Arcana Rising (The Arcana Chronicles Book 5) (3 page)

Do you have a map?
I would steal it from you.

Food?
Hand it over
.

I like your backpack
. It’s mine now
.

To keep myself alive for Jack, for Aric—and for Richter—I’d become the monster lurking in the shadows.

As a black hat, I understood so much better how Baggers, cannibals, and militias worked.
Always seek out people; they’ll have something you want.

I had no qualms that I was stranding or starving others. As I told them, “Tick-tock. On a clock. None of this will ever have happened.” Because I was going to reverse time.

Thanks to my thievery, I now wore a hooded poncho over my jacket and one of a pair of fingerless gloves. On my back was a bug-out pack with gear: MREs for another couple of days, a knife, glow sticks, and salt for Baggers. . . .

I trudged up that hill, digging with one hand into the muck, fighting against streams of water. Between breaths, I said, “You there, Circe?”

The more I thought about that epic clash, the more I realized the flood had been the unintended aftermath of her attack on the Emperor.

While her tidal wave had vibrated with her presence and hostility, the flood had been violent but . . . lifeless.

Controlling a wave like that couldn’t have been easy for her. Hell, I’d nearly poisoned Jack with my powers. Tess had almost died from hers.

Deciding that Circe hadn’t been trying to murder me, I’d hailed her in puddles. She could see and hear from any body of water. She would know where Aric was.

She’d never answered. No one did. I hadn’t heard a single telepathic Arcana call. Unless I’d been running in circles—possible—I should have covered a lot of ground. Had I not neared any Arcana?

Damn it, we were supposed to converge!

I tried again:
Aric? Tess? Gabriel? Joules?

Nothing. I was tempted to hail Matthew—but he had
allowed
the massacre.

Yet he’d also taught me about Tess’s time traveling: “Sometimes the World spins in reverse. Sometimes battles do too. The word
carousel
means
little battle
.”

Maybe all this was an exercise to enhance Tess’s unimaginable power? He might have known all along that I would bring Jack back! Matthew always did things like this.

I called for him. Again, nothing.

As I ran, fears threatened my single-minded focus. Even Aric—the king of the airwaves—hadn’t responded to me. What if he’d been injured? What if the Emperor had been able to side-step Circe and advance? Surely I would sense if other Arcana had died.

Focus, Evie.
Every second counted.
On a clock.

I topped the rise and narrowed my gritty eyes. In the valley below me, fog made a blanket. Some distance away, lights dimly shone beneath it. The music came from that direction.

I skidded down the mucky slope to the bottom. At the base, the air felt warmer, almost sultry. I ran.

Deeper into the valley, I made out more details. A mall-size parking lot was situated off a highway, filled with scorched cars. Baggers must be roaming that foggy vehicle maze; wails carried in the night.

I charged into the lot. The mist thickened around me, right when I needed to see. Shit! I should be terrified—in a murky maze, surrounded by Bagmen—but I didn’t have time. I put the blinders on.

A structure came into view at last. Bowls of oil fires lit a soaring wall. The music thumped from just beyond.

A coliseum? The Flash-charred arena had withstood the apocalypse! A new song—“Welcome to the Jungle”—boomed from inside, the lyrics clear:
“I wanna watch you bleed. . . .”

Real?
Un
real? Was I dreaming?

Then I sensed something that made my thorn claws tingle.
Can’t be right. Going crazy.
With a hard shake of my head, I ignored it.
Focus, Eves.

Vehicle.

Fuel.

Directions.

This place was a genius location for a settlement, with a built-in defense—lurking Bagmen. The lot reminded me of the minefield fronting Fort Arcana. Jack’s brilliant idea.
Blinders.

So who lived here?

I slowed. Damn it, I couldn’t deny my senses any longer. Somewhere nearby . . . plants grew. A lot of them.

How? Even if the earth hadn’t gone fallow, we’d had no sunlight.

I jogged around the coliseum, trying to home in on the plants. This unseen collection must dwarf even Aric’s extensive nursery.

Their nearness fueled me, exciting the red witch, that dark, murderous part of me. When my body vine budded from my neck, I yanked back my poncho hood. The vine divided behind me until it flared like an aura.

Or a cobra’s head.

A wail came from behind me—the Baggers had caught my scent, trailing me. One was on my heels. As the music blared, I straightened and stiffened a vine—then jabbed the creature through the head.

“. . . feel my, my, my serpentine. I wanna hear you scream. . . .”

Another Bagger lunged; I struck again. Putrid slime coated the vine. I let it fall off, growing a new one.

I could see a brighter glow just around the curve of the coliseum; following it, I came upon a line of military trucks. Perfect! I needed the keys to one and as much fuel as I could transport. Which meant I needed the guy in charge of this place trapped in my vines—with my poisonous claws at his throat.

Voices sounded. Ducking between the trucks, I sidled around one and spied two shirtless men guarding an entrance. They carried machine guns and didn’t seem at all concerned about the nearby Bagmen roving the fog.

In my weakened condition, a direct attack wasn’t wise, but if I “surrendered” . . .

The good thing about being a female A.F.—no one wanted to shoot me unless forced to.

Logistics: I could only raise one hand, so they might think I was reaching for a weapon and fire. A gunshot wouldn’t kill me, but it’d draw more guards and Baggers.

I commanded the vines of my cobra’s flare to slip down and twine into my empty poncho sleeve, puffing it out. I moved my green arm; looked like the real thing. Perfect.

In past battles, I’d tried to limit the body count. Now I cared only about what actions would be
quickest
. Once I completed my mission, none of this would have happened.

