He pulled me even closer against him, coaxing me to kiss back. I'd missed him so much! With a moan I did, wrapping my arms around his neck.
He groaned with pleasure--and relief?
I melted from the heat of his body against mine, trying to breathe him into me. We'd only been together once. We deserved another time like our first. He deserved to feel at peace afterward.
What was to stop us . . . ?
Death. What I'd done with Aric. To Aric.
Somehow I managed to draw back. "I have to talk to you." I would explain, make him understand.
He leaned in, pressing kisses to my neck in his toe-curling way. "I missed you, Evangeline. So goddamned much. When you wanted nothing to do with me . . ." He gave a shuddering exhalation against my damp skin. "Thought I'd go mad, me."
More kisses, more heat, more confusion.
This time with him felt momentous, as if I were about to step onto a path I could never leave.
Path?
"Ah, honeysuckle." He loosened his grip from my hair. "You missed me too, peekon." He laid his hands on either side of my neck, tilting my head up with his thumbs so our gazes met. "I'd do it all over to have you back."
He would allow himself to be tortured and branded just to be with me? "Jack . . ."
He took my lips again. Before I knew it, we'd gone tripping to his cot, and his body felt so right covering mine, his lean hips between my thighs.
Between kisses, he murmured, "Douce comme du miel." Sweet like honey. His voice was smoldering.
"I . . . I . . ." Couldn't grasp what I'd been about to say. Too busy helping him remove my shirt?
My glyphs shimmered wildly, lighting the tent more than the fire. His big rough hands covered my breasts, squeezing, heating my flesh through my silk bra. I cried out, bowing my back for more. When I rubbed against his palms, he gave a husky groan that sent shivers all over me.
He leaned down, kissing my neck to my chest, following the movements of my glyphs. Between my breasts. Across them. "You belong to me, Evangeline." Kiss. "With me." Flick of his tongue. "And I belong to you." He took one of my hands, entwining his fingers with mine, gazing up at my face. "Think about you so damned much, about this. Je t'aime. I love you. Always will."
I glanced away from his heartbreaking face. "But I have to tell you . . ." I trailed off.
A weird alertness spiked inside me. My heart had been racing before. Now it pounded because something was wrong. Something was coming.
Someone.
I pressed Jack away, rising to my feet.
"What is it?" he asked. "I was moving too fast? We can go slower."
"It isn't you." I pulled my shirt back on. "I've got to see about something."
"Where you goan? I'm coming with you."
"No!" I whirled around with my hand up. "Will you just wait here? Please, for once." I left him sitting with a confounded look on his face.
Outside, a dense fog bank had rolled in, the night like a chamber with all the air sucked out of it. As I walked from the tent, I felt out of body, floating toward an inevitable drop-off.
I peered through the fog. Matthew awaited near the gates. They were already open?
My stomach lurched. What had he done?
Through the murk, an outline of a rider emerged, dressed in black armor.
Death was here. He'd gotten past the minefield, inside the wall!
And I had no idea what he would do.
My glyphs shimmered for a completely different reason, reflecting off the mist. I clawed my palms and seeded protection, vines slowly rising up to flank me. Too slowly. With no sun, I hadn't recharged from my last battle!
As he neared, the details of his appearance grew clearer. His close-fitting armor outlined his broad shoulders, his muscular legs and arms. He rode tall and proud--so noble astride his ghostly red-eyed stallion.
When my vines twined toward the sky, Death's gaze landed on me.
His eyes began to glow. Like my glyphs, his glowing eyes indicated high emotion--or aggression.
Light was spilling through the grille of his menacing helmet.
Fog embraced us as that last night with him washed over me. . . .
When we reached the edge of his bed, I tried once more to talk him out of this. "Please, think about what you're doing! You're coercing me to sleep with you. How can you be right with that?"
He gripped my waist and lifted me with ease, laying me on his bed. Though his palms were sword-roughened, his fingers were elegant, reverent. "It's more than merely bedding you. If you surrender to me, you will be mine alone. My wife in truth. I will do anything to have that. Anything to have you."
