Finale (Caraval, 3)

Tella didn’t care that it was the middle of the night, that she’d forgotten her cloak, or that the streets of Valenda were far more dangerous than they’d ever been now that the Fates had taken over. She marched to Jacks’s as if she were deadlier than anything she might encounter.

Once at the door, she pounded her fist and then stormed inside the moment it opened. A riot of clacking and clicking and clapping assaulted her immediately.

It seemed that rather than hiding from the Fates, half the city had just come here. Tella wondered if Jacks had altered their feelings to get them there, or if all of them were as foolish as she was.

Heavily perfumed bodies brushed against her as she moved through the crush. The last time she’d been at Jacks’s it had been mostly men, but tonight the gentlemen were outnumbered by the ladies. All of them were coiffed and clean. None of them were covered in sweat like Tella.

A horrid spike of jealousy shot through her at the thought that she might find Jacks with his arms around another girl. But was she really jealous or did she have that sudden feeling just because they were immortally married?

Married!

Tella still couldn’t believe it. She’d flirted with trusting him again after he’d given her the map. But she never should have trusted him enough to let him trick her like this in the first place.

“Aren’t you full of fire tonight?” The lively crowd parted as Mistress Luck strode closer to Tella, all green-velvet-clad curves and cryptic eyes. “Seems you really can’t stay away from him.”

“Where is he?” Tella spat.

The Fate pointed toward a wall covered in black-and-white hearts. “There’s a door hidden there; it will take you to the gaming room where Jacks likes to play. But—”

Tella strode off without hearing the woman’s warning. It wouldn’t have mattered what she’d said.

Tella tore through the door and down a set of stairs, which landed her inside a room that looked as if it had been attacked by a deck of playing cards. Everything was black and white with violent hints of red. The white walls were striped with crooked lines of glittering red spades, while the floor looked as if someone had plucked handfuls of clubs, diamonds, and hearts and tossed them everywhere. In the center of the room, the heavy round table was equally wild, piled high with chips, cards, bits of jewelry, a few fancy shirts, and half-empty bottles of liquor. The chairs encircling it were full of gamblers, all in various states of undress, explaining the clothes mixed with the chips.

The only one who remained mostly dressed was Jacks. He’d lost his jacket from earlier, discarded his gold cravat, and his shirt was open, missing all of its diamond-sharp buttons.

“Everyone out!” Tella shouted.

A dozen heads turned her way, intoxicated faces all wearing various shades of surprise. Save for Jacks. His silver-blue eyes met hers expectantly and then he grinned like the devil he was. He’d known this moment was coming. “Hello, wife.”

Still looking at her, Jacks gave a lazy wave of his hand toward the table. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d introduce you to my bride, but I think I’d rather kick you out so we can chat in private.”

Tella expected a few murmurs of protest, but Jacks must have been using his newly restored powers to control everyone’s emotions. There were no objections from the group, and within a minute, his court of half-naked gamblers was on the stairs.

“That was quite an appearance.” Jacks leaned into his winged chair and kicked one scuffed brown boot onto the table. “Have you come to consummate the—”

Tella launched herself at him before he could finish. His chair fell back, bringing both of them with it.

“You foul, heartless, wretched, cheating, manipulating, apple-sucking demon!” The curses were inelegant, not nearly as dirty as they should have been, and her blows were ineffective. He’d easily caged her wrists in his cool hands, so she didn’t even hit him, but it felt good to fight him. It felt good to wrestle against his grip.

“You tricked me into marrying you!”

“You begged me to help you.”

“I wanted you to take my emotions away, not make me your wife.”

“But I’ve been a good husband. I told you how to find the Vanished Market, I gave you that Fated map.”

“You also threatened to kill me! And you nearly did!” Tella panted as she finally ripped her wrists free from his icy hands. She would have tried to hit him again, but she needed to stop touching him.

She pulled herself from him, then she shoved up from the ground until she towered over him. He wasn’t even breathing heavily. He just looked up at her as if he were a misbehaving angel with gold hair hanging across his pale forehead.

“I want you to undo it,” she demanded. “I want the marriage revoked, and then I never want to see you again.”

“Why would I agree to that?” he droned. “There’s nothing really in this solution for me.”

“You want to be married to someone that hates you?”

“Maybe I like the intensity of it.” He grinned at her as he pushed up from the floor, leaving the chair lying between them.

Tella could barely breathe she was so furious. She would have walked out if she could have. But this marriage wasn’t something she could ignore or pretend away. Even now she could feel it in the way she hated him. Fiery and all-consuming, so much stronger now that he was standing in front of her like her own personal villain.

