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"What the hell, Evie?"
I skirted past Jack, addressing the zombie: "Um, Sol?"
Loud groan and a nod.
"Are we in trouble?"
Nodding. Shooing. "Ohhhhhh. Oh. Oh."
"Go?"
NOD.
I whirled around. "We've got to run, Jack!"
He grabbed my hand, and we tore off down the path.
"Kentarch!" I screamed. "Wake up!"
Halfway to the ground, Jack skidded to a stop, cocking his head. Eyes gone wide, he yelled, "INCOMING!"
22
A shrill whistle rent the night as a trail of light and smoke sped through the sky. A missile zoomed directly for the truck. Kentarch and Joules were still in the cab!
"WAKE UP!" I screamed again. No time left to run. I needed to close my eyes but couldn't look away.
Just before impact, the truck vanished. "Yes! Go, Kentarch!"
The missile exploded into the side of the mountain. "Down, Evie!" Jack tossed me to the ground, shielding me. He grunted when rocks landed on his back.
"Jack! Are you okay?"
"Been better. Think my bowstring's snapped."
"Stop covering me," I bit out from underneath him, my ears ringing. "Regenerate here, remember?" But would my kid?
Jack managed to get free of the rocks, shouldering his busted bow. As he helped me stand, a chopper came into view in the distance.
There was no mistaking that helicopter; the nose was painted to look like a dragon's roaring mouth. "Zara's here." The earth rumbled beneath our feet. "And Richter." Quakes always announced his presence.
"We've got to get through the pass before they block it." Jack pointed out the narrow gap by the lake's edge. "Can you run?"
I nodded, and we hurried down the stony path. Though Jack had a limp, he dragged me along, all but carrying me.
We'd just made it down to the lake's edge when I spied a fiery light coming up through that pass. I slowed. "Oh, dear God."
Richter. The King of Hell.
Not even a hundred feet away, he rode a wave of lava right toward us, blocking our only way out. Even taller than Jack, he was a no-neck bruiser, just as Circe had described. Fire wrapped around his naked body, shrouding him. His beady eyes were flame red.
Why hadn't he simply bombed us or flooded this rock bowl with lava? As he continued closer, I made out two icons on his right hand: a moon for Selena and the Lovers' overlapping triangles. He'd harvested their icon from the Archer--when he'd turned my friend to cinder.
Fury engulfed me, but I didn't feel the quickening of my powers. I'd vowed to replace Richter's laughter with screams. I'd dreamed about torturing him. Where were my powers?
"I finally get to meet the Empress of Arcana," he said, his voice booming in the echoing crater.
Sweating from the heat, I raised my hands, managing a few scraggly vines. Once they reached Richter, they turned to ash. With a cry, I yanked my hands back. My spores and thorn tornado would simply disintegrate.
Richter smirked. "Is that all you've got, Empress? No wonder you hide behind Death's coattails. Zara was right--you are the weakest of us all."
Jack shoved me behind him. "Richter," he bit out. "You destroyed my army. You murdered Selena. I'm goan to kill you slow." He reached for his bow . . . only to drop his hand; must've remembered the broken string right as I did.
"Kill me, eh? How would you ever get close enough? I'm too strong and hot to die."
Unless someone struck from afar. Where had Kentarch and Joules teleported to? This was a perfect opportunity to attack!
Jack had the same idea. He muttered in French, "Stall. Give them time to return."
I demanded, "Why are you here, Richter?" Zara's chopper had circled back. Was she looking for a place to land?
"Sol said you were pretty. Pretty doesn't do you justice." Those beady eyes roamed over me. "And you regenerate? Maybe you could live through my special brand of attention. Some last longer than others."
Vomit rose in my throat. "Sol?" I had to act like I hated the Sun Card. "Where is that coward? Too scared to face us?"
"He's back guarding our lair with his Bagger horde. When you own as much as we do, it's best to keep watch." He gazed past us. "And where's your ally Death? Trouble in paradise?"
"On his way here to meet us. He defeated you once before, and he will again. You better hurry along."
"He's not coming," Richter said, sounding so confident I wondered if he knew about Paul. "In our last shoot out, you needed four Arcana to rescue you. Who's going to save you now?"
