Dead of Winter Read Online Free PDF Page B

had surrounded me. I’d alternated between bouts of missing him and jolts of panic about his imprisonment.
    There’d been little sleep.
    â€œDo you want to go tonight?” I asked Matthew.
    He shrugged, like I’d asked him to go grab a slice. “Got stuff to do.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œStuff,” he answered, sounding like such a teenage boy.
    â€œWill you tell me about the Lovers? Anything at all?”
    â€œDuke and Duchess Most Perverse.” He lowered his voice even more. “Their card’s upside down. Reverse. Perverse.”
    â€œBut what does that mean?”
    He rocked forward and back. “Animus, animal passions, disharmony, conflict, jealousy. When they say love , they mean destroy . They want retribution because they chronicle and remember.”
    â€œWhat are their powers?”
    His rocking slowed. “They don’t use them as they have.”
    â€œWhat did you mean about smite, fall, mad, and struck?”
    He nodded. “Sometimes the world spins in reverse. Sometimes battles do too. The word carousel means little battle.”
    I nodded back as if that made sense. “Matthew, what will they do to Jack if I fail? Will they mesmerize him? Control his mind?”
    â€œThey are vain. They practice their craft. With sharp tools, they remove things, discard them, transform people. You begin as one thing and die as another.” A gust punctuated his low words.
    Chills skittered over me. Here we sat in a tree-house type structure, telling scary stories by lantern light. As kids used to.
    Post-apocalypse, all the stories were real.
    â€œYou don’t want to know more about their craft.” Matthew shivered. “ I didn’t. Power is your burden; knowledge is mine.”
    â€œWhat power?”
    â€œYou have more abilities now.”
    Though I grew weaker overall from lack of sunlight, I had learned a new skill.
    When I’d been in the gardens beneath Death’s home, preparing for the Devil’s attack, I’d unwittingly taken the knowledge of those plants into me—along with all their relatives.
    Before, I’d revived and controlled plants and trees, but I’d never known them. Now I could recreate them without seed; I could generate differing spores to make one sleep for a time—or forever. The same with the toxin on my lips.
    â€œPhytogenesis,” I said.
    â€œPhytogenesis,” he echoed solemnly.
    â€œDid you plan for me to fight Ogen? So I’d be among all that green as blood was spilling?” Trusting him is a free fall.
    â€œClaimed your crown yet?”
    My hundredth frown of the night. “Like on my card?” The Empress tableau and Tarot card depicted her/me with a crown of twelve brilliant stars. “Is that what you meant?”
    He stared at his hand. Subject closed.
    Okay . . . “Even when I fought Ogen, I spared Death and Lark. I controlled the red witch.” Matthew should give me props.
    â€œYou can muzzle her, but can you invoke?” Or none at all.
    Invoke the witch? “She comes out when I’m under attack.” Pain drew her in a hurry. Fury as well. “It’s kind of automatic. Why would I invoke her?”
    â€œJack is missing.”
    I sighed, resigned to letting him steer our conversation. “Yes, he is.”
    â€œYour heart aches again. His does too. Hopes. High. Dashed. Love. He reflects over his life.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œCrossroads and missed opportunities. He has more regrets than the very old. Wishes he’d never lied to you.”
    â€œSo do I.” He’d lied with as much skill as he read people. I rose and walked over to the lookout slot, scanning as if I could see him.
    Even though I feared I could never trust him again, I still loved him.
    â€œHe wishes he could have seen you just one last time.” Matthew’s tone turned sly. “I could show you his reflections.”
    Trespass