“If you don’t undo this, I swear I will kill you.” She stepped over the chair, until they were so close she had to crane her neck to look up at his sharp face. “If I remain your wife, I promise that I will make you fall in love with me. I will become everything you’ve ever wanted, and the moment you are mortal, I’ll stab the closest sharp object through your chest and end your heartbeat once and for all.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” Jacks sighed. “If you want out of the marriage, there’s a simpler way to do it.”

He reached in his boot and pulled out a dagger.

Tella scrambled back, nearly tripping on the fallen chair.

“Don’t worry, my love, it’s for you to use on me.” He flipped the dagger in his hand and held the hilt toward her. “Immortal matrimony cannot be undone with signatures and pieces of paper. To sever our connection, you have to wound me.”

“And doing that will undo the marriage?”

“‘Undoing’ implies it never happened.” Jacks’s voice switched from sharp to dull in a flash. “What’s done cannot be undone, but it can be severed. All you have to do is use the knife and say the words: Tersyd atai es detarum.” He stepped over the chair until the space between them was gone once again.

Tella cautiously accepted the blade. It was the same jeweled dagger they’d used the night he’d taken her emotions, when he’d also married her. She slowly tipped it toward Jacks’s throat.

He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even appear to breathe, though his lips remained parted as he looked her directly in the eyes, his gaze the saddest shade of blue she’d ever seen. She didn’t believe it was real. And yet, the look on his face was so convincing, it made her wonder just enough to hesitate.

“Should I make this easier for you?” He spread his shirt apart, baring his chest of smooth, sculpted skin, like marble with a heartbeat. She could hear the rapid pulse of it as it moved in tandem with hers, pounding harder with every breath she took. When they first met, his heart hadn’t beat at all. Then it started again—because of her.

She gripped the dagger tighter, but didn’t make another move.

“Why are you hesitating, my love?”

“Why are you making this so easy?”

“You think this is easy for me?” Jacks leaned forward until his skin pressed against the blade. For once he didn’t smell like apples. He smelled like liquor and heartache, and when he spoke, his words were almost too soft to hear. “You think it’s in my nature to be kind?”

“There’s nothing kind about what you did to me.”

“You’re right,” he whispered. “What I did was purely selfish. So stab me before I decide to be selfish again. The longer we’re bound together, the more difficult it will be for you to fight it. You might hate me, but you’ll find yourself wanting and needing to be near me. So if you really wish to end this, do it now. Cut me and sever everything that ties us together.”

Sweat slicked the jeweled hilt in Tella’s hands. She wanted to do this. She wanted to slash him and be done. But something about the words sever everything that ties us gave her pause.

Maybe he’d known all along that as soon as she found out they were married she’d come here demanding that he end it. Maybe that’s why he was giving in so easily, because that’s what he actually wanted—to sever everything that tied them together. She was supposed to be his true love. She was the one who made his heart beat again—which meant she was also his greatest weakness.

“If I do this, if I sever our connection, will I still be your true love?”

“Why would you care?” Jacks’s lips thinned as if he couldn’t wait to be rid of her, but the look in his eyes said he wanted to devour her. “I imagine after today you won’t be kissing me again.”

“Just answer the question, Jacks.”

In a flash, he wrapped his cool hand around her shaking one and dragged the dagger lower, creating a line of pink skin as he moved it to the center of his chest. “I don’t know if you’re my true love, Donatella. All I know is that I want you to be.”

His hands left the dagger and slid around her waist. For a moment she couldn’t move. His fingers were colder than they had ever been, creating chills that went deep beneath her skin.

“I know what I did was wrong. But if you’re looking for a sad story where I justify what I’ve done, you’re not going to find it. I’m the villain, even in my own story. But you were supposed to play a different role.” Misery filled his eyes. “You were supposed to be my true love. You were supposed to want me, not him. You were supposed to be as obsessed with me as I am with you.” He gripped her even tighter, the dagger threatening to pierce his skin, as he leaned his cool forehead against hers.

“If you’re holding back from ending this because you think I’ll kill you or hurt you once our connection is severed, that thought could not be further from the truth. When I told Legend I’d kill you if he didn’t give me the power I needed, I didn’t mean it—I wouldn’t have done it. A part of me even hoped he’d say no, so that you would walk away from him and choose me. I’m selfish, and I want you, but I would never harm you.”

“You already have,” Tella said. And then she slashed his chest with the dagger.