movement out of the corner of my watering eyes. Gabriel's hand crept toward his dagger sheath.
"Don't do this, Gabe. The Hanged Man is using his powers on you. You made a vow never to hurt me."
He flashed his fangs. "Vows mean nothing to me." Gabriel was usually forthright, principled, and loyal. The reverse of those traits didn't bode well for me. "I was taught that you are one of my three archenemies, but I ignored my teachings to become your friend. Now I shall make good on a kill that should have happened months ago." He yanked his blade free.
"No!" I somehow managed a vine to bind his wrist. "Snap out of this." How could I fight him in the air? I thrashed to get loose. I might have a chance on the ground.
With a yell, Gabriel twisted free from the vine.
"Stop! I'm pregnant."
His blade hesitated. What if Paul's influence was limited by distance? Like a phone signal? We were closing in on the edge of that hazy yellow. "With this baby, we can end the game."
Gabriel blinked his green eyes. Then narrowed them. "Memories arise in my mind. You once cut off my wings." Paul must be feeding him information he'd stolen from my chronicles. "You decorated your home with them, displaying them over your mantel. Oh, Empress, I am going to make this last."
I swiped my thorn claws at him. Couldn't bring myself to use poison on him. Five blades sliced his layered clothing to reach his flesh. Blood gushed. He yelled, releasing me.
I plummeted again. Falling!
I landed . . . in a snowbank. My teeth clattered, but I was uninjured. The yellow haze ended just feet from me. I tripped forward, clearing the boundary. Would Gabriel pursue me? Paul might lose his power over the Angel.
Gabriel hovered in the air but wouldn't cross the edge.
"I did cut off your wings, Angel. Come punish me for it."
He remained in place, as if he were a tethered kite--with Paul pulling the string. "I want my mind clear. I need the Hanged Man's knowledge, and he needs us to fuel his sphere." Even now it was growing.
I backed up several steps. "You're afraid of me," I taunted. "I must've cut off your balls as well."
"Classic Empress. You think to lure me away from my new alliance? Your time shall come."
Howls sounded from the castle. The wolves readied to hunt.
Gabriel grinned, exposing his fangs. "That time is now."
Lark's animals would probably be able to leave Paul's sphere. If so, my only shot at survival was getting to the Tower on the next mountain over. I turned--
Sparking blinded me.
Joules! Not surprisingly, he'd made a beeline for the action. He was weighed down with winter gear, only his glittery face visible. "What the feck is happening over there?"
I'd never thought I'd be so happy to see his scrawny Irish self.
Gabriel called, "She attacked me when I tried to save her." He drew aside his coat, revealing the bloody gashes I'd given him.
Joules's eyes went wide. "You hurt my boyo?" He raised one of his silver lightning javelins.
Between breaths, I said, "Listen, Gabriel's been brainwashed by a new card, the inactivated one. Any Arcana within that yellow sphere is under the Hanged Man's control." Wolves howled. "Joules, we don't have time. Lark and Death are coming for me."
Joules was confused--which meant he was spitting mad. "As if the Reaper would take out the one female he can get with!"
"They are after her for good reason, Patrick," Gabriel said. "She poisoned the Magician."
Joules sparked like a reactor. "Finn's done for?"
"Yes, and the Empress has targeted us next. In the past, she killed us. She cut off my wings for a trophy."
Joules gave me a disbelieving look that faded when I couldn't deny anything. "That's right fecked up."
"But I didn't kill Finn." If I possessed any mesmerizing power at all, I called on it now, telling Joules, "I swear I didn't." Grasping for the most compelling vow I could make, I said, "I swear on Jack's life."
"Jack's dead! We all know Richter got him." Maybe not?
The howling wolves neared. I faced Gabriel. "Prove me a liar, then. Just come out from that sphere."
Joules told his friend, "I'm about to fry this one. So put me mind at ease and step out from the haze."
Gabriel offered his hand. "Come stand behind me. I will protect you."
I said, "Joules, if you go in there, you'll get brainwashed too. Those beasts are closing in fast. He's not going to help us."
Finally, doubt crossed the Tower's expression. "C'mere, mate. Meet me halfway."
"Come stand with me, Patrick. You shall be enlightened. You shall know all the secrets of the game. If you side with my new alliance, I guarantee you will be safe from Fauna and the Reaper."
"Side with the bastard who killed my Cally? Now I know you're barmy. All the same, I'll take my chances with this tart." He hiked a thumb at me.
Thanks?
"Join us." Gabriel's face took on a macabre cast. "And then you will be safe from me."
Joules raised his pointy chin. "I'd rather die."
&n
bsp; Gabriel waved a wing behind him in the direction of the wolves. "That is being arranged."
Joules's jaw dropped. "You're goin' to kick back and watch me get eaten?"
I grabbed his bony arm. "We need to run!" I yanked him away from his best friend.
He staggered along, eyes wide. "What the bloody hell? Tell me you got a plan to undo this."
"I do," I lied. "We can save them. But only if we survive."
Joules nodded, determination overwhelming his shock. He yelled over his shoulder, "We'll be back for you, Gabe." With one last look, he sped forward, taking the lead. "We need a vantage." He pointed toward the next hill, a steep snow-covered rise. "If I get to higher ground, I can light this place up." His javelin glimmered reassuringly. "We're talking dead mutts all over the place."
"Three of those wolves are her familiars. They can't be killed." Roars sounded. "Besides, she's sending far more than mutts."
As we ran, Joules hurled spears blindly behind us, explosions sounding in the distance. He launched one after another, beginning to sweat.
"Save some bolts. We're going to need them."
He looked like I'd insulted his manhood. "I can do this all night." He twirled one spear. "And I got a special one for your man Death. Oh, wait--the Reaper's not your man anymore. Christ, Empress, you move through 'em fast. Jack, Sol, and Death. Three blokes in as many months."
"I wasn't with Sol. Can we focus on current freaking events?"
When we reached the hill, we fell silent as we trudged up the incline. Hunger had clearly sapped him, and my legs were Jell-O. How could I make it to the top?
Struggling . . . struggling . . . For the last dozen feet, I had to crawl in Joules's path.
Made it! I lumbered to stand. We both put our hands on our knees and caught our breath.
Below us, the hillside teemed with beasts. Dark fur against white snow.
I glanced behind me. The hill dropped off in a sheer slope on its other side.
Joules opened his palm to produce yet another javelin. Had it been sluggish to appear? He bellowed, "Get ready for a light show, arseholes. THE LORD O' LIGHTNING IS IN THE--"
The ground disappeared from beneath us. In a cloud of snow, we tumbled down the steeper side. An avalanche! It swept us along like one of Circe's currents.
My scream was cut off by a searing pain. Joules's spear had stabbed my shoulder. We plunged lower and lower. Feet over my head. Dizziness. Lurching.