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Upstanding Tee frowned at my words. “We caught another accomplice outside of town. There are more of them.”
“So round them up.” You’re the new sheriff in town.
“A lot more. They were Teeth—under the command of the new Hierophant.” The monsters will just keep coming. “They targeted you as the unclean one, and they’ve vowed not to stop until you and all your children and their children are dead. No one you love is safe. So I need you to help me protect our family. Help us.” Tee was a proud man, as proud as his own father had been. For him to ask must be difficult.
But powers meant pain. How much could I be expected to withstand?
“There are masses of them, banding together.” The breeze ruffled Tee’s blond hair and swayed the oak limbs. “They’re threatening to take over Port Edwin.”
The idea of cannibals overrunning Circe’s shining port only stoked my fury. Yet the fact remained . . . “What can I do?”
“We’re going to unite with Brun and the rest of the Potentials to mobilize against them. You fought the real Hierophant, and you know those mines. I want you to ride with me.”
I glanced back at the graves. Not to join Aric and Jack? To rise with a hundred swords in my back? Though I hadn’t wanted to abandon Matthew, could he blame me now?
Hell, he might have planned for me to take my own life. I frowned.
Or to fight this new threat.
Tee continued, “When you first fell in love with Dad, you wished you had cut him loose so this game would never affect him. But you didn’t, and it did. Those men came here to end you and your children. Dad just jumped in the way.”
Deep inside me, the red witch blinked open her eyes and stretched. You rang?
Maybe I should ride out to meet one last foe. If I survived or if I died, my fate would be a kind of answer.
Tee pulled a piece of paper from his jacket. “I want you to read this. It’s my father’s letter to Dad.”
“Now?” Are you trying to send me over the edge? Still, I’d been curious about it. Jack had offered it to me not long after we’d completed Haven. I hadn’t felt strong enough to view it then.
“Could you possibly hurt worse?” Tee asked.
I accepted the worn parchment. It shook in my hands as all the world seemed to grow quiet for me.
Jack,
If you are reading this, then I’m gone—a fate you’ve probably wished on me a time or two, no, mortal? But then, if you’re reading this, I’m a mortal too.
We both knew I wasn’t coming home from that battle. The Spartans used to tell departing soldiers, “Come back with your shield—or on it.” (That’s how I heard it back then, an anecdote I think you will like.) I will be on mine or burned to ash.
At long last, I will have balanced the scales and paid all my dues. Because I will have given up heaven, my existence ended.
And your life’s journey will only be starting. How I envy you!
Yet now Jack’s had ended as well. Like a flash of Joules’s lightning. Time, you thief.
With my passing, I will be torn away from those dearest to me in all the world, so I am asking you to be a husband to my wife and a father to my son.
You alone must safeguard their lives and be there when they need you most. When my demise hurts Evie more than she can bear, you will bring her back—from me, from Death, from the dead.
Jack had. He’d given us everything! He’d deserved better than to be gunned down in cold blood.
He hadn’t died in grace—because some monster a thousand miles away had resurrected another monster’s insanity. My body vines stirred beneath my skin, and the pain was instant.
For once, I see the future as clearly as the Fool. You will be a devoted husband, a patient and loving father, and a great leader, helping the Empress usher in a new age. My son will grow to be your best friend, as I believe you and I must now be. Already a proud and adoring mother, Evie will spread word of the Arcana, bringing hope to those in need.
Hope? That wasn’t what the world needed from me. The world needed me to annihilate a cult—one that had been given paradise and chosen hell.
I’ve lived longer than anyone, and for all my everlasting years, I have observed people. Jackson Deveaux, you are the only man I’ve met who is worthy of this undertaking. Do you understand me? If old doubts creep in, know that of all the humanity I’ve witnessed, you are the best of us.
You are worthy.
Anyone who told you differently is but a memory.
Protect my family. Love them. Guide my son. One day, tell him about me.
