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“And leave you with your asinine plan to take out Richter? No way! The Emperor is my kill to make.”

“You need to be our backup. If we fail to stop them here, you are the earth’s only chance.”

“Then let’s not fail.”

Damn it, she wouldn’t be dissuaded. I’d have to fight this battle while keeping her safe. I met eyes with the Chariot; we’d discussed this possibility. I sighed. “Release him, Evie. He won’t teleport you away again.”

After a hesitation, she did, turning her full fury to me. “How dare you trick me!”

“I never told you a lie.”

“You’re such a manipulative jerk.” Her eyes flashed green. Good. I wanted her furious.

Was she powerful enough to take out the Emperor? Yes. But could she bridle that power once she’d freed it?

I had to believe that.

“We’ve no time for further discussion.” I turned to the Chariot. “Can you move us into position?” I secured Evie with my gauntleted hand, and Kentarch took my arm to teleport us to the river’s edge. There, with a nod at us, he hurried to his station with its attendant rocket launcher.

“Stay close to me,” I told her as I led her to my own station. Mine had a stand of hundreds of javelins that Joules had grudgingly bestowed.

To my right, Circe had taken up position, Lark beside her, with Maneater as their personal guard. Throughout Evie’s towering oaks and foxholes, the rest of Fauna’s legions awaited their moment to become red of tooth and claw.

To my left, Sol used his rays to melt the snow and the frozen river. Past him, Joules, Gabriel, and Kentarch readied their launchers. Gabriel also had a metal net, similar to the one that had caught me after I’d retrieved Evie from the Hierophant’s mine. We figured a helicopter’s rotors would like it as little as I had.

Everyone’s attention was focused on the horizon, past the river toward a vine-covered plain. Richter and Zara would approach from that direction.

Despite the threat of two baleful Arcana, Kentarch appeared steady. Gabriel as well. Joules’s shallow breaths fogged in the cold night, but then he was the youngest of us, even younger than Lark. Would the Tower deliver all that we expected of him?

Sol’s light grew brighter and brighter until I imagined the dawn. I’d never live to see another one, so I savored it.

But my gaze couldn’t stray long from my wife.

When she felt Sol’s light, Evie’s eyes grew heavy-lidded. Her red hair twined like Medusa’s, her vines vibrating on the ground all around us.

She raised her hands, and those vines shot upright like cobras. Did she realize she was smiling in the face of an imminent attack? Glorious creature!

Yet the distraction was short-lived. She narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m not finished with you. If I hadn’t hitched my ride back, how had you planned to take on Richter?”

I squared my shoulders. “Doing whatever it takes.”

“You’re still bent on a one-way ride.”

“And you weren’t?”

She glanced away with guilt before returning her gaze to mine. “You know you’re the better choice to live.”

I decided to make a small admission, one of the secrets I’d kept from her. “We have little time, but you must know—the Fool told me the only way I’ll win this game is if I claim your icon myself. Which means I will never win.”

“What?” Her vines jolted. “You tell me this now?”

“If you perish tonight, know that eventually I will too. Our child will be orphaned.”

“Joke’s on you, then.” She lowered her voice to say, “I don’t think those dreams I’ve been having about destroying the earth are fear-based or the result of being traumatized. I believe they’re prophetic.”

I exhaled a breath and repeated her words: “You tell me this now?”

Eyes pleading, she said, “Look, just don’t do anything crazy. We’ll get through this and come up with a plan for the future, okay?”

“Which also means I must say: please don’t destroy our son’s world tonight.”

She bit her lip. “I’ll try not to.”

“And I will try not to fall, but if I do, it will have been an honor to fight beside my courageous wife.”

She grabbed my shoulders. “Not tonight, Aric. Just . . . not tonight.”

—QUAKE BEFORE ME!—

—WHERE SHE STOPS, NOBODY KNOWS.—

Lark yelled, “They’re less than a hundred miles out!”

A reddish glow became visible in the distance. The Emperor. A few miles away from him was a bizarre electrical storm. It must be following Zara’s copter. Lighting crackled all around it like a Tesla ball.

I readied, donning my helmet, part of my armored cage. When Jack had worn it, he’d hated it as much as I. Try two millennia, mortal. I’d been trapped in this metal for far too long.

Kentarch ordered, “Fire rockets.”

“Rockets hot!” Gabriel launched our first strike from the castle with a shrill whistle.

Joules and Kentarch fired at the same time, Joules whooping in delight.