by Kresley Cole
8
I shot upright with a scream, tears streaming down my face.
"Empress!" Sol was ripping at his cage, trying to get to me. "You're having a nightmare! Wake up, pequena!" His skin glowed from emotion, and his hands were bloody from my thorns.
My gaze darted as I slowly recalled real life. Substation. Sol as my prisoner. On our way to Fort Arcana.
I buried my face in my hands when my tears kept coming. I'd stifled my grief so much, I should have expected it to bubble up as I slept.
In my nightmare, Jack had told me, "Why didn't you let me go? I'd still be alive. I asked you to set me free." Then he burned from the inside, lava pouring from his body.
His bellow of pain still rang in my ears. Followed by the Emperor's laugh. . . .
"What was your nightmare about?" Sol's skin dimmed, but my thorns had grown from his blaze of light.
"Th-the Emperor's massacre," I murmured. "Richter . . ."
"You fear another attack?"
"You would too. You should." Some detail was nagging me about Richter's escape from Circe. That night, had I heard a . . . helicopter? "Olympus isn't out of his range." Was anyplace?
"You screamed a name. Who's Jack?"
My tears came faster.
"Was he family?" Sol's brows drew together. "Or did the Emperor kill the man you love?"
I ran my sleeve over my eyes. "Richter killed him, and a loyal friend of mine, and an entire army." I freed Sol from his cage, mainly to have something to do.
He swiped his hands down his toga, the blood stark on the material. He'd hurt himself trying to help me. After tossing wood on the embers of the fire, he sat on the other side. "What happened to Jack?"
Unguarded, I found myself saying, "I was riding to meet him, to go away with him, starting a future together." A blank slate. "We were talking on a two-way radio . . . he told me he was going to marry me . . . and we talked about the snow."
"And then?"
"I-I was just about to tell him I loved him, was wondering why I had never said those three words, when I heard three other ones: 'Quake before me.' The Emperor's call. In seconds, the entire valley was a lake of lava. All those people, dead instantly."
Sol's lips parted. "Why would he attack so many?"
"Richter enjoys killing. He gets off on using his power to destroy. I'd been warned about him. No one is safe while he lives."
"But aren't we all supposed to kill each other?"
"Some of us have been fighting not to," I said. "We've made an alliance."
Sol seemed to consider this, then he said, "You must miss Jack very much."
"Every second." And each second took him farther out of my reach. Damn it, the winds still howled outside. Desperate for a change of subject, I said, "What about you? Have you been in love?"
"Si. Before the apocalypse."
My hand shook as I raised my canteen for a drink. "Did your girlfriend die in the Flash?"
He cast me a playful grin. "You assume I was with a girl?"
Given the way he'd been flirting with me . . . yeah. "Did you lose your boyfriend, then?"
"I had both."
"You loved two people?" I handed him the canteen.
He took it, drinking deep. "Desperately."
God, I could relate. Sol and I now had something in common outside of the game. He'd probably just ensured I could never kill him.
"Bea, Joe, and I were committed." He squared his shoulders proudly. "Everyone doubted we could make a go of our trio, but we'd been together for two years."
I'd never met anyone who'd been in a relationship like this.
He tilted his head at me. "Will you judge me? Us?"
A bitter laugh spilled from my lips. "Are you joking?"
"Good, pequena," he said. "Do you believe a heart can be big enough to love two?"
"I know for a fact that it can." The Lovers--for all their disgusting faults--could detect what was in a person's heart. Mine was divided evenly. "I'm in love with two." Jack was foremost in my mind right now, of course. I was crazed to bring him back because I'd seen him die. But I was plagued with worry about Aric too. Though his armor weighed so little, it would have to hinder him in the water. What if--
I shut down that thought. Going back in time would protect him as well.
Sol frowned, as if I might be pulling his leg. "Truly?"
I nodded. "Jack and Aric."
"So now you will be with Aric?"
"It's complicated." One of my favorite non-answers.
"Si, it can be." He gazed into the fire. "I loved them so much."
"What were they like?"
