The Arcana Chronicles 3: Dead of Winter

He rolled his eyes. “I doan have a—”

“Promise me you won’t take any more unnecessary risks.”

He opened his mouth to argue; must’ve seen I wasn’t having it. “Fine. I promise. Satisfied, you?”

At length, I nodded.

“Then come on. Let’s finish clearing this place.” He led me back downstairs.

Now that we’d closed the exterior doors, the first floor had warmed up, hot air chugging from the vents. In the kitchen, I checked the pantry, found it stocked with canned and boxed goods.

When Aric joined us there, Jack glowered. “Thought you wouldn’t darken our door for a longer spell.”

“Do recall that I possess superhuman speed. I also had time to move all the bodies outside in order to ward off unwanted visitors.” He’d had the same idea as Jack. “After securing the horses, I hastened to get back to my wife.”

“You keep calling her that, but if some fille tried to murder me on my wedding night, I’d think twice about my nuptials.”

Aric’s eyes narrowed.

I got between them. “Shouldn’t we search the rest of the house? The garage is left.”

After a tense moment, Jack started forward. As if by silent agreement, he and Aric kept me in the middle.

When we entered the laundry room, the washing machine was changing cycles. “Why would the boss use so much electricity? With the floodlights and the heater and all these appliances, he’d have to keep generators running full-time.”

“The man probably knows his fuel will turn soon,” Aric said.

“Turn?”

Jack answered, “Gasoline lasts just a year or two.”

“What?” I should have savored electricity more at Death’s!

“It only lasts that long,” Aric said blithely, “unless one had special additives infused into his stores.” To me, he added, “Ours will be preserved for well over fifty years.”

Jack drew up short, turning to face us. “The military’s additives doan extend it more than five years.”

“In the U.S.? I bought the technology from overseas.”

“How many barrels you got?” Jack eyed him so keenly I figured Aric was due for a break-in soon.

“Barrels? None. I have tankers.”

Jack scrubbed his hand over his chin with a hungry look. But there was also a hint of something else—surely not a grudging respect?

Aric gazed down at me. “Your dance studio will always be lit, as will your art studio. The libraries, of course. The pool will be heated as long as we live. Who needs the sun, when we have acres of sunlamps?”

My eyes darted to Jack. I could give him all the time in the world, and no matter how hard he worked, he could never match the situation at Aric’s. I thought Jack was coming to the same conclusion right at that moment.

“The Empress didn’t tell you what her new life was like?” Aric said. “How she was indulged in every way? She enjoyed fresh food daily and a cook to prepare it. She slept in her warm bed in a lavish tower filled with a new wardrobe and every imaginable amenity.”

Jack hadn’t been a fan of rich people before the Flash. I didn’t see that changing just because of the apocalypse.

“She had time to read and draw. In fact”—Aric leaned in, holding Jack’s gaze—“she used to dance for me every day.”

That muscle ticked in Jack’s jaw. He looked as pissed as he had when Aric first called me “wife.” But then Jack rallied: “It wasn’t like that at first, no. All that came after you got into her head. You think this ain’t Stockholm syndrome?”

“The symptoms are there.”

Jack blinked at Aric’s frankness. “Why doan you tell me what you did after you abducted her? Evie refuses to.”

“Very well. I made her walk for leagues, barefoot, coatless, and freezing. She was bound, so she couldn’t break her falls. All the while she never knew if or when I would kill her.” Aric’s bearing wasn’t proud by any means, but he seemed determined to own up to the wrongs he’d done.

It struck me; this was what forthrightness looked like.

He wasn’t finished. “I laughed when she mourned you and insulted her as often as possible. I blunted her powers with a cilice that cut into her arm every hour of every day. To get free of it, she had to persuade Fauna to claw her flesh off.”

My glyphs stirred as I remembered that pain.

Jack’s eyes had widened. “Part of me wants to punish you for all that. Part of me wants you to keep talking, keep digging your own grave with her.”

Aric exhaled wearily. “You’ve yet to understand what the truth is.”

“And what’s that?”

“Any harm I do to my pursuit of her is offset by my honesty. The Empress can handle anything but deception—because she must always know where she stands. She’s been like that since the beginning of time.”

He was right. I could handle losing some of my arm better than I could Jack’s lies to me: “No secrets. Except for how bad I want you.”

Jack wasn’t deterred. “Truth? Like how you told her about her mother—out of context? Bet you couldn’t wait to tell her that.”

“He didn’t, not for months,” I said. “And only when I put pressure on him.”

Aric moved in closer to me. “Had I done the same to her mother—and I would have without hesitation—the Empress would’ve heard of it firsthand.” In a tone as old as ages, Death said, “Mortal, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years, it’s this: lies are curses you place on yourself.”

My lips parted. In that moment, I remembered why I’d started falling in love with Aric.

Inner shake. If only he’d learned in all his years not to coerce women into sex.

As if he’d read my mind (though I hadn’t felt his presence there), Aric asked Jack, “Do you know why she left me that night?”

“To rescue me!”

“I told her I could easily free you if she slept with me. I pushed her, and instead of surrendering to me, she drugged me to escape. So if you think I could ever get that woman to do something she truly doesn’t want to, you’re as mistaken about her as I was.”

Jack appeared to be grinding his molars. “And you tell me this too?”

“I take no actions that I wouldn’t publicly recount. If you can’t speak your deeds, then don’t do them.”