“Ugh. That makes no sense!” I hurried through the pass, then around to the other side of the crater. Over here, fires still burned, the smoke needling my eyes.
Joules stumbled into view. “Goin’ to get bandages out of the truck.” He had blood all over him and a shell-shocked expression.
“Whose blood is that?”
“Tarch’s hurt. Bad.”
I rushed past him and found Jack kneeling beside Kentarch. The Chariot sat propped against a rock, cradling his arm. Staring at nothing, he demonstrated zero emotion.
Blood covered the ground, had splattered Jack’s face. He’d used his belt to make a tourniquet around Kentarch’s forearm. “Evie, can you give him something for the pain?”
“Of course. What happened?” I rubbed my gritty eyes, trying to make out the injury amidst all the smoke.
Jack rose, then crossed to a small fire. His knife was heating in the flames, the blade red-hot. “We’re goan to need to cauterize his wound.”
I turned back to the Chariot and finally saw. Breath left me.
His right hand was gone.
24
Jack drove the Beast at a furious pace.
Kentarch was passed out in the back, mumbling in his sleep.
Before Jack had sealed his wound, the Chariot had roused long enough to teach Jack the Beast’s security measures and to decline my medicinal plants.
No matter. I’d injected him with a generous dose, telling him, “Think of Issa. Think of better times to come.”
He’d peered up at me with soulful eyes. “Did you kill me? As you did before?” Even after all the shit we’d been through together, he still considered me cold enough to poison him . . . .
I gazed over at Jack’s strong profile. My emotions were going haywire, tangling up inside me. I was appalled by what had happened to Kentarch and spooked to my marrow by what I’d glimpsed.
Jack clutched the steering wheel with white knuckles. What must he be thinking about everything? I dreaded his reaction to my pregnancy.
Joules asked, “What did you give Tarch?”
“A sedative-slash-painkiller. Want some?”
He looked interested-slash-skeptical. “Why didn’t the Priestess tsunami Richter’s arse?”
I debated whether to reveal the truth. But what was the point of pretending? “She’s weak. She could barely put up enough of a front to scare the Emperor off.” I wondered how a well of wrath would affect her.
“That’s just bloody great! How can we fight them? The Emperor’s immune to—to everything. And Zara? What are the chances that lightning—me own element—would end up saving her?”
“Freak coincidences are her power. But she’s got to be depleted now.” Unfortunately, they’d just go hunt survivors for a top-off.
“Depleted? Not before her power did that.” Joules waved at Kentarch’s arm. “What are the feckin’ odds that a flat shard of rock could sever his gun hand clean?”
Jack said, “Right now, I’m more concerned with them finding us again. The Sun must’ve been the one to tip them off.”
Joules snorted. “So much for a man on the inside, Empress.”
“Hey, he used a Bagger to warn us about Richter’s approach, okay? And then we warned you. So if not for Sol, you’d have one of Zara’s missiles up your arse. In any case, I’m sure he has to help them. They’re only keeping him alive as long as he’s useful to them, which he must know.”
Joules asked, “What did Circe tell you about the Hanged Man?”
How to put this without crushing all their hope? “She’s researching a weapon to kill him. She told me to go to the coast and wait for word.” Kind of. “We’ll be safer there from Richter too, closer to big water. As soon as she comes up with a plan, she’ll contact us.” But with her rate of deterioration, would she be less and less help?
“Where on the coast?” Joules wanted to know.
Have no idea. I thought we should continue our heading for the Outer Banks. “I’ll know more when we get there.”
“Grand directions, Empress. You’d best plug that into the GPS.” He laughed without humor. “Maybe I shouldn’t be working to rescue anyone from the Hanged Man. If Jack and me save Death, then we sacrifice ourselves to the Ash—and Gabe too. The Reaper will never share his resources with us.”
“Joules, I vow to you that if you help me, Aric will reward you. He’ll give you a freaking medal.”
“Canna eat a medal. Just want in on that bacon we smelled. Hell, at least Gabe’s got food and warm shelter right now. He’s thriving there.”
Jack said, “Gabe’s living with a sword over his neck. He only survives as long as the Hanged Man says. And who is Paul goan to take out first when the food supplies dwindle?” Jack’s gaze slid to me. We both knew Aric had set up the castle to sustain people for decades.
As long as the generators had fuel, the Reaper could use those sunlamps to grow crops to feed humans and livestock. Centuries of planning had gone into his home. It was everything to him.
I said, “Look, the bottom line is that Aric’s the only Arcana alive who knows how to kill Richter. Understand me: saving Death could mean saving the world.”
Joules’s gaze darkened until I could all but hear his thoughts: Nothing good comes from Death. “Worst road trip I’ve ever been on,” he muttered, leaning against the door. “Grabbin’ a kip. Wake me up when there’s even more fun to be had.”
How could he sleep at a time like this? Soon his soft snores sounded from the back, effectively leaving me and Jack alone.
I touched his arm. “I know this is all . . . a lot.”
When Jack’s muscles tensed under my palm, I pulled my hand back.
“Please, talk to me. I need to hear how you’re feeling about all this.”
Quick glance from the road. “Doan know, me. Confused. I pictured us having a kid together, down the line when we were older. Now it’s you and Domīnija.” He briefly squeezed his eyes closed, as if the thought brought on fresh pain. “You two do this on purpose?”
“Never! Paul gave me a contraceptive shot—or so I thought. I told him I didn’t want to have a child in a world like this. And I’d already told Aric that I was way too young.”
“Domīnija wanted you to have his baby?”
“Yes. No. He did at first, but then he changed his mind. Still, after we found this out, he was happy. He thinks it could derail the game. Plus, he simply wants a family. To this day, he misses his.”
“Tell me about it.” Jack would always miss his beloved mother and his sister Clotile. “What if the Reaper plotted with the Hanged Man? What if they set you up?”
“No, I don’t believe so. I trust Aric. Or I did trust him.” Death’s look of fury plagued my memories. “I’m really confused too.”
“How could he attack you and his kid?”
“Paul convinced him I lied about the pregnancy. Now Aric hates me for ‘tricking’ him into believing it for a time.”
“I’m goan to kill that medic.”
“Not if I get to him first. I’ve wanted him dead since I learned I was pregnant.”
Jack’s gaze dropped to my stomach before returning to the road. “How far along are you? Women sometimes lose pregnancies.”
“More than three months, I think. I get the feeling this one is here to stay.”