Raising his face, he said, "Beatrice was this warm, affectionate angel with a backbone of steel. She volunteered at the hospital each Monday, reading to kids with cancer. She was brave and helped them be brave--but she would bury her face against my chest during scary movies." His eyes watered. He didn't seem to realize he was rubbing his chest, as if he could still feel her. "Joe was an ex-linebacker, law student. He planned to be a big-shot lawyer--but he couldn't knot his tie. I had to do it for him. I'd bought engagement rings for them. Would have married them both." Gazing past me, he said, "But then, on our anniversary, I got them . . . hurt."
Chills tripped up my back. "I don't understand."
"It happened on Day Zero. The three of us, business partners as well, were in a basement, setting up for a rave. I needed more supplies. Instead of getting them from the van myself, I asked Bea and Joe to go." His expression was stark. "I sent them outside of a perfect shelter--just in time to see the Flash."
My head whipped around to the Bagger cage. Oh, dear God, those creatures were his girlfriend and boyfriend. Joe, the law student, and Bea, the hospital volunteer. They stared at nothing, cracked lips moving soundlessly.
I'd threatened them. No wonder Sol had freaked out. In his mind, I was the monster.
For so long I'd been fighting Bagmen or running from them. I'd hated them for causing my mom's injury. But I'd rarely stopped to think that they'd once been people.
Maybe Sol wasn't evil. Yes, he delighted in blood-sport contests. But if I lost Jack and Aric, I would do far, far worse.
Sol's troubled gaze rested on Bea and Joe. "While I was alone down in the basement, I got sick, felt like I was spinning, and passed out for what must have been hours. I woke just as they were finding their way back inside. They attacked me, holding me down to drink."
I couldn't imagine how horrific that must have been. To see loved ones turned?
"Understand me: I would have died before I hurt them. I resisted, but I couldn't hit them. Then, as I told you, they obeyed me." He paused to clear his throat. "When more Bagmen descended into the basement, I began to suspect that the Flash had created countless legions like them. We emerged, and I saw all the world was broken."
I recalled my first look around after the apocalypse. If I hadn't had my mother with me . . .
Had Sol been all alone? I glanced at the Baggers again. No--not in his mind.
"Empress," Sol murmured, his brows drawn. "Do you think Bea and Joe could ever turn back?"
Never. Their bodies were too damaged, their minds gone. But I said, "Maybe none of this is permanent, Sol. Maybe they'll come back when the earth does. I wouldn't bet against anything right now."
He narrowed his eyes at me, all light extinguished. "You don't believe that. But you were kind enough to play along. . . ."
9
Day 391 A.F.
Sol and I stopped at a fork in the road. One way was unpaved and rocky. The other was a highway, cleared of wrecks, but with litter all along the shoulders.
As if a large army had marched that route, pitching trash on the way.
"The area's starting to look familiar," I said. We were at the fork between the treacherous slaver route--the one Jack, Aric, and I had taken to the Lovers' hideout--and the Azey army's highway. "I think I know where we are."
Sol exhaled a relieved breath. "Ah, gracias a Dios."
I frowned at him. "What?"
"Past that last interstate, I had no clue where I was going."
"You lied." I lowered my voice menacingly. "You shouldn't make me angry, Sun."
"Why are you whispering?" he whispered. "One second you're crying, the next you're scary. Then you're really sexy. Then you're sexy/scary."
"You lied to me."
"I didn't want you to kill me!"
I twirled my thorn claws at him. "Why shouldn't I now?"
"Because I make you stronger." Expression growing troubled, he said, "I wonder if someone like you should be stronger."
I lowered my hand. "Just head down the highway. Follow the trash. And don't lie to me again." The only reason I wanted more strength was so I could eviscerate the Emperor while he was still alive. I imagined using my claws on him, slicing him to ribbons. Or should I choke him in vine? Flay him with my thorn tornado--
"How much farther do you think it is?" Sol asked, dragging me from my daydream.
I shrugged. "We could be there late tonight or tomorrow."
"What will happen to me once we get to the fort? Will the other gods hurt Joe and Bea?"
