I knelt beside him. The man looked gaunt, like he hadn’t eaten since I’d last seen him. “Kentarch, we gotta go! Gabe’s a friendly now. So why doan you and I hitch a ride out of here?”
His lips drew back from his teeth. “Never. This is the end for me. You two leave this place.”
If I pushed too hard, he might pull that gun at his side. Silly me had convinced him to practice with his left hand after he’d lost the right. “It’s time, podna. Let’s take her and bury her.”
“This is where she died. She waited for me here. She believed I would come back and save her. This is where I will die—with her. The whisper of my hope lied!”
Gabe paced at the balcony doors. “They are at the railing.” Wings flared, he marched out to meet them, tearing through them with his talons. I heard the gory details—gurgling growls and bodies hitting the floor.
I told Kentarch, “This ain’t the way. You want to die to be with Issa? Then do it clean. Baggers could turn you.” Evie hadn’t turned, but other Arcana might. “Then you’ll live forever as one of them. At best, they’ll mute your power and eat you alive.”
“So? I deserve that and more. Leave us!” Attention back on Issa, he blocked out me and the danger all around us.
Gabe returned, out of breath, wings quaking from his efforts. “Too many have breached. We must go now!”
No time to reach Kentarch. I had one last play, had used it on coo-yôn. Desperate times . . .
I aimed my scarred fist and launched a punch at his face. Like hitting a brick wall, but Kentarch went down, unconscious. “Gabe, take him.” I shook out my right hand. “Come back for me.”
“No time. I will take you both.”
“And her too.” I lifted Issa’s corpse in my arms.
Gabe cast me a disbelieving look.
“We gotta have Kentarch—which means we bring her.”
“Very well. I will clear as much room as I can.” With Kentarch’s limp body in his arms, Gabe sprinted for the balcony doors, wings mowing down Baggers, decapitating them, but their heads still lived. As I ran after Gabe, they snapped their teeth at my boots.
Once he’d cleared a launchpad, he motioned for me with his free hand. “Come.”
With Issa clutched close, I lunged for Gabe. He grabbed us all and vaulted upward.
Clear—
Pressure on my legs??
A trio of Bagmen had leapt over the railing and snagged me! I kicked with all my might, but they were enormous, dressed in tattered football uniforms—full gear and helmets. Washington Commanders. By the size of them, they’d been first goddamned string.
One’s grip blocked my thigh holster. Couldn’t reach my crossbow. Gabe strained his wings against the sudden weight.
“Doan drop us, Archangel!” To the closest Bagger, I yelled, “Sol, we’re Evie’s allies!”
The thing snapped its teeth. Facemask saved me from a bite.
“Sol, lay off. Get your man to let me go!” Another blocked bite. The Sun Card might be controlling this swarm, but he wasn’t melding his senses with this particular Bagger—
Gabe flew sideways into a neighboring high-rise, bashing the creatures and my legs; my bad one sang. But it scraped off the zombie between me and my bow.
With my free hand, I snared my weapon and plugged one through its facemask. It flailed before it died, tearing the other one off on its way down.
Shed of the extra weight, Gabe shot higher like a snapped rubber band. I barely kept hold of Issa—or the contents of my stomach.
He banked hard in the winds, then righted us. “Apologies. They were unexpectedly heavy.” His descent was slow and steady, as if to make up for all the turbulence. He set me on my feet by the truck as gently as a babe in the cradle, and I managed not to vomit.
After laying Kentarch in the back, he took Issa’s body from me while I doubled over to catch my breath.
Joules charged toward us, sparking mad. “What happened to Tarch? Was he bit? What’d you let happen to him?”
I held up a finger—a fucking minute, man—then said, “Non. Not bit. A tap to the jaw.”
“You brought the body?”
“He’d never accept it if we didn’t, would just teleport back here. We’re goan to find somewhere for him to bury her. Get some closure.”
Eyes bleary, Joules shook his head. “When he comes to, he’ll be right wild on you.”
“I’ll make him see reason.” I sounded so sure. In truth, I didn’t like our chances.
And without Kentarch, Domīnija’s plan to save the world would be over before it began.
5
The Hunter
I wished this was the first grave I’d had to dig since the Flash.
Or that it’d be the last.
Gabe had joined me down here in the frozen ground, using his superhuman strength to out-shovel me.
I’d driven to Arlington National Cemetery, the only place I could think of. I didn’t figure Kentarch would want to bury Issa in a foreign country’s military cemetery, but we could offer him at least one option when he came to.
In the nearby truck, he remained unconscious, and Joules slept on, exhausted from fending off Baggers for the better part of a week.
Before he’d passed out, we’d filled him in on everything that had happened in Jubilee and with the Hanged Man, and Joules had told us about the last month with Kentarch. . . .
“He took me out in the Ash, still barmy, still believin’ he just needed to find Issa. So I said we should check the penthouse, see if she’d returned. Bloody mistake, that. Everything came floodin’ back, and Tarch just gave up. I couldn’t budge his barricade, so I was trapped. Then the Baggers showed.”
I’d decided to let Joules in on Domīnija’s secret plan to take out Richter. The Tower’s take: “For once, I agree with Death. That’s the only way. So you had better hope Tarch doesn’t zoom out of your grasp, laddie.”
Now I paused with my shovel, gauging the depth. “This ought to do it.”
Gabe effortlessly leapt out of the deep grave and reached down to haul me up. “Do you believe this will appease the Chariot?”
“Non. But it’s the best idea I had.” I glanced at Issa’s covered body beside the grave and felt sorry as hell for what Kentarch was going through. If I’d lost Evie in such a way, I’d have lost my mind too.
With a nod, Gabe collected our shovels and stowed them in the Beast. Then he dug for food.
I swiped sweat from my forehead and glanced around the area. A deathly guy like Domīnija would enjoy so many blackened gravestones. Corpses lay smattered among the markers, probably loved ones who’d checked out here after the Flash.
Would they go to hell? Was there a hell? Knowing that the Arcana reincarnated and gods existed had totaled my beliefs.
I scratched my head. Maybe more than the players reincarnated. Could a civvy like me find Evie in some distant future?
The phone pinged. I hurried to the truck, hoping she’d sent a message, though she hadn’t yet. Somehow I knew she wouldn’t.
Domīnija: Evie asks if you’ve tried to communicate with Sol through a Bagman.