"What do you want, Richter?" Circe had said he craved cataclysm, but there had to be more. "Why are you destroying food stores?"
He shrugged, and a wisp of flame rose from each of his shoulders, taking to the air. "Why does fire burn? Because it consumes to live. I consume to live. Empress, my hunger is never-ending, but there's not much in the world that the Flash didn't consume first."
He incinerated things to harvest strength? "Why hurt people?"
A repulsive smile creased his meaty face. "Nothing ever satisfies me, but roasted bodies come the closest."
My fists clenched. I was facing yet another Arcana who wouldn't respond to reason, who'd just keep killing unless we stopped him. "You don't strike me as a deep thinker, so let me lay this out for you. Sooner or later, you'll have nothing left to burn. Then what?"
"I'll win the Arcana game. Because that's what I am--a winner. When the world comes back, I'll fry anything new that grows."
"Then why are we still alive?"
Richter waved in Zara's direction. Her spotlight swept the ground. She was trying to land. "Right before Zara got to steal your luck, Fauna's creatures arrived. Zara gets pissed when luck doesn't flow her way. She's going to fix that now."
Jack grated, "So she'll steal our luck, then you'll torch us?" Just as in my dreams.
"I'll keep the Empress alive for a time. Let her recover between my visits."
Two games ago, he'd tortured me for months, searing away my regenerating limbs, until he'd finally taken my head. My stomach roiled. "Now I understand what hell is."
How could I stop him? I kept hearing my grandmother's words: Until you fully embrace your viciousness, you have no chance against the Emperor.
What else had she taught me? Desperate, I mentally plumbed the earth for buried seeds.
I could dispatch plants underground. If I made them thick enough, maybe they could reach Richter before burning away.
There! My eyes widened. I detected seeds deep in the ground, even below the rock--what must be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of potential soldiers. They were ancient. How to fuel them?
"Hell?" Richter flared brighter, the heat making me lightheaded. "You shouldn't anger me. My temper is truly explosive--"
"Oi, this is for Selena and Tess!" From the top of the crater wall, Joules hurled javelins at Richter.
His arm moved like a blur as he launched five--no, ten--no, fifteen spears. They rained down on the Emperor.
Yet Richter just bowed his chest. We braced for explosions that never came; the spears melted like hot ore. Over and over, silver goop merged with his lava.
"Show your face, Tower!" Richter produced an ominous fireball in his hand. As he scouted for Joules's location, he bellowed, "Stop being a pussy!" Taking aim, Richter tensed, about to lob that fireball . . . .
A rifle boomed from the opposite side of the crater. Kentarch! Three thunderous shots rang out.
Please, God, let this work.
A few feet from Richter's skin, those bullets turned into a trio of smoke puffs. The bullets had crumbled into nothing.
Jack muttered, "Jesus."
Suddenly, I spied Kentarch in the air above the crater. He was teleporting from one side to the other--with a boulder as big as a car. Could the Emperor be crushed? Halfway across, Kentarch dropped it on him.
I held my breath.
Flames radiated from Richter's body. Even more smoke erupted around
him as the rock turned to lava. He saluted Kentarch. "Thanks for the top-off, asshole."
The heat . . . too much. Why wasn't the Emperor weakening? Gasping for air, I stared at the lava bubbling all around us. Time seemed to slow as my mind struggled to process this scene.
For once, I could see the future. When Richter won, he would usher in hell on earth. Fire and brimstone. Lava and smoke. The entire world would look like this.
A hellscape.
Jack stumbled, barely keeping me on my feet.
I told him, "We've got to get in the water."
"Non. It'll boil."
The ice was long gone; steam wafted off the surface.
Through the haze, I spotted Kentarch and Joules on the crater rim. Kentarch was soaked with sweat, his outline wavering. Moving his truck and that boulder had weakened him.
Even the Arcana able to strike from afar weren't threats anymore.
The chopper dusted off in a hurry. In a blaze of muzzle flashes, one of Zara's machine guns spat bullets, eating the stone in a path to Kentarch and Joules.
They had no choice but to run. As they fled, Joules flung four javelins at her. They sped through the air.
She banked, but she could never avoid a direct hit--
Lightning bolts shot down from the sky, striking the javelins, sending each one off course. The Tower's weapons flew harmlessly past her chopper.