When he followed me down, my hands pressed against his bare, tattooed chest. Those black slashing marks told our story, a constant reminder for him never to trust me. But I'd earned his trust.
Was I about to break it again? "Just let me go, Aric. Let me leave this place. I vow I'll come back."
"Never, little wife. I'll never let you go."
My lids grew heavy when his muscles moved beneath my palms. His scent--sandalwood, pine, masculine--weakened my will like a drug, quelling the heat of battle inside me. Still I managed to say: "This won't work out as you plan."
"Won't it?" He smoothed my hair behind my ear. "I believe any outcome will be better than losing the sole woman on earth I can be with. The one that I now love. That's a fairly steep downside."
Love. "I won't necessarily be lost. But if you do this, I will be."
His lips curled. So sensual, so gorgeous. He knew how much he was affecting me. "With enough time, I can coax you from your anger. I did once before."
His head inched closer, amber eyes intent.
Resist him, resist . . .
He took my mouth with his, muddling my thoughts, making me forget all the things I needed to remember. He deepened the contact until our tongues met. With each of his wicked flicks, my body arched to his, as if he were in control of it.
Though he didn't speak, he was still communicating with me through his kiss. He was reminding me that he'd never free me. He was telling me to accept him.
To surrender.
I could so easily get lost in this man, in what he offered. When I moaned, he drew back, his lids hooded. "There. That's better." He began removing my clothes with his supernatural speed. "Just let me see you . . . touch you."
Once he'd stripped me of everything but my panties, he stared at my body, eagerness stamped in every tense line of his. "Empress . . ." he groaned, leaning down to lavish kisses all over my breasts, those elegant fingers kneading me.
His lips closed over a hardened peak; my eyes nearly rolled back in my head. When he moved to my other breast, my cry was so sharp, the sound startled me out of this haze.
Resist, Evie! If I lost control, I could lose . . . myself.
The thought sliced through my desire, triggering the toxin on my lips. If he wouldn't release me, I'd take my freedom.
So I grasped Aric's face, pulling him in to kiss me, which he eagerly did. Over and over.
At length, he drew back to tug my panties down. "I want to taste you again. I think about it constantly." With his strength, he must be taking pains not to rip the lace. "Ah, and you need me too."
When I lay naked before him, his amber eyes glittered like stars. Pinpoints of light mesmerized me. "So lovely, sieva. My gods, you humble me." He gave me one of his rare unguarded smiles. "This is joy I feel, is it not?"
I wanted to sob.
His fingers descended, seeking, touching me with reverence. "Tonight you'll take me into you," he rasped. "You'll belong to me alone."
Yet then his eyes narrowed. "Roses?" He released me.
My scent had changed. Sleep now, Death.
"What have you done, creature?"
I scrambled away from him, snatching my shirt over my head. "I came to you for help. You offered me coercion."
He shot back from me, but his movements were clumsy, my toxin already working. He made it to his knees,
reaching toward the side of the bed, struggling to get to something.
Surely he wasn't grasping for one of the swords in a nearby stand?
Before he could reach it, his limbs failed him, and he collapsed on the mattress. He managed to turn his head toward me, his hands balling into fists. "And still . . . I should have expected this. Your poison kiss. Again." His expression was devastated. "You'd kill me before you ever accepted me."
"Kill you? You're just going to sleep!" I stood, squaring my shoulders. "After all we've been through, murder is your first conclusion? And your first reaction is to stab me?" I waved at his sword, my heart breaking.
Clearly things hadn't changed between us as much as I'd thought. "I vowed I would never hurt you, Aric. Other Arcana promised to save Jack if I took your life, but I refused."
Once more he tried to reach for his weapon, seeming to will his muscles to move. Would he even now take my head if he had the chance? He'd done it twice before.
"So help me gods, sieva, you . . . will . . . pay. . . ." His lids slid shut, concealing his anguished eyes. His spellbinding face was free of tension, his body defenseless.
Fresh from his bed, I disbelieved my own sight. He couldn't have been reaching for his sword. He'd never hurt me. But if I left him when he was so vulnerable and someone else got to him, I'd be responsible. His guard dog was dead. The wolves remained with Lark. Anyone could steal into the castle.
A sense of protectiveness surged inside me. I dressed, then started to barricade his bedroom door, planning to climb from his second-story window.
I rationalized with each of my actions. He's always a target for other Arcana. I dragged over practice swords. He wouldn't hurt me. He wouldn't! I lugged over armor. He was reaching for something else. I wedged a shield under the door handle. He loves me.
So why had he tried to coerce me? Why had he vowed to make me pay?
My protectiveness faded, the red witch rising. So much for your soul-deep connection, she whispered. He's worth FIVE icons.
Rule of thumb: if a man has beheaded you on more than one occasion and he reaches for his sword . . .
Now he'd come for me, to make me pay. A knighted grim reaper.
I stared in awe, marveling that I'd had the strength to leave him, to poison him. When I hadn't heard from him in days, I'd worried that I'd given him too much, had hurt him. Worry for nothing.
Soldiers stopped and gaped. In the last two hours, both Aric and Jack had ridden through those gates. Where Jack had commanded respect, Death elicited pure fear.
I spied the outline of a giant wolf beside Death's armored warhorse. Cyclops padded along, his maw filled with body parts from the stone forest.
That beast had led Death through the minefield! Or Lark had. She hadn't sent me extra protection because she cared about me. She'd dispatched a spy.
Still gazing at me, Death drew one of his swords. No!
The scent of roses flooded the air as my vines tensed and grew. My claws dripped poison, my barbs at the ready.
But he could cut through my vines, and his armor repelled most of my other powers. If he wanted me dead, I was about to be. Unless . . .
Three other Arcana hastened into the foggy courtyard.
"The bloody Reaper!" Joules cried, just as Jack bellowed from behind me, "Evie!"
Then all hell broke loose.
18
"I'll fry you!" Joules yelled.
Gabriel sped past me toward some target? Jack?
Cyclops sprang in front of Aric, crouching at the ready.
Ashen and shaking, Matthew muttered Tredici over and over. Tess ducked behind him and began to cry. Soldiers scurried from the fray.
Joules's skin sparked in the mist as he hefted one of his javelins.
My gaze darted back to Death. The knight's armored shoulders rose and fell, a weary exhalation. For him, this was just another day, another icon to harvest from an Arcana. Or from several of us.
When the Tower hurled his spear, Aric turned his helmeted head from me. Faster than lightning his sword flashed out. Metal on metal clanged, and the javelin sailed over the fort's walls. Lightning forked out and an explosion sounded in the distance.
Joules howled with frustration.
"Who the fuck let him in?" Jack yelled. Gabriel had intercepted him, holding him back from certain death. "Evie, get the hell away from him!"
"Why have you come, Aric?"
Again, Death turned to me. "To do what I always end up doing with you."
He always ended up . . . killing me.
He reached up and removed that menacing helmet. As ever, the Endless Knight was hypnotically beautiful, with his collar-length blond hair framing chiseled features and radiant amber eyes.
In his deep raspy voice, he said, "I always end up forgiving you."
My lips parted. What?
"Choke on this, Reaper!" Joules hurled another spear.
Aric deflected it, this time without gazing away from me--as if his starry eyes were greedy for the sight of me.
"Forgive?" I finally managed to say. "You promised to make me pay!"
"I intend to, Empress, but not in the way you're thinking." His accented words were loaded with innuendo.
"How can I believe that? Right before I knocked you out, you went for your sword!"
His blond brows drew together. "I was reaching for a vial of antitoxin. I'd had it formulated before the Flash, in the hope of neutralizing your poisons. I've always wondered if it would work."
Antitoxin? Confusion rocked me. "B-but we've fought each other so many times. And you . . . you always win."
Another javelin; another sword parry.
"Evie, you get away from him!" Jack bellowed.
"You know well that I would never be able to harm you," Aric chided, "even should I have wanted to. Just as you refuse to hurt me. Twice now you could've killed me. This last time, you took pains to protect me."
"But you . . . and then . . . your sword?"
He gazed at me with infinite patience. "Never again, sieva."
I stared into his eyes, that soul-deep sense of connection sweeping over me. Oh, dear gods, I . . . believed him.
I had to defuse this situation before anyone got hurt. The trues! But Matthew couldn't paint his blood on Death's lethal skin. Could I use the Gamekeeper's blood? I ran to Matthew.
He was already slashing his arm. "True-hearted," he whispered. "For now."
I drew my forefinger across his wound, then hurried to Aric.
"Don't you feckin' do it, Empress!" Before I could reach Death, Joules fired again.
Aric deflected, his voice booming in the night: "I begin to tire of this, Tower."
"Aric, let me paint your hand!"
He sheathed his sword and dismounted with that eerie grace. Spurs ringing, he strode to me and removed one spiked gauntlet.
"Nooo!" Joules yelled.
I drew a red line across Aric's icons.
At the touch, he shuddered with bliss, lids gone heavy, eyes ablaze.
"Get away!" Jack had broken free from Gabriel, was fearlessly charging for Aric. Jack's bravery was like a living thing inside him--always wanting to be freed.
"Stop!" I rushed to head him off, but he shoved me behind his back, standing up to Aric. The two were about the same height, gazes locked.
"You can't fight Death," I cried. "He's part of the trues."
"I'm not Arcana," Jack bit out.
"Drunk and no sword?" Aric sneered. "This isn't even sporting."
Jack tensed, all his muscles swelling. Because he was about to attack. He smiled a chilling smile. I'd seen it before. An animal baring its teeth. He was about to launch himself at Death, his anvil-like fists swinging.
"Jack, you can't hit him! You can't touch his skin and survive! The only reason he's facing you with no helmet is to bait you." I turned to Aric. "If you hurt him, you will pay!"
He donned his gauntlet. "I have no intention of aggressing anyone here, love. I arrive on a simple er
rand, now that you've completed yours."
"Errand?"
In a casual tone, he said, "I've come to take my wife home."
19
Jack's head jerked back as if he'd been struck with a sledgehammer.
A guttural bellow erupted from his chest. He swung for Death.
I screamed, but Aric blocked the hit with his armored wrist.
The knight stared into Jack's eyes. "I always recognize a death wish. Do you want to die, mortal? I can oblige you."
Death wish? "Stop this!" I tried to get between them. "You can't touch him!"
Jack's bruised face was red with rage. "Might be worth it just to knock that snide look off your face!"
"The Empress is right. One touch is all it takes. Well, at least for everyone but her." He gazed down at me. "As was meant to be, sieva." He seemed amused by all this, as if he'd just arrived at festivities.
In a blur, Jack's hand shot up, a pistol pointed at Aric's head.
My chest contracted, lungs robbed of air.
Aric had accelerated healing, but even he wouldn't survive a bullet to the brain. If anything happened to him . . . Now that I knew he hadn't come here to hurt me, confusing feelings overwhelmed me.
Panic, that sense of protectiveness, an ache in my heart--
Jack cocked the weapon, pressing the barrel against Aric's forehead. "One reason."
While I struggled to breathe, Aric's gaze reluctantly moved from me to Jack. And still, Death looked amused. "Because she'll never forgive you for it."
"Take him out, hunter!" Joules yelled. "Pull the bloody trigger!"
I laid my hand on Jack's arm. "Put down the gun." Nothing. "If you do this, we can never come back from it."
On the razor's edge, he turned to me. "What the hell is he talking about? Wife? WIFE? "
"It's complicated," I repeated.
That muscle ticked in his jaw. "I can goddamn keep up, Evangeline!"
"I will explain everything to you, if you come with me back to the tent." If Jack shot Aric, they would both be dead to me. Tears pricked my eyes. "P-please, I'm asking you to do this for me."
"You expect me to let him loose in my camp? Do you give a damn that he wants to kill me?"
"He won't."
"How can you be so sure?"
I gazed at Aric as I said, "If he hurts you in any way, he knows I will never stop hating him." Back to Jack. "Please. Talk to me--away from here."
He must've heard the dread in my voice. Finally, he uncocked the gun, lowering it. He cast Aric a murderous look, then stormed away. I followed, glaring at the knight over my shoulder.