"We're not . . . forget it." I let it go. "To answer your question, I won't let anyone hurt them--or you. If you behave."
"We will behave. I swear to myself."
"Swear to yourself? You. Are. Not. A. God."
He waved that away. "Tell me about your alliance. How do you expect to defeat someone like the Emperor? Can't he simply bomb your hideaway? Attack with his lava?"
Bingo. "We have advantages that I won't tell you about. And strength in numbers."
"Which Arcana are in your alliance?"
Most. Was Circe? Every time I passed a body of water, memories arose of our past. The more I remembered of her, the more I missed her friendship.
I told Sol, "I won't talk to you about strategy or strengths and weaknesses. Even if I trusted you were on my side--which I don't--you could get abducted. Richter could force you to talk."
"Empress, you are forcing me to get involved in this game. I don't want to fight. Especially not against a man who is as strong as a volcano."
"I don't want to fight either. I want revenge against the Emperor, but after that . . ."
After that, what? I had a connection to almost all the players left. But Aric had warned me that the game wouldn't be denied, calling it "a hell we've all been damned into." I hadn't believed him until Richter had entered the arena--with Jack caught in the crossfire.
With that in mind, my plan to run off to Louisiana had been ridiculously naive.
After I brought Jack back, and we'd destroyed Richter, what would we do?
"You should come live with me at Olympus." Sol slid me a seductive look. "You could be my goddess queen. Together, we'd build the largest settlement on earth! With your crops and my sun, we'd feed thousands. Between your thorns and my Bagmen, we'd maintain order."
Order. Jack had wanted the same thing. I absently said, "That is something to think about. Well, except for the goddess queen part."
"Don't knock that part, pequena. It's my favorite detail about our future. We would do our duty and repopulate the world. Because we are givers. I, myself, would be devoted to giving."
I quirked a brow at him. "No kids for me. Would you really bring children into a world like this?"
Eyes alight with playfulness, he said, "No. It was just an excuse to get in your pants."
"Ugh. Behave. Or you'll get a vine where the sun don't shine."
His jaw slackened; then he started laughing. Belly-laughing.
Despite everything, I felt my lips twitch. If he weren't a homicidal god-wannabe, and I didn't have a murderous red witch inside me, we might've been friends.
When his laughter died down, he said, "Back in the day, we would've made a great reality TV show. The Sol and Empress Show."
"The shit show," I muttered. The way I felt right now, I would've gotten top billing.
_______________
Day 392 A.F.
"Drive faster!" I told Sol, all but bouncing in the truck seat. From the bridge, I'd spied Fort Arcana's outline up on the windy bluff.
I was concerned about the lack of lights, but maybe they were conserving after the massacre. Or they'd gone dark for cover.
Being this near the fort made me feel closer to Jack. Excitement welled inside me as I ran my fingers over the ribbon in my pocket.
When Sol got his first good look at the fort, his lips thinned with disgust. "Pedazo de mierda. What is this piece-of-shit place?"
I had my hand wrapped around his neck so fast, my claws dripping. "This is a place where people dreamed of having a better life. While you were holed up in your coliseum stronghold, others were out in the Ash fighting and scrapping for everything they got."
"I-I'm sorry, Empress."
I released him with a glare. "You're like the Hermit Card--you crawled into a ready-made shell. It cost you nothing." Choking back my fury, I commanded, "Drive around that stretch of dirt."
At the edge of the minefield, a rutted trail meandered this way and that. Tire tracks. As if from a mass retreat. "Follow those ruts. Carefully. There are mines everywhere."
He swallowed, and drove along the trail. As the truck closed in on the fort's outer wall, we passed chunks of some charred animal. A huge one with frizzy black fur. "Oh, my God." Cyclops. Or half of him.
"What was that?" Sol's eyes went wide. "A giant dog?"
I muttered, "Something like that."
Tracks and furrows led away from the legs and tail, as if the wolf had dragged itself from its severed hindquarters. Why was his pelt riddled with bullet holes?
Who would've shot him?
Though a favorite of mine, he'd remained here to help Finn reunite with Lark once the Magician had healed enough to make the journey.
