Extraits

The Magician (I)

Finneas, Master of Illusions

“Don’t look at this hand, look at that one.”

A.k.a.: The Trickster

Powers: Illusion creation and casting. Hallucikinesis, reality distortion, conjurations, and invocations.

Special Skills: Surfing.

Weapons: None.

Tableau: A young man wearing a red robe, holds a wand skyward while pointing to the ground with his free hand. On a table before him lies a pentagram, a chalice, a sword, and a cane. A bed of roses and lilies grow at his feet, vines trailing above.

Icon: Ouroboros.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: Speaks a mysterious magician language when he conjures illusions.

Before Flash: “Problem” kid from California, sent to visit his extended family.

The Moon (XVIII)

Selena Lua, Bringer of Doubt

“Behold the Bringer of Doubt.”

A.k.a.: The Huntress, La Luna

Powers: Pathokinesis (emotion manipulation). Can cause doubt and use moonlight as a lure. Enhanced speed, endurance, senses, dexterity, healing. Precise aiming and superhuman archery.

Special Skills: Motorcycling, marksmanship.

Weapons: Longbow, sword, firearms, whatever’s handy.

Tableau: A glowing goddess of the hunt with red-tinged skin, poised in moonlight.

Icon: Quarter moon superimposed over a full moon.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: Skin glows red like a hunter’s moon.

Before Flash: Motocross champion, Olympic archery hopeful, and college student who just moved away from her aunts’ home.

The Empress (III)

Evangeline “Evie” Greene, Our Lady of Thorns

“Come, touch . . . but you’ll pay a price.”

A.k.a.: The Poison Princess, Phyta, the May Queen, the Queen of Thorns, Mistress of Flora, Lady Lotus. Sievā (to Death) and peekôn (to Jack).

Powers: Can create, shape, and control plants and trees. Can deliver poisons through her claws and lips, and spores from her hair and hands. Chlorokinetic scrying (can perceive through plants). Regeneration.

Special Skills: Mesmerizing.

Weapons: Plants, trees, poisonous spores, thorn tornados.

Tableau: A woman sitting upon a throne with her arms open wide, wearing a poppy-red gown and a crown with twelve stars; her hair is strewn with poppies, vines, and strands of red. White roses surround her throne, and the rolling hills behind her are awash in green and red—from both crops and blood.

Icon: White rose.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: Hair turns red, and fingernails morph into thorn claws. Glyphs on her skin glow from green to gold, each one representing a weapon in her arsenal.

Before Flash: A cheerleader at Sterling High in Louisiana. The night before Day 0, her sixteenth birthday party was broken up by the sheriff’s department.

Lethe Castle

Day 0

Of course hers would be the last icon to fade. The rose symbol.

In the shower, I stare at the back of my right hand. Of the twenty-one icons that have marked my skin for so long, only fragments remain of the rose that represented the great Empress’s life.

I took this icon when I beheaded her. For centuries, I have stared at it with a mixture of fury, guilt, and yearning.

It connected me to her. Spoiler(cliquez pour révéler)My wife.

Whenever the beginning of our lethal game nears, the icons borne by the winner fade. Telepathic Arcana calls start to sound. We are on the brink.

Anticipation strains even my eternal patience. I will capture this new reincarnation of the Empress and make her pay.

At last.

I have waited 677 years, 3 months, and 13 days for this time to come.

Death (XIII)

Aric Domīnija, the Endless Knight, Reigning Arcana Champion

Unspecified call

A.k.a.: The Reaper, Tredici

Powers: Touch of Death (can kill with contact). Death awareness (can sense dead things and approaching death). Superhuman speed, strength, endurance, dexterity, senses, healing. Controlled telepathy.

Special Skills: Gifted horseman, unmatched swordsman.

Weapons: Swords, scythe, his warhorse Thanatos.

Tableau: A Reaper clad in black armor, scythe at the ready, riding a pale horse with evil red eyes. He carries a black flag emblazoned with a white rose.

Icon: Scythe.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: Wears impenetrable armor, spiked gloves, and a helmet. Eyes turn starry with emotion.

Before Flash: A mysterious, reclusive billionaire, securing his mountain compound against any foreseeable disaster.

Lethe Castle

Day 0

Of course hers would be the last icon to fade. The rose symbol.

In the shower, I stare at the back of my right hand. Of the twenty-one icons that have marked my skin for so long, only fragments remain of the rose that represented the great Empress’s life.

I took this icon when I beheaded her. For centuries, I have stared at it with a mixture of fury, guilt, and yearning.

It connected me to her. My wife.

Whenever the beginning of our lethal game nears, the icons borne by the winner fade. Telepathic Arcana calls start to sound. We are on the brink.

Anticipation strains even my eternal patience. I will capture this new reincarnation of the Empress and make her pay.

At last.

I have waited 677 years, 3 months, and 13 days for this time to come.

Other Arcana have envied my immortality. I would gladly give it up if not for her—my fantasy and nightmare, all wrapped in one.

I have no choice except to win. If I’d died in the past, I would have been reincarnated for another game, losing my memories of her and our history. My soul would have entered a new body, one lacking the warning that I had tattooed over my torso.

Three scenarios might play out in a future game. . . .

I wouldn’t go out of my way to find her, missing her entirely.

I would find her, only to kill her before I discovered I could touch her.

Or, worst of all, I would find her, touch her, then trust her.

My hands ball into fists, and I hang my head under the stream of water. With the memories I’ve retained, I’ve already been able to locate her, and other Arcana as well. They tend to stand out, and in this age of information, I possess every advantage.

To find the Empress, I searched all over the world for farms named Haven. Her home has always been called that. In more than one Arcana chronicle, I’ve read the advice: “Never attack an Empress in her Haven.”

Only one farm of that name has a girl of the right age living on the property. She is a Louisiana teenager named Evangeline Greene.

She has no idea that a few states away, she has a husband who plots to destroy her.

I found her social media accounts with pictures of her friends (surprisingly many), her boyfriend (a football player who looks as dim as he is handsome), and her home.