I frowned at him. “What orders?”

“He’s in charge now. In his messages, Deveaux promised to lead the white hats among us, the good guys who protect people in need.”

“Thanks, Franklin. I’ll tell him you asked after him.” When the man strode off, I turned to Selena. “In charge? Why would Jack entangle himself in all this? To help total strangers?” He’d protested whenever I’d done the same, insisting that we could only worry about ourselves and our own survival.

“When he assumes command here, we can liberate the other half.”

“That sounds like a ton of responsibility.”

Selena nodded. “He’s different now.”

I wanted her to unpack that comment, but other looky-loo soldiers clustered around us. When they stared at me and Selena, Joules wandered back our way, producing another javelin.

He paced, twirling it menacingly. Guarding us? “Oi! You wanna ride the lightning, my friend?” His electrified skin sparked in the drizzle.

“These soldiers can’t get enough Arcana,” Selena said. “Guys who handle lightning and girls who grow vines. Flying angels.”

“No one here saw me grow vines. Well, they did. But only before we went back in time.” Again, a sentence I never thought I’d say. “What a night.” My brain felt like mush. Like it was limping along. “Did you know any of the stuff about me and the Lovers? Were they telling the truth about the last game?”

“They weren’t lying.”

“That might’ve been good to know before I went in there to face them.” Why hadn’t Death told me?

She shrugged. “I considered telling you, but I didn’t want you to chicken out just because some army-backed serial killers planned to mutilate and murder you.”

Right. “How can you know for sure what I did back then?”

“It’s in my chronicles. In past games, the Archer would travel with an entire contingent, like war correspondents. They saw the Lovers’ remains. Definitely had the Empress’s stamp.”

The red witch’s stamp.

Selena examined her swollen arm. “Matthew should’ve told you this stuff. He should’ve warned J.D. about getting captured. How about a heads-up about the Priestess?”

“You can’t blame him. He’s doing the best he can. And maybe he tells us everything we need to know, but we fail at understanding.” Like I had when he’d told me about Tess manipulating time.

“How’d you fight the Priestess, anyway?”

“She sent water tentacles, so I choked them with my vines.”

“Tentacles? Evie, she could’ve swept you into the river like a guppy. Or crushed you with a tsunami. She was playing with you.”

Every time I identified the very last card we’d ever have to kill, another one popped up.

As if reading my mind, Selena asked, “You still think we can end all this?”

In a hushed voice, I said, “There isn’t a trues over here, and we’re worth four icons between us. But neither Joules nor Gabriel targeted us.”

“I can’t tell who’s crazier—you, for continuing to believe we can end the game, or me, for starting to believe you,” she said. “I never imagined someone like you would be a leader, other than a cheerleader.”

“Post-apocalypse, doesn’t everyone need to evolve?”

She raised her face to the intermittent rain. “Jesus, Evie, what if it catches on? What if we could all live in peace? Use these powers for good?”

I’d had the same thought! “We could repurpose ourselves.” Fight freaking crime, anything.

“If evil Arcana don’t get in our way.” Selena faced me. “Speaking of which, what’s going on between you and Death?”

Between us? My escape and his sword. According to the twins: burgeoning love.

Since I’d left him, Death hadn’t telepathically contacted me, hadn’t overtaken me on the road. What if he . . . couldn’t? “I learned more about my history with him. This won’t be news to you, but Aric had reason to hate me.”

“You call Death Aric?” she spat. “So that murderer has a human name?”

“It’s not all black and white,” I insisted. “I came to care for him.”

She looked more disgusted by me than she had by the Lovers’ making out. “If I see him, I will put an arrow in his heart.”

“Good luck with that. Last time, your arrows disintegrated against his armor.”

“You actually give a damn about him? Up is down and down is up. What about J.D.?”

“I haven’t been able to think past a rescue. Now I’ll take some time and sort things out in my head.” Once I got some rest. I’d had only a few hours over days.

“J.D. wasn’t the only one who’s changed in the last three months. Things between us are different.”

After Jack had thought I was lost for good, had he given Selena what she wanted most in this world?

Himself?

Something like grief swamped me. I’d wanted him far away from this sick game. If he’d then gotten with another card . . . ?

It had never, never occurred to me that Jack might not want me back, might not be clamoring to tell me his side of the story. “Wh-what changed then?”

Before she could answer, the angel landed once more. “Jack is with the physician.”

“Thank you, Gabriel.”