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I’d always dreamed of being a force of nature like her. “Any regrets?”

“Your father . . .” Even after all this time, tears welled. “I wish he’d had the chance to see you now. He’d be so proud of our little girl.”

Who is knocked up. Occasionally bloodthirsty. Playing a deadly game at the end of the world. Sure.

Before, I might have felt my own regrets about how my life was turning out, but I was done with regret. We had no time for it. I straightened my shoulders. “I would’ve liked to know him.” I made a mental note to look through my photo flash drive tomorrow.

“Remember: he’s always with you. Just as I always will be. If you ever feel alone, just call on your memories.”

I smiled up at her. “I will.”

“Let’s go get some ice cream.” She took my hand.

“Sounds good.” I wanted to stay with her for as long as the dream allowed it, but as we walked toward Haven House, the feel of her hand began to fade while dark clouds rolled in.

The wind gusted and the temperature plummeted. Before our eyes, Haven disintegrated to ash.

I clutched Mom tighter, but the more I squeezed, the more she dissipated. Over the wind, I heard her sigh, “Love you, sweet girl,” and then she was gone.

The scene morphed to a lightning-lit night. All around me were black vines. Smeared with blood and dripping poison, they stretched across the entire world. Deep within my Haven, two oaks flanked a throne surrounded by thorns.

My throne. It’d been waiting for me all my life.

I woke.

Aric stood beside the bed with a glass of water at the ready. “Another nightmare?”

“Kind of.” The dream had been so lifelike, I struggled to emerge from it. I sat up and accepted the glass.

“About me?” Concern filled his expression. “About the attack here?”

“No, I dreamed about Haven and my mother. At the end, it turned dark.” Noting Aric’s tired appearance, I asked, “Did you sleep at all?”

“I will catch up soon.” He had books on pregnancy piled up on his chair, titles that Jack had sourced from all the ships he’d plundered.

“You can’t keep going like this. It’s been weeks.” Every night Aric would sit by the bed, reading by candlelight, studying as if for medical school. At times I would catch him raising his gaze from the page to my belly, concern in his eyes. “And you don’t have to stick around me so much during the day. I see you flinch at all the things that need your attention here.” He’d finished working on one of the trucks, had even installed a car seat for Tee. But a property this vast didn’t run itself.

He sat beside me on the bed. “Nothing is more important than your safety, and your own powers are proving recalcitrant again.”

I’d only managed some fitful starts with plants around the castle. “I trust Lark.” I had to.

So help me, if she was resurrecting that creature . . . after I told her not to . . .

“Sometimes the heat of battle comes when you least expect it. We can’t be too cautious.”

“I can handle myself. If you saw what I did to the Cups, you would feel better.”

“I did see. When I first boarded their ship, I had to sprint through that carnage.”

“Exactly.” I still hadn’t remembered what the Queen of Cups had whispered to me before she’d died. What was it? Something about Richter? “So stop worrying.”

“The memory of that makes me worry more. Jack said you burned out fast. All the players left continue to grow stronger, yet your abilities pale in comparison to Circe’s. To Richter’s. You should be their equal. My equal. For whatever reason, you are not there right now.”

“What do you expect from me?”

“For your thorns to have blanketed that entire coast, that region.” My nightmare had been about that very thing! “You couldn’t have drowned, because your plants would have replaced the ocean.”

Such a feat seemed farfetched, but hadn’t I sensed the catastrophic power inside me? I still hadn’t told Aric about it. Why? I was here; I was committed to this alliance.

I took a breath and said, “When Richter attacked last, something happened. I had this instantaneous awareness of all the seeds in the ground around us—hundreds of thousands of soldiers in waiting.” I swallowed but plowed on. “Aric, the earth quaked. From me.”

His eyes widened. “Yes! That is what I expect from you. You asked me how I plan to defeat the Emperor. You underestimate your own value.”

“But my abilities come with a price.” Like my call. “To fuel those soldiers, I’d have to tap into pure rage. Against the Cups, I discovered I have a yawning black hole of it inside me—unlimited power was there for the taking.”

He frowned. “Could you have defeated the Emperor?”