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"You're doing great. Look at you!" Her words reminded me of my childhood. I recalled how she'd praised me for finding colored eggs one Easter. I'd proudly held up my basket, and someone had snapped a photo of me, Mom, and Gran. Mom had held that picture as she'd passed away with Jack by her side.
She'd died because of Bagmen. We'd burned her body because of the Lovers. Jack had died without grace because of the Emperor.
Jack's eulogy had been Richter's laughter. Rage welled in me, as powerful as Circe's tidal wave. Replace the Emperor's laughter with screams--
The seeds cracked open; plants exploded outward to crawl and fork across the ceiling and walls.
"Good Lord, Evie!" Gran looked at me . . . with awe. "I think you could be the most dangerous Empress ever to live." She surveyed the new growths.
Regardless of the seed species, all had become vines with daggerlike thorns. I slumped back in my seat. "As long as that means the Emperor dies."
"You're one step closer to truly becoming the Empress."
I swiped at my forehead and reached for a glass of water. "I'm not now? What will change?"
"When you fully give in to the heat of battle, your hair will turn red permanently and your skin markings will always show. You'll be more powerful than you can imagine."
All I had to do was give myself over to the red witch forever. Would I take that risk to kill Richter?
One problem: the red witch might not stop with him. Evie is a sliver of ME!
Gran frowned. "I was actually surprised your hair is still blond. But no matter. We'll keep working. You mastered that so quickly, I think there's something else you should work on. Close your eyes and cover your ears."
I did. I sensed movement, a scrape of metal. One of my vines shifted, so I opened my eyes.
Gran stood in front of me with a sharp paring knife inches above my head--and that vine gripping her wrist.
I waved a hand to release her. "You really were going to, uh, stab me?"
She set the knife back on the tray. "Yes." Rubbing her wrist, she sat again. "You would heal, and the attack needed to be real for your vines to react."
My soldiers had had a mind of their own. And I'd seemed to sense through them.
At the Lovers' lair, I'd set vines free, commanding them to kill Bagmen, even perceiving destruction through them. But I'd never felt them working on autopilot before, with no conscious thought from me. "I wouldn't even have to look behind me to aim?"
She nodded. "Your vines have an awareness. Even when you sleep, they keep watch. Unfortunately, they're not foolproof. Some players, like Death, are too quick. He's slipped past your sentries before. Other players--like the Tower--strike from too far away for your plants to detect them."
"What else can I do?" I asked, eager to learn.
"You can become a talented healer. You have an innate knowledge of medicinal plants, and I'll teach you more. You can also manipulate wood. Past Empresses crafted priceless jewelry pieces, giving them as signs of favor. And with a wave of her hand, one Empress constructed bridges and shrines, building an entire civilization, easily garrisoning her army of men."
Aric had told me I'd commanded an army in the past, one that had clashed against the Emperor's.
"Another Empress could spy on foes through any plant on earth. She could even meld her body with a tree, transporting herself from one trunk to another."
"No way!" Could I meld into a tree? Hadn't I once had the urge to put my fingers in the soil and take root?
"Not that there are any trees left to travel through." Gran sighed. "I'll show you more after you've rested. You're still recovering."
"I'm fine. I can do this." But she looked as if my exercise had weakened her.
"In time. For now, why don't you tell me about your interactions with Death? He was the last person I expected to show up at my door."
"What made you go with him?"
"I had a feeling that was my path, and I was on borrowed time anyway. Plus he knew things about you. The name of your horse. Your art. Your ballet. He said that you'd spent months trying to reach me, and he planned to give you whatever you desired. Could've knocked me over with a feather."
Despite knowing everything about me, even my malicious past, Aric still loved me. I didn't want to hurt him anymore. But every time I contemplated my life, all I saw was my past--Jack--and my future--Richter.
"Death is very protective of you," she said. "He can't help it. He's cursed to desire you each game."
Ouch. "Gran, it's more than just desire."
She sighed. "He's got you believing he loves you, doesn't he? He's killed you two out of the last three games. He beheaded you." As I'd pointed out to him last night. "He's a villain, Evie."
Time to explain the new program to Gran. "Aric would give his life for mine. I trust him."
"I admit he did go to great lengths to rescue you. But only because he can touch you. He's a red-blooded male, and you're the sole woman he can be with. What wouldn't he do to preserve your life?"
Again, ouch. "Then why would he return you to me?"
"As a courtship gift, to sway your favor. He's notoriously calculating, does everything for a reason."
