Gabriel landed just outside my barbs, flaring his fangs, claws, and wings at our next threat.
The soldiers were slack-jawed, but their weapons stayed trained.
The red witch in me was unconcerned: Nothing that an old-fashioned thorn flaying can’t take care of. I smiled at them, and knew it was a harrowing sight. Yes, gentlemen, you are all about to die.
“Behind me, Tess.” When she crept to my back, I raised a hand to skin them alive—
That tall leader motioned for the others to lower their weapons. To me, he said, “C-can you kill the twins?”
9
“As a matter of fact, I’m on my way to do just that,” I promised him. “Right after I descend on you like a scourge.” The tornado tightened and vines snapped straight, poised to strike.
To his credit, the leader didn’t lose control of his bladder. “I’m . . . my name is Franklin. We don’t want to stop you. We want to help you.”
Tess whispered, “We should listen to them.”
Since my former plan had resulted in zero gain, I’d hear what this Franklin had to say. I inhaled for calm, exhaling. Again.
Bring it back, Eves. Muzzle the witch. “We’ll discuss this,” I told them, “once you take off your masks.”
He nodded to his men, and one by one, they did. Franklin appeared to be in his late twenties, with black hair, wide-set brown eyes, and a gap in his front teeth.
When Gabriel sheathed his claws, I let my tornado slow, a compressed cyclone ringing our feet. “I’m surprised you would turn against your . . . leaders.” I had a hard time assigning that word to the Lovers.
“Most of this army hates the Milovnícis, but they’ve got spies everywhere. Anyone suspected of stepping out of line gets executed, along with family and friends. Or worse, the general gives them to the twins.”
If the Hierophant had manipulated his followers through mind control, the Milovnícis did it the old-fashioned way: tyranny.
I canted my head at Franklin. “Have you ever tried to kill the twins yourselves?”
“Yeah. I got this handpicked crew, and we’re ready. But each time, weird stuff happens. You might have better luck at it since all of this”—he indicated us—“is, uh, weird.”
“Tell me about Vincent and Violet,” I said. “What weird stuff?”
“We think they can teleport. Like in the comics.” Franklin must’ve expected us to laugh in his face.
We three Arcana listened intently. “Go on,” I said with a glance at Tess. She shared that ability. In theory.
“A couple of weeks ago, we’d planned to assassinate Violet. Right before it was time, we got radioed that she was in the other camp. But I’d just seen her in ours.”
No wonder Matthew had difficulty getting a bead on her!
How did one fight a teleporter? Of course they couldn’t teleport if they were spore-drunk. “I can kill them,” I told Franklin. “And I will. But Jack Deveaux is my first concern.”
He nodded. “We’ve got to hurry, then. The twins were raring to go.”
“Violet is here?”
“I saw her in the tent just before Vincent ordered us to wear gas masks.”
My barbs soared, tornadic once more. The soldiers stepped back.
Gabriel cocked his head. “It’s true. I can hear the Lovers from here. Jack refuses to torture another prisoner, so they’re going to torture him.”
I started sprinting back to the camp, Gabriel and Tess behind me, my thorns and vines trailing them. The soldiers followed at a distance.
We reached the bluff where we first landed. Between breaths, I told Gabriel, “We have to get to him before—”
Jack’s roar of pain sounded. Two yells joined it in chorus. The twins were mimicking him?
I turned to the angel with wide eyes. “What did they do?”
He stutter-stepped, putting the back of his arm against his mouth.
“What, Gabriel?”
He lowered his arm, revealing his pale face. “It’s bad.” He sounded like a doctor about to deliver a terminal prognosis. “Empress, they used a hot spoon to . . . to take out one of his eyes.”
“WHAT?” I’d misheard—or Gabriel had. That couldn’t have happened.
Another of Jack’s bellows carried across the night.
Gabriel flinched. “And again.”
The earth seemed to go atilt. No, no, no. Not happening. My claws shredded my palms, blood pouring.
“He’s blind,” Gabriel murmured in a daze. “They laugh. It’s done. They’ve left him for now.”
I’d . . . failed.
I’d failed Jack. Rose stalks burst forth all around me. The ground began to move, roots growing, like snakes roiling beneath the surface.
The red witch ached to make her enemies pay! To rain down thorns and poison on the Lovers and every soul in this camp.
But what I really wanted was not to have failed Jack.
Why hadn’t I moved faster? Fought the Priestess faster? Why had I run from the soldiers instead of taking bullets?
I imagined Jack’s pain and shrieked my fury. When the twins were removing his second eye, he would have known he was about to be blinded forever. And he’d been helpless to stop the mutilation.
A hot spoon.
I felt like my heart had stopped. My world had. . . .
Through the chaos of my mind, a memory whispered. Something Matthew had said.
I pushed aside fantasies—of forcing Vincent and Violet to gouge out each other’s eyes, to wear each other’s scalps—and focused on that one fragile sprout of a memory pushing through to the surface.
A breath left me.
I wanted not to have failed Jack?
I turned to Tess, my lips curling as vines surrounded the unsuspecting girl. I strode up to her, my thorns enveloping the two of us. “You have work to do, World.” I stabbed my claws into her shoulders.
She gave a cry. “Evie?”
From behind me, Gabriel growled, “Unhand her, Empress.” But he could never breach the barbs.
Tonight, Matthew had said, “Sometimes the world spins in reverse. Sometimes battles do too.” He’d meant the World Card could spin in reverse.
She could make time do the same.
“Please d-don’t hurt me!”
“You know what you have to do, Tess. I won’t inject you with poison, if you let the carousel spin and turn back time.”
Her jaw slackened. “I don’t have my staff to ground me!”
I’d seen her carrying one months ago. “Oh, I’ll ground you.”