Vincent had it all wrong. I’d had it wrong. Love wasn’t the most destructive force in the universe.

Love is the universe. That is the point.

Between breaths, Jack said, “So this is snow, huh?” He’d never seen it before.

Excitement bubbled up, and I started laughing. I