Arcana Rising (The Arcana Chronicles Book 5) (34 page)

“We have already been seeing that,” Gabriel said. “Any supplies Fortune can’t chopper to their hidden lair, he
burns
. Starvation in this region is worse than it has ever been.”

No wonder Sol had broken ranks. He’d dreamed aloud of feeding thousands. “We’re all going to have to work together to take him down. I’m ready to die; are you?” I gazed from one to the next.

Joules glared at Death as he replied to me, “Like I told you on our first meetin’, Empress: what I want is on the other side.”

“I’m in,” Finn said. “Richter can’t get away with what he did to Selena and Jack and all those people. . . .”

Suddenly his words sounded fainter; I felt light-headed. I frowned when warm moisture dripped onto the back of my hand. Was that blood spilling over my icons? From my nose?

I swiped my sleeve against it, but the blood kept coming. Dizziness hit me, my vision getting fuzzy. “Aric?”

“
Sievā
, you’re bleeding?” He skidded to a stop. “Gods, were you hurt?”

I remembered Jack balling up his shirt to press against my nose. Even over the blood, I’d savored his scent.

—Empress.—

I tensed. Was that . . . Matthew’s voice? Why would he be in my head after all these months? How dare he contact me now!
Leave me alone!
A buzz in my ears grew louder and louder, like white-noise on steroids.

—Have a secret. He doesn’t want me to tell you.—

His eerie tone gave me chills.

Aric hurried around the truck, snatching open my door. He leaned in, cradling my face in his shaking palms. He was speaking to me with dread in his eyes, but I couldn’t hear a word.

Get out of my head, Fool!

—Listen.—
A different voice carried into my mind:
—“What kind of danger is she in? Damn it, tell me! What’s coming, coo-yôn?”—

I whimpered.
Jack??? Is that you?
He sounded so close.

Blood kept pouring. My breaths shallowed till I was hyperventilating, on the verge of blacking out. But I was desperate to hear more of his voice.
Jack, please answer me!

White-noise answered me.

Please, please, PLEASE—

My eyes rolled back in my head.

“There she is,” Aric said when I blinked open my eyes. He sat beside me, stroking my hair.

I was in our bed? So foggy.

Why did Paul have a blood pressure cuff on my arm? “Everything checks out,” he told Aric. “I’m sure the posttraumatic stress from that attack didn’t help things.”

Aric said, “Thank you, Paul.”

With a “Get some rest, Evie,” the medic left.

My eyes went wide as memories returned.
Matthew, answer me!
I bolted upright, growing dizzy again.

Aric grasped my shoulders. “Easy, slow down. What’s wrong, love?”

That buzz in my ears was back. I shook so hard my teeth chattered.
MATTHEW, please answer me! I’m begging you. Is Jack alive?

Matthew had never actually said he was. The Fool might have been channeling something Jack had said before he’d died. Maybe Matthew was trying to drive me crazy. If so . . .

Kudos, the plan’s a success.

I rubbed my temples, muttering to Aric, “I-I don’t know.” What if I’d imagined Matthew altogether? Imagined Jack’s voice?

Oh, God, of course. I’d been remembering a detail about Jack, and then his voice popped up?

In a solemn tone, Aric said, “There is something we need to talk about,
sievā
.”

Now what? I could’ve been out for days. In that time, he might’ve uncovered something new and dire.

So why was he looking at me so strangely? Almost like
I
was nuts.

Maybe I . . . shouldn’t tell him what I thought I’d heard. Not until I knew more. How exactly would I put the revelation anyway?
Jack’s alive, but apparently he kept that little detail secret. Ah, but Matthew spilled the beans!
Buying myself time, I waved Aric on.

I was scarcely listening as he began talking about Paul, of all people. How the EMT had grown worried when I’d been shut in with my grandmother for so long. How I had lost weight and become listless. The man had pleaded with me to get a checkup, even offering to source contraception after Aric and I had started sleeping together.

Wait.
I glanced up. “After?”

Aric nodded. “He said you told him you had no need of contraception.”

The hell? “I went to him and got a shot
prior
to us getting together. I told you about it.”

“As I told him in turn, but he swears that never happened.”

Real?
Un
real? Had I . . . imagined my meeting with Paul? I’d already feared gaps in my memory; Gran had told me things that I’d had no recollection of. Was I now
inventing
memories?

Had I invented Jack’s return?

In a soothing voice, Aric said, “I’m not angry, love. Just talk to me.” He wasn’t the first person to look at me as if I’d gone insane, like I was trouble with the possibility of rubble.

Won’t be the last.

No. I refused this. I
had
heard Jack, and I
had
gotten that shot. “It did happen, which means Paul’s a liar.”
But
why
would he lie?
“I’m going to confront him.” In time. Right now, all I wanted was to hear from Matthew again.

