She snorted, then lowered her voice. “Tess told me he was raised on a secluded mountaintop, in some kind of Arcana monastery. His chroniclers were cultish wing-worshippers. They separated themselves from society for generations, waiting for him to be born.”
No wonder he was so outdated. “You said his books got destroyed?”
“Villagers tried to burn the cult, à la Frankenstein; the chronicles went up in smoke.”
Villagers had tried to burn me in a past life as well. They burn what they fear.
“Selena, I’m not asking you to nest with Gabriel. All you have to do is ask him really nice to fly us over.” I reached up to brush her silvery-blond hair back, tucking a silken lock behind her ear. “I miss lip gloss, and clearly you do too.”
“Shut it. I can’t believe I’m going along with this. I hate it when girls use their wiles. Normally, I’d just strangle him until he agreed.”
I sighed. “That’s plan B. Sometimes climbing ivy does that too.”
5
“Yo, Gabe!” Outside their tent, Selena cast me a glare for good measure. “I need to talk to you.”
He rushed out, flattening his black wings to duck under the tent flap. His long black hair was tied back in a ponytail. Like Lark, he had claws and a set of fangs. His eyes were leaf green.
He was a striking, if unusual-looking, guy.
“Selena,” he breathed, cheeks flushed. “Uh, and the Empress too.”
Why was I even here? As Matthew would say, “Nature and course. Love and bloom.”
“Greetings to you both.” He adjusted his suit coat. Must be a bitch to line up the slits in the back with the bases of his wings. “What is the issue at hand, ladies?”
Selena rolled her eyes. “You mean: what’s up?”
Wow, way to flirt. She was a regular coquette.
He nodded. “For me, I believe all things are best when pointed up.”
She and I blinked at him. Gentlemanly Gabriel probably had no idea his words sounded kind of dirty.
“Whatever.” Wasting no time, Selena said, “We’re going in to rescue J.D., and you’re going to help.”
He glanced over his shoulder and back. “Joules has already spoken on the subject. Our alliance will not—”
“I’m not asking your alliance,” she interrupted. “I’m asking you. All we need is transpo. You don’t have to do anything but fly us across the river.”
I recalled another of his talents—animal-like senses. “And to track Jack’s scent. It’d mean a lot to me, and so much to Selena.” I cast her a look.
“Yeah. It’d really mean a lot, Gabe,” she added, laying a hand on his muscular arm.
His lips parted, and his wings seemed to flutter uncontrollably. Wait, had he grimaced from the movement? Was something wrong with our transpo?
“Everything all right?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, just stared at the hand on his arm.
To her credit, Selena gave it a squeeze. “So we can count on you?”
When he remained undecided—or mind-boggled by her touch—I said, “Help us end the Lovers tonight.” Well, at least one of them.
Collecting himself, he said, “I thought you didn’t want to play the game, Empress.”
“I don’t. But I need time to figure out a way to stop it.” I pictured the game as a machine with cogs and wheels—that I longed to blow up. “The twins are going to keep coming after all of us.”
“What is your plan?”
“Finn disguises us. You fly us over. We march right into the Lovers’ camp. I fumigate their tent. Selena and I extract Jack.”
Gabriel was quiet for long moments.
With a glare, Selena removed her hand; at once, he said, “I shall assist you with more than transportation, as a full-fledged member of the team. But I have a condition.”
Full-fledged said the boy with wings. “Let’s hear it.”
“We go there to assassinate any Milovníci. Not to ask them to be in an alliance. Not to spare them.”
I totally agreed, but hadn’t thought he’d be this hard-core.
“We’ve talked to soldiers here about the general and his spawn. They must be stopped.”
“We’ll take them out,” I assured him.
He offered his claw-tipped hand, and we shook. “Joules will be displeased. I sense an AC/DC moment in my future.”
Huh? “Like the band?”
“No, like the currents. But I’ll handle him.”
“You do that,” Selena said. “Bring a bandanna for a spore mask and meet us at the watchtower. Midnight sharp.”
I frowned. “That’s hours away.”
“Their soldiers maintain a regular schedule,” she explained. “Like they do here. Reveille in the morning, even though there’s no daybreak. At midnight, most of the camp will be asleep.” To Gabriel, she said, “Don’t let any humans know what we’re planning.”
“Understood.”
I furtively kicked Selena’s boot; she straightened and said, “Oh. Thanks, Gabe. I won’t forget this.”
“It will be my pleasure, Selena. I look forward to it.” His eyes widened. “I mean, not that I am pleased about the occasion.”
Selena let him off the hook. “I look forward to kicking serial killer ass.”
He grinned. “Precisely.”
We started back toward Selena and Finn’s tent. Halfway there, she murmured, “I can’t believe he’s going against Joules! I would’ve bet my bow he’d refuse. My God, we might free J.D. tonight. Evie, if this works . . .” Though Selena was 100 percent, grade-A badass, her eyes glinted, a hairline fracture in her prickly façade. “If we get him back, you and I’ll be solid again.”
“Were we ever solid?” I was so different from her, and we’d hated each other at first. But we’d muddled along until we’d begun to rely on one another. And now she was lowering her guard a degree.
As soon as the thought occurred to me, her expression hardened. “In every game, the Archer has an arrow for the Empress.”
I exhaled. “Yeah, yeah, I remember.”
“In this game, I might have misplaced it.” Shoulders squared, she turned from me.
As she strode away, I realized two things:
That’s the closest she’ll ever come to telling me we’re friends.
I’ll take it.
6
“Battle comes for the Empress.”