Page 71

She nodded. “It’s important for the Empress to live on. She’s a good mother.”

“Indeed.” She was loving, patient, and protective. Tee was lucky to have her. “It was always in the cards for her.” Literally, the earth mother.

“I kept expecting her to betray me, but I think I’ve accepted that she won’t. I sense that she won’t.” Intuition was the Priestess’s strong suit. “I believe my sister is returned to me at last.”

“I believe it as well.”

“That’s a problem when we’re all supposed to kill each other. There are eleven of us left, Death. Which cannot be.”

Though I’d just been thinking of this, I asked, “What do you want me to say?”

“Have you given up all hope of ending the game?”

I hesitated, then admitted, “Yes.”

“The Empress hasn’t.”

“She doesn’t want me to die. In fact, I suspect she wants me to win the game.” She’d started mixing formula in with her breast milk for Tee, preparing him to be motherless. Never.

“What if we make a stand against Richter and he gets past us?”

“Then she can fight him. But I won’t offer her up in the first round.”

Circe gave my words some thought, then said, “I confided to the Empress once that other players sometimes came to me and sought the abyss. It was the only place they could see to go.”

Why was Circe telling me this?

“I think they liked choosing how they ended the game.” She held my gaze. “I will choose my exit, Reaper. Not you. I plan to go out fighting.”

“What do you suspect me of?”

“To save your family, you’re about to do what you do best. You will reap, taking out the worst first. I’m confused why you haven’t left yet.”

My gaze narrowed. “Prescient ally, you see much.”

“But you’ll need backup this time. You won’t be so lucky to steal upon Fortune, not like Jack did. All luck flows to her now. You can’t ride out alone as you have for eons.”

“Instead of you leaving”—Lark strolled into the room, wearing pajamas and bunny slippers—“why don’t we do everything we can to draw Richter and Zara in?”

I raised my brows. “You won’t even pretend you weren’t eavesdropping?”

“No time. A freeze is building not twenty miles away.” She gnawed on a claw. “It got Cyclops—again. Took him days to thaw out and resurrect last time.”

“How do you suggest we draw in Richter and Zara?”

“A radio message worked for the Sick House. Broadcast coordinates here.”

“And have anyone with a radio march on us?”

Circe tapped her nails on the armrest, her scales shimmering in the candlelight. “Zara speaks Portuguese, no? The message could be in that language, cutting out some of the threats. Besides, not too many remain who would risk the freezes to march here.”

“That’s an idea,” I said noncommittally. Evie’s beacon of vines was one thing, a broadcast another.

Lark added, “Oh, that’s not all. We should invite the hangar crew here. Eight Arcana in one spot would get this game brewing. When so many players gathered at the Cajun’s fort, Zara and Richter attacked. They will again. So let’s kick the hornets’ nest, instead of wondering and waiting.”

Though I’d already decided to go on the offensive, I pointed out, “Evie would never agree to it. She’d know what we’re trying to do.”

“Then suggest a dinner or a belated baby shower.” Circe rubbed her hands together with anticipation. “Just because we three will all soon die doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate!”

Lark nodded eagerly. “One of these games, I swear to God, I’m gonna make it out of my teens. But in the meantime, I say we pop open some of the wine in Death’s cellar and get high as a griffon vulture.”

Circe frowned. “Pardon?”

“They could fly halfway to the stratosphere—”

“A moment, please.” I raised my free hand. “I would have to ignore all my experience and welcome dangerous warriors into my home, past my defenses. I would have to trust each of you with my life, my wife’s life, and my son’s.” In truth, I’d changed my mind about the Arcana over these last few weeks, had never felt more confident that an alliance would be unwavering. Nor more certain that it shouldn’t.

There can only be one.

“Yeah.” Lark kicked her bunny-slippered feet up on my desk. “You would. It’s time to put your money where your scythe is.”

34

The Empress

TING . . . TING . . .

As I prepared dinner in the kitchen, ice covered the countryside in another speed freeze, heading toward the castle. We were helpless to fight it, could do nothing while the front swept through like a stout gust of wind.

Yet for now, we were safe inside our stronghold. We knew to stay away from the walls. We would survive this freeze and the next. Maybe the one after that too—

A baby’s scream ripped through the night. Tee? Had he crawled outside, wanting to see the horses? “Ah, God, no!” I ran from the castle, following the sound. Where was everyone? “Aric! Circe! Lark!” They didn’t answer.