“Post-apocalypse, doesn’t everyone need to evolve?”
She raised her face to the intermittent rain. “Jesus, Evie, what if it catches on? What if we could all live in peace? Use these powers for good?”
I’d had the same thought! “We could repurpose ourselves.” Fight freaking crime, anything.
“If evil Arcana don’t get in our way.” Selena faced me. “Speaking of which, what’s going on between you and Death?”
Between us? My escape and his sword. According to the twins: burgeoning love.
Since I’d left him, Death hadn’t telepathically contacted me, hadn’t overtaken me on the road. What if he . . . couldn’t? “I learned more about my history with him. This won’t be news to you, but Aric had reason to hate me.”
“You call Death Aric?” she spat. “So that murderer has a human name?”
“It’s not all black and white,” I insisted. “I came to care for him.”
She looked more disgusted by me than she had by the Lovers’ making out. “If I see him, I will put an arrow in his heart.”
“Good luck with that. Last time, your arrows disintegrated against his armor.”
“You actually give a damn about him? Up is down and down is up. What about J.D.?”
“I haven’t been able to think past a rescue. Now I’ll take some time and sort things out in my head.” Once I got some rest. I’d had only a few hours over days.
“J.D. wasn’t the only one who’s changed in the last three months. Things between us are different.”
After Jack had thought I was lost for good, had he given Selena what she wanted most in this world?
Himself?
Something like grief swamped me. I’d wanted him far away from this sick game. If he’d then gotten with another card . . . ?
It had never, never occurred to me that Jack might not want me back, might not be clamoring to tell me his side of the story. “Wh-what changed then?”
Before she could answer, the angel landed once more. “Jack is with the physician.”
“Thank you, Gabriel.”
He gave me a solemn nod. Maybe he should see the doc next. After his dive-bomb, that bullet hole was now the size of a salad plate.
He offered his claw-tipped hand to Selena. “Your carriage awaits.”
I thought that was cute, but she just gave him a really? look and stood on her own.
She had no way of knowing that he’d evacuated her first—at least, before time reversed itself. “Shouldn’t we take the bridge back?” I nodded at his wing.
“We’ll wait till the bridge is one hundred percent secured.” He caught my eye. “It’s too dangerous yet, for you and Selena.”
Oh, right. He’d take the pain just to hold her.
She frowned when he pulled her into his arms, cradling her against him. “We’ll talk later, Evie.”
I gave her a thumbs-up; she flipped me off as he took to the air once more.
“Oi, flower girl!” Joules called to me. “How long does it take for the icon to show on my hand?” I guessed he wanted his trophy.
I hated that I knew the answer to his question twice over. “It’s pretty much instant.”
“Then who the feck stole my icon?”
14
As Jack slept, I sat on the edge of his cot, replaying the doc’s prognosis.
The man’s examination of Jack’s skull had revealed two bad knots; most likely concussed. He’d fixed Jack’s dislocated arms, cleaned his wounds, and bandaged the angry burn on his chest.
He predicted a full recovery—if Jack took it easy for a couple of weeks. But the doc had also told me how long Jack would carry the Lovers’ mark, that reminder of his torture.
For the rest of his life.
Which made me need to poison something.
I retracted my budding claws, whispering to Jack, “Brand or not, you’ll always be breathtaking to me.” I tenderly tucked the cover around him, staggered by the love I felt for him.
I’d tried so hard to get over him. Never could. In fact, I’d celebrated when I could go an hour without thinking about him.
But we had so much standing between us. Too little trust, too much danger.
I needed to let him go, to steer him away from all this. Yet all I wanted to do was curl up next to his battered body. . . .
I heard Joules out in the fort, stomping up and down the plankway, making a stink about his missing icon. He’d already insisted on a mandatory hand check for all Arcana.
Had the transfer gone wacky because Selena struck first, starting the attack?
Matthew’s answers to Joules’s heated questions—and mine—hadn’t been in the realm of coherent. The boy had looked done in.
I gazed over at his half of the tent. My chest squeezed when I realized his only belongings in the world were his bug-out bag, a model of some sci-fi alien, and a Mad Libs book.
Beside Jack’s cot? Magazines for different trades: electricians, mechanics, contractors. Under his cot, he’d stored fifths of whiskey, making me wonder if he was still on the wagon. Atop a small desk were maps of this region. He’d been redrawing them to reflect the new landscape.
My gaze fell on Jack’s bug-out bag. I unzipped it and peeked inside. Among all his survival gear, he still had that copy of Robinson Crusoe I’d given him.
And there was the cell phone that had belonged to Brandon, my onetime boyfriend, and Jack’s half brother. Not that it could make a call. Jack had told me he’d constantly sourced power for it—just so he could look at the videos and pictures of me.
I even found the Alchemist’s recording of my life story in a small player.
Surely Jack wouldn’t keep these things with him at all times if he’d moved on from me.
I fished out his envelope of photos. The first night I’d been on the road with him, he’d shown me the contents of his bag, but he hadn’t wanted me to see these.
Turnabout, Jack. I glanced through them, finding nothing bad, just photos of his friends and his mom.
Jack stirred. Was he waking? I stuffed everything back in his pack.
His gray eyes opened. Bloodshot, weary, but so familiar. “Evangeline?” He blinked, as if he couldn’t believe I was with him. “You real? Another dream?” He sounded half-dead.
He and I had been separated for three months. Felt like three years. “I’m here with you.” I took his hand in mine. “You’re safe now.”
With his brows drawn, he rubbed his callused fingers over my skin, like he was testing my realness. “Never thought I’d get free from the twins. Much less see you again.”