Legendary

She’d underestimated Love in the past. She’d imagined the romantic sort to be a stronger type of lust—but this moment had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with caring more about saving Dante and her mother than saving herself. It made her fearless in a way she’d never been.

Using her mother’s sharp opal ring, Tella pierced the tip of her finger hard enough to draw blood.

“Tella, what are you doing?” Dante said.

“You can take the cards, but promise me you’ll leave before Jacks arrives.” She pressed her bleeding finger against the card imprisoning her mother.

“Tella,” Dante repeated. “What are you doing?”

“I’m being the hero.”

“No!” Dante roared the word the moment he realized what she meant. “Tella, don’t do this. Your mother wouldn’t want this.”

He reached for her mother’s card, but it was too late. Tella’s name was written upon it in blood.

“It’s already finished,” Tella said.

She tried to smile then. She was finally the hero. All it had cost her was everything.

Her lips wobbled, and hot tears fell from her eyes.

“Tella.” Dante rasped her name as if he were on the verge of crying too. “I know you don’t want to believe me, but I never meant for this to happen to you. When I set up the game, I knew your mother had hidden the cards, but I didn’t know she was trapped inside one of them.” He pressed the pads of his thumbs to her cheeks. But the more tears he wiped away, the more began to fall. “I’m so sorry, I failed you.”

She leaned into his hands. She had not thought Legend would be one to apologize, but it wasn’t his fault. This was her choice. She could have made another one if she’d wanted to. She didn’t know how long it would be until the spell took effect, but she imagined it would happen soon. And since her story wasn’t going to have a happy true ending, at least she could try for one last good moment during her almost-ending.

“I lied to my sister about our kiss,” Tella said.

Dante pressed his lips to her forehead. “I know.”

“I’m not finished,” she scolded. “I wanted you to know why I lied. I wasn’t ashamed. I said it so my sister wouldn’t worry, because I think I knew even then that I could have—”

The night. The world. The stars watching from above all disappeared.

Then Tella disappeared as well.

40

Those who had been looking up at the sky, still searching for clues even though the game had just been won, might have noticed the appearance of more stars, stars that had not been seen in centuries. For it had been nearly that long since sacrifices of such magnitude had been made.

Humans were selfish creatures. The stars had witnessed it again, and again, and again.

But tonight, as the stars peered down on the world, they saw what seemed to be truly unselfish acts.

First, from the young woman.

Foolish young woman.

She’d seemed promising. Now she was useless. Paper.

But it was interesting to watch how her young man responded.

The stars leaned closer. He was distracted, allowing them to move more freely than they had the past several nights. It was a delight to see him in pain. This boy, who never seemed to care about anyone but himself, shook with rage. Hopefully he didn’t do anything too foolish. He’d made a deal with them that they hungered for him to keep. It would do them no good if he were trapped in a card or dead.

Not that they believed he would sacrifice himself for her. Humans were not that selfless. But, of course, he wasn’t fully human.

He picked up the ring that had fallen from the girl’s hand when she’d been turned into a card. The ring’s stone burned red and violet, cursed once more, but still sharp enough to pierce skin. The boy sliced it across his palm. Blood spilled, as red as heartbreak and terror, and full of power.

The stars watched with grim interest as he covered the deck of cards with the magic from his veins, more magic than a human should possess. Then he spoke the words, ancient, terrible words he should not have known, let alone been willing to utter.

The blood covering the deck turned black, and the world changed once more.

41

Tella should not have possessed the ability to open her eyelids. A moment ago she’d been unable to breathe or move or feel anything other than trapped. She’d been inanimate, powerless.

But now she could feel the midnight breeze playing with her curls and the warm hand against her back, holding her to an even warmer body—Legend’s body.

He was Legend now, not Dante. Tella could feel it in the magic pulsing from his heated hands—hands with enough power to rip worlds in half. But they were gentle against her back, holding her up and keeping her recovering body from crumbling to the ground. She didn’t know how long she’d been trapped in the card, but the life-stealing effects still lingered. Her heartbeat was fine, but her legs were liquid, her arms were boneless. She could barely move.

She concentrated on blinking, fluttering her eyelids up and down as her vision slowly returned and found focus. They were still on the Temple of the Stars’ moonstone steps. The evening was unchanged, as if no time had passed, though perhaps the sky was a little brighter than before. Glittering with additional stars. But Tella didn’t want to look at the stars. She wanted to see him.

His expression was so harsh he looked as if he’d stolen a piece of dark from the night. She wanted to reach up and smooth the deep crease between his eyes, to ease the pain from his expression, but she didn’t have the strength to move.

“What happened?” she breathed. “Why didn’t it work?”

“It did.” His grip tightened, pressing her closer to his chest as he rubbed his hands up and down her back as if to make sure she was still corporeal. “I watched you vanish and reappear in your mother’s place in the card.”

“But then how am I here? And where is my mother?” Tella’s gaze drifted around the glowing steps, at the immobile statues that she would have sworn were watching them both intently.

“Don’t worry. She’s safe,” Legend said. His low voice was strained, pained, as if for each word he spoke, there was another word he couldn’t bring himself to utter. “I imagine your mother is in the same place she was right before she was turned into a card, otherwise she’d be here with us.”

“I still don’t understand,” Tella said.

The hands against her back stilled. “I know you were willing to sacrifice yourself for her, but I wasn’t willing to sacrifice you.”

He removed one of his hands from around her and a beam of moonlight fell over his bronze palm, illuminating a jagged cut down the center. “I broke the curse on the cards.”

“But—” Tella cut off, unsure which part of all of this to protest. She’d been willing to sacrifice everything, prepared to remain trapped in a card to save her mother and him, and to keep the Fates from going free and ruling over the Empire once more. But a very selfish part of her was so relieved. It seemed her story might someday have a happy true ending after all.

Tella could have sunk into the steps and wept from relief and disbelief. Legend could have destroyed the cards and taken the power of all the Fates. He could have had everything he’d wanted. If he’d destroyed the Fates, his magic wouldn’t be limited to peaking during Caraval. He’d have the power of the Fates: the Aracle’s ability to see the future; Mistress Luck’s good fortune; the Assassin’s ability to travel through space and time; the Lady Prisoner’s wisdom. And he’d chosen to save Tella instead.