Yet I frowned as a thought occurred. “Why would you be talking to Paul about contraception?”

Aric tucked my hair behind my ear. “
Sievā
,” he said gently, “do you not know you’re pregnant?”

Tick-tock.

Stay tuned for

THE DARK CALLING

Book 6 of the Arcana Chronicles

Coming Spring 2017

DAY ZERO

Available now!

If you haven’t read DAY ZERO yet, grab a copy to find out:

How Death first explained the basics of the game to Lark.

Why Jack shudders at the memory of removing his mother’s rosary.

How Lark’s wolves got to be so big and scarred.

Why Zara is such a skilled pilot and markswoman.

How Gabriel learned to fly.

Why Circe’s wedding day ended in heartbreak.

How Sol, Joe, and Bea planned to celebrate their anniversary.

Plus ten other DAY ZERO stories from your favorite characters.

Turn the page for a new excerpt from DAY ZERO, and get ready for secrets to be revealed!

The Priestess (II)

Circe Rémire, Ruler of the Deep

“Terror from the abyss!”

A.k.a.:
The Water Witch

Powers:
Water manipulation, including tidal wave generation and flood creation. Hydrokinetic combat, shapeshifting, and constructs (can form water objects). Hydro scrying (can perceive through water). Hydroportation.

Special Skills:
Spells and hexes. One spell enables her to remember past games.

Weapons:
Water, trident.

Tableau:
A priestess—with water for hair and tentacles for legs—looms over a sacrificial victim at a bloody altar.

Icon:
Trident.

Unique Arcana Characteristics:
Iridescent blue scales on her arms, with a small fin at each elbow.

Before Flash
: A grad student from Bermuda, attending the University of Miami. Her focus: Atlantean mythology and the Bermuda Triangle. Engaged to a computer programmer and instructor there. Member of campus Wiccans.

Hamilton, Bermuda

Day 0

“Are you tipsy?” I asked my soon-to-be husband. I was sitting with my cheek pressed against the door. He was sitting on the other side. It was well past midnight, so we weren’t supposed to see each other.

“I might be a tee bit wispy, luv,” he said, his voice as jovial as ever. No one had ever made me laugh like Ned. “But my wipsiness can’t be helped. My family kept raising their glasses to me. They think I’m a boss for landing a woman as beautiful as you.” His crisp British accent got more relaxed when he’d had a drink or two. “My sister said if a movie were made of our lives, it’d be called
The Siren and the Nerd
.”

Siren.
I frowned as some memory tried to surface.
The ocean’s siren song. . . .
I raised my hand to my head as a wave of dizziness overtook me.

Over the last week, the wedding festivities had been going great—until I’d received a long, mysterious wooden box. The accompanying note had been just as puzzling.

Priestess,

Hail Tar Ro. I believe this is yours.

Death

Ever since I’d touched the contents of the package—a golden trident, engraved with cryptic symbols—I’d been having bouts of dizziness, and nightmares about being trapped under the ocean.

I hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, as if I was on a countdown clock. And my symptoms were getting worse.

I’d confided them to my grandfather, my best friend. He’d worried that I wasn’t ready to marry.

But I am!
Ned was the one for me. We were soul mates. I was lucky to have found him.

In a fit two nights ago, I’d taken the trident to a headland cliff and tossed it into the waves. But my issues continued—

“Circe, dear?”

What had he been talking about? Oh, yes . . . “Siren and the Nerd?”
I feigned a huff. “They only commented on my looks?”

“They
might
have mentioned your early PhD candidacy, but I told them you were going to cut out all that scholarly rubbish after our nuptials.”

I grinned, pressing my palm to the door. I loved this man like a drought loves rain. “My family also spoke a lot about you tonight—about how you went out on the water without your seasickness patch.” My brothers had taken him fishing. They’d reported back that they’d never seen anybody throw up so much and live to laugh about it. “
And
without your sunblock.” They’d also said they’d never seen anyone burn so fast.

“I did that part on purpose, for my Larry the Lobster impression at the reception. I’m method that way.”

Laughter burst from my lips. I’d never known I could laugh this much before Ned. No, there’d been another time. . . . In a dark forest, a green-eyed girl and I had laughed till our bellies ached.

“You can’t deny the lobster-red hotness of my skin. No, seriously. My skin is literally hot.”

I tsked. “And you’ll be bright red for all our photos tomorrow.”

“We can always hope I’ll be
peeling
by then.” Ned sighed. “How you put up with me is a mystery.”

A voice in my head murmured,
Mysteries from the deep.
The nightmares.
Shake it off, Circe.

“You’re brave to want kids with me, luv. Three no less.”

I’d told him I wanted to get started once I’d earned my degree. He’d saluted me, replying, “I shall enthusiastically contribute to this endeavor. You will know what the word
commitment
means.”