I reminded myself that the wolf couldn't die. Not as long as Lark lived. Cyclops could be holed up in the neighboring rock forest, regenerating. He might even pick up my scent, and then Lark would know I'd survived.
I told Sol, "Drive up to the entrance and park."
As we neared the gates, I replayed my memory of Jack riding through them with his chin up, his bearing proud. All the army soldiers had respected the legendary Hunter, as he'd been known. They'd made him their general. So many of those men had died.
Not permanently. Not if I can help it.
Sol had just turned off the ignition when the gates swung open, wind battering them against the wall. No one manned them. The metal groaned like a Bagman's wail.
"Come with me," I said, climbing from the cab. When Sol joined me on the ground, I stretched the stalks circling his wrists to bind his ankles as well.
"Is this really necessary, pequena?"
"Really is, Sol." As I approached the wall, I cried, "Hello! Is someone here? Please answer me!" Aric! Finn! Tess!
I half expected to find Aric waiting here for me. Would I hear his horse nickering in the stable? Had Thanatos survived the flood?
Had Aric?
Of course, he would have. So where is he?
Inside, I swept my gaze around and found a ghost town. No fires, no animals, no voices. Just the blustery winds and desolation.
This place was a shell. Fort Arcana had . . . died.
Crates of supplies had been abandoned. The fort's inhabitants must've thought the Emperor would continue his path of hell straight for them.
Maybe some Azey South survivors were camped across the river? I hopped onto a plankway and ran to the tower. Sol hobbled after me, but I couldn't wait for him.
I climbed the stairs, then peeked from the lookout, hoping to spy a campfire, any sign of life.
Nothing.
I turned back to the fort. In one corner, I saw the orange tree I'd grown for Tess. Without sun, its leaves had already begun to brown.
Beside the tree was a mound of dirt. Was that a . . . grave? Whose? A horrible idea arose--no. No. I quashed it as I raced
down the stairs and lurched past Sol.
I tripped over another plankway, blundering around empty animal pens. I passed Jack's tent and imagined I heard his deep voice saying, "Ma fille aux yeux bleus." My blue-eyed girl.
Heart in my throat, I slowed when the mound came into sight. The ground was trampled as if someone had been buried in a hurry. A single staff jutted from the dirt to mark the grave.
Tess's staff.
A cry slipped from my lips. No, no, that didn't mean Tess was buried here! Her death was my nightmare scenario: the one that couldn't possibly be.
The one in which Jack had been burned alive by a monster--and I could do nothing to save him.
Someone had just wanted to mark a burial, and her staff had been handy. She had left it behind on occasion. Only one way to be sure.
Sol had hobbled closer. Uncaring of his gaze on me, I knelt and started digging, stabbing my claws through the icy soil in a frenzy.
One foot down; two feet down. Three. Four.
I reached cloth and pulled on it. More dirt gave way to reveal . . .
A husk wrapped in a sheet.
Choking back bile, I peeled away the material and found what had once been a sweet girl named Tess.
Her body was like this fort--a shell of her former self. Without life inside.
My nightmare. One look at her wasted body, and I knew how she'd died. She had already tried to reverse time. To save Jack, Selena, and the army . . .
Tess had tried so hard that she'd lost control of her incomprehensible powers. Lass likes to help. She'd killed herself to bring others back. And she'd still failed.
Jack is dead.
I cradled what was left of Tess in my arms and mindlessly rocked her body like a doll.
From a distance, Sol watched grief destroy me.
10
Day 393 A.F.
I was covered in mud and out of breath, my muscles knotted. But I neared the top of that peak.
The one I'd stood upon while witnessing a massacre.
When I'd last journeyed to this vantage I'd been filled with hope, riding a hard-working mare that I'd never even named. Her remains must've been washed away in the flood.
What would I find atop the peak now? Having no idea, I trudged upward.
I'd remembered more of the Emperor's attack, and every detail confirmed that Jack had died. But I'd also told him I would never underestimate him again. Maybe I could find some clue, some hint that there'd been survivors.