She was right about the courtship. Aric had admitted as much. He'd intended to use my grandmother to coerce me, but in the end, he hadn't gone through with it. He'd wanted me to choose him--but only if I loved him more than Jack.
How could I explain that to Gran? She would never believe it anyway.
"We will use this to our advantage," she said. "He'll continue to protect you, so you should keep him alive to the very end." Aric would be happy to know her game strategy was no longer flawed. "Your victory is so close."
I shuddered at the idea of winning. "Can the game be stopped?" Could fate be changed?
"I don't follow." She blinked at me, as if I'd just asked, "Hey, can I borrow your credit card and pop over to the mall?"
"I know others have tried to stop it before."
"Some players united, making a big show of peace. But in the end, all those alliances failed. Arcana are born to kill. They only delayed the inevitable."
"Why is it inevitable?"
"The gods decreed this game," she said. "They set these events into motion eons ago. Someone has to win. No matter what, someone will win. Say the last two cards allied for a couple of decades: they would both age. Once one died, the other would walk the earth--older, weaker. Disadvantaged in the next game."
When he'd sought a future with me, clever Aric had already come up with a solution to this problem. He and I would live our lives together, with Lark tagging along. We would somehow predecease her (that part had been vague), and she would endure for centuries, forced to play the next game against Arcana young enough to be her grandkids. Yet she'd volunteered for it!
Being with Aric had seemed so complicated, so loaded with intrigues.
When I'd chosen Jack, I'd also been choosing the future he represented: building Acadiana, far from the game, repurposing my abilities to help others.
Gran said, "Not that the Minor Arcana would allow such a union anyway."
My eyes widened. "They exist?" In any Tarot deck, there were fifty-six Minor Arcana cards, divided into four suits: cups, pentacles or rings, wands, and swords.
Such as the eerie ten of swords card. I couldn't imagine that one as a person.
Gran's gray brows drew together. "Of course," she said, as if she was telling me something I should already know. "They can be as dangerous as Major Arcana. Especially the court cards."
"Where are they?" Did they converge too? "How do you find them?"
"You don't," she said. "Best avoid them. Let's hope the Knight of Swords perished in the Flash. The Queen of Cups too. Truly, a good dozen of them are walking nightmares."
"Aric said he sees evidence of them everywhere in some games; other games, no sign at all. He also said that some believe Tarasovas are Minors."
Gran crossed her arms over her chest. "Bull
manure. I'm no Minor. They have their own functions--to hide evidence of the Major Arcana, to hasten the game, and then to rebuild the civilization afterward. My function is to make sure you win."
Why hadn't Matthew told me about them? Or had he? The last time I'd seen him, he'd said there were now five obstacles to beware: Bagmen, slavers, militia, cannibals, and . . . Minors. "The Fool told me the Minors watch us, plotting against us. I thought he was talking about miners, with an e." How many times had I misunderstood his decoder-ring talk? Sometimes I could have sworn he'd confused me on purpose. "Why would they plot?"
"They'll want the earth righted as soon as possible. Minors like to see dead Majors--because catastrophes end with the close of the game."
I'd made promises over my mother's body to find Gran and see if we could fix all that the apocalypse had broken. Was dying the most helpful thing I could do to further that end?
"Once you've collected all the icons, the earth should come back," Gran said. "The sun as well."
"Should come back?"
"There's never been a disaster like this. I can't say for certain." She rubbed her temples, like I did whenever my head was hurting. "When you were a girl, I knew you would be important to the future of humanity, but I didn't know how. Maybe you're supposed to reseed the planet."
Yet I couldn't do that permanently until the game ended and daylight came back--if I even won. For that to happen, I'd have to lose Aric, Lark, Circe, Finn, Joules, and Gabriel. In other words, I'd be insane.
Now Gran had just confirmed a new threat--to all of them. I'd have to think about the Minors later. Put 'em on the list. "When the Empress won before, what did she do until the next game?"
Aric had revealed how he'd spent his solitary centuries: "I wander the earth and see men age before my eyes. I read any book or paper I can get my hands on. I watch the stars in the sky; over my lifetime some dim, some brighten. I sleep for weeks at a time and chase the dragon."
When he'd made that confession, I'd thanked God I hadn't been cursed to that. His horse looks sick, and he has no friends. Why would he have made friends? Just to watch them die, over and over?
Gran frowned. "What did the Empress do? She was immortal."
"But how did she spend her time? What was her life like?" My life.