I limped into view, working the damsel-in-distress angle. “P-please help!” I cried, both arms raised—the green one emitting poisonous spores. “Can you help me?”

The two guards swiveled and gawked at me. One said, “A female!” and ran to apprehend me. The other reached for his radio.

Neither completed his action before he dropped.

Pulling my poncho hood back up, I strode past their bodies and approached the entrance. I peeked inside; no one right there, so I slipped in.

Lining a dark corridor were cells filled with what must be two hundred men. Past the cells at the far end of the curving hallway was an open doorway. Light, heat, and music spilled through it.

I could tell I neared those plants! My claws budded and sharpened, and I felt the first real tingle of regeneration.

No one had seen me back here in the dark. All eyes were trained in the other direction on two more shirtless men guarding that doorway.

Whimpers and murmurs rippled from the cells: “What happens now?” “Has anyone escaped?” “What will they do to us?”

Nothing good,
I wanted to answer.

Since the Flash, I’d been caged by a militia, shoved into a serial killer’s laboratory, dragged down into a cannibal’s subterranean pantry, and forced into a house-of-horrors torture chamber.

These prisoners weren’t headed for a pleasant destination. Would they be slaughtered like cattle? Or used as target practice as some faction mowed them down?

I sidled closer to the cages. In one, a boy of about nine was crying while an older guy—looked like his granddad—tried to comfort him. But the grandfather was clearly just as wigged out. The kid called him Pops.

I eased over to them, keeping a low profile until I got more intel. “What state are we in?” I asked Pops.

He jolted, maybe because he’d just heard the voice of a rare female; or because I was strolling around
outside
the cages. “Indiana.”

Still? Damn it!
“Who runs this place?”

Overhearing our hushed exchange, a burly guy with a bandana over his head turned toward me and said, “Solomón, the leader of the Skins.”

“Skins?”

Pops said, “Those are Sol’s fanatical followers.”

Bandana added, “They consider us the Shirts.” Shirts and Skins. As in football?
Who makes up this shit?
“Sol’s been rounding up survivors all over the state.”

“Why? Why put you in cages?”

“Because Sol likes games,” Bandana said. “For entertainment. You’ll see soon enough.”

A guy sitting beside Bandana asked me, “Don’t suppose you know how to hotwire electronic cell locks?”

No, but I could slip a tree between two bars, growing it till the metal bent. Maybe I should free these prisoners.

Then I remembered the lesson I’d learned from Jack and Aric:
shackled person
did not mean
good person.

Besides, these men roaming free presented too many new variables and would slow my mission. In an altered future, I never would have been here anyway.

How to get to Sol most quickly? If I turned myself in, those guards might not hand me over to their leader right away, might even mutiny to keep a female for themselves.

An electronic whirring sounded, and all the cell doors opened. No one was brave enough to be the first to step out, to try an escape.

The two shirtless guards—Skins—started down the corridor, guns at the ready. One of them called, “You men are about to make history!”

In Sol’s
games
? If these prisoners were part of his entertainment, then my best hope of access to him might be to join them. I slipped into Pops’s cell, blending with the others before the guards passed. The pair ambled to the other end of the corridor.

“Everybody out and start walking,” the second guard called. “Any of you still in a cage when we roll through gets shot. Better hightail it out before then.” They were driving us toward that entrance?

Men hurried to exit, and I joined them. Playing along—for now—seemed quickest. Still, impatience had me by the throat.

Bandana edged closer to me. “I could look out for you, little girl,” he said. “If we live through this.”

I frowned at my new suitor. “You’re optimistic. And I don’t need you to look out for me.”

Bandana’s friend smirked. “You say that now, but wait till the blood starts flowing.”

That was my problem; I
couldn’t
wait. The red witch bayed for it.

Pops murmured, “You should announce you’re a female. You’ll be spared whatever’s about to happen to us.”

I could
feel
that we were approaching those plants; I had to stifle the urge to run ahead of all these men. “I’ll be just fine.”

Bandana met his buddy’s gaze and twirled his forefinger at his temple. He thought I was crazy?
That’s fair.

“You don’t seem scared,” Pops said. “Do you know something we don’t?”

His grandson stared at me with owl eyes; I winked at him.

Bandana asked, “You packing something under that poncho?”

I had a sleeve filled with vines. If I weren’t so impatient—
could these guys be slower?
—I might’ve laughed. “You could say that.”

As we passed more cells, injured men crawled toward the exits. Others desperately dragged the unconscious. From the stadium, Queen’s “We Will Rock You” pounded, seeming to mock these prisoners.

Behind us, those two Skins swept up the corridor, making good on their promise. Gunshots boomed in the echoing space; all the Shirts seemed to duck at once.

“. . . you got mud on your face. Big disgrace. . . .”

Another shot, and another. Those guards murdered the unconscious, the injured, the slow.

I shuffled along with the herd of prisoners until we emerged onto what had once been a football field. Now a pasture. With
real grass
.

I swept my astonished gaze around the interior of the coliseum. Crops covered the bleachers on three sides, pots filling the rows like terraced gardens. How??? I craned my head up, expecting to see priceless sunlamps, but I spied none. Maybe this settlement kept the lamps under lock and key, only bringing them out when needed.

I’d figure it out later. Once I went back in time, we could sic Jack’s Azey army on this place. They’d raid the crops, free any caged white hats, and relieve Sol of his sunlamps.

For now, I had a ready-made arsenal to use against my new adversary.

Along the sideline at midfield was a large stage, decorated with swaths of purple cloth. Purple banners with gold lettering—Latin words?—hung from posts.

The movie
Gladiator
called. Wants its props back.