For over an hour, I rode, checking the radio’s reception at every rise. Uninterrupted static.
I thought I spied a snowflake, wafting down like a petal. Probably just more ash—
No, there was another. And another. Real snow! This had to be a good sign. If the world couldn’t yet improve, at least it could change.
If the sun could disappear, it could reappear.
I tried the radio again. Nothing.
The flakes grew into a flurry. Soon a layer of snow stuck to the ground, painting it white. Did the air feel fresher? Fluffy down blanketed soot, and I welcomed it, even as riding became precarious.
Was Aric seeing the snow? Did it remind him of his childhood home in the north? I could scarcely comprehend that I would never see him again.
Every other minute, a snowflake would hit one of my eyes directly, the sting blurring my vision. I would blink to clear my eyes, and a detail from one of my last encounters with Death would blossom in my mind.
His hooded gaze as he’d said, “Can you comprehend what it’s like to touch her after so long without? For this bliss, I’ll risk the bullet. I’ll take a bullet.”
Blink.
The way his hands had shaken when he’d held me, as if I was the most delicate and precious thing in the entire world. “. . . you must know that you have my love. It’s given, sieva–. Wholly entrusted to you. Have a care with it.”
Blink.
His murmurs late in the night: “There’s so much about the game I could teach you. So much about life you could teach me. Let’s begin this, little wife.”
Blink. Blink. Blink. My tears mingled with crystalline snow. . . .
Time passed, the landscape becoming rockier, icier, white fluff obscuring the trail.
I passed an abandoned mine entrance—never welcome—and increased my speed even more. How long had I gone without checking the radio? I urged the mare up a steep grade. “Go, go!” At the top, I pressed the talk button. “Jack? Please answer me!”
“Evie? . . . can’t . . . you.”
“I’m coming for you!” Down the slippery hill I went, the mare’s hooves skidding on ice. Spurring the horse, I crested a higher rise. “Can you hear me?”
From this vantage, I could see the army in the far distance! They’d descended into a valley. The lights of the slow-moving convoy looked like a glowworm wending through the snowy dark. But I didn’t see a trail down.
“Bébé? Where are you?”
“I can see the Azey trucks! I’m on the rise looking over the valley!”
“You coming with me, peekôn?” he rasped. “For true, you chose Ole Jack?”
“Like you could get rid of me that easily, Cajun.” I grinned madly, convinced I’d made the right decision. “I don’t ever want to be apart again.”
I heard Selena in the background saying, “Told you it would work, dumbass.” She sounded like her eye-rolling self. As ever, she was by his side, watching his six. “We should go get her before she breaks her stupid neck.”
I’d better get used to the Archer, because apparently, she’d be living in New Acadiana with me and Jack, Matthew and Gran. “I can ride to you.” I held my hand over my eyes, squinting against the snow. “Just tell me the best way down.”
“Non, you stay put!” Jack quickly said. “The way’s icy. I know where you are; we’re coming to you!”
“Okay, I’ll be here.” I couldn’t stop smiling. This was why we fought to survive. For love.
Vincent had it all wrong. I’d had it wrong. Love wasn’t the most destructive force in the universe.
Love is the universe. That is the point.
Between breaths, Jack said, “So this is snow, huh?” He’d never seen it before.
Excitement bubbled up, and I started laughing. I pressed the radio button. “Isn’t it amazing? Everything looks clean.”
Over his mount’s pounding hoofbeats, he said, “Still can’t believe you’re coming with me. I’m goan to take you home, Evangeline Greene!” The joy in his voice sent my heart soaring. “Goddamn, I love you, woman.”
I parted my lips to finally say those three words—
—QUAKE BEFORE ME.—
I jerked in the saddle. Arcana call?
Dread spiked inside me. “Jack!” I cried into the radio. “The Emperor’s here! You’ve got to get away!”
BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions, one after another, rocked that snowy valley. A split second later . . .
The white ground turned black in an outward surge. A blast of heat.
A scorching shockwave slammed me, seared my face. Flung me off the horse. I hurtled through the air. Landed on the back of the rise.
I plummeted down the slope, clutching the radio, screaming for Jack.
How far had he ridden? A rock sliced my head. Was he outside the blast? The air turned to sulfur. How far?
I crashed face-first into a boulder. Bone snapped. The radio shattered. Quakes hammered the ground.
Blood sprayed from my mouth as I screamed, “Jack!” I struggled to my hands and knees. I crawled up the shuddering hill.
My vision was blurred . . . sight couldn’t be right. Smoke rose in a mushroom plume, as if from a nuclear bomb.
Had he escaped? I shrieked, “JACK!”
I made the rise. Sheer will to stand. I gazed into the valley.
At hell.
Flumes of lava spewed from the ground. Flames so hot they consumed rock. From the two mountain peaks, more lava poured, filling that valley. A seething red pool where the army used to be.
Fighting realization: Jack was down there. “No, NO!” Vines sprang from the ground, following me as I ran toward the firestorm. The heat blistered me even from this distance.
Just before I reached a curtain of red, an arm seized me around my waist.
Death stood behind me? He’d ridden after me?
Between heaving breaths, Aric said, “You can’t . . . save the mortal. The Emperor . . . advances. We leave—now.”
“NO! I have to get to Jack!” I fought, but Aric snatched me against his chest. I clawed at his armor, at the scalding metal. “Let me go to him! Let me GO!” Nothing would keep me from Jack. My vines coiled around Death, trying to pry loose his viselike hold on me.
“Flames will kill you!”
“I don’t care, don’t care! You want Jack dead! You want me not to save him! I can find him!”
Death gripped my shoulders, shaking me till my head rolled. He twisted me around toward the valley. “Do you see any signs of life? No human could’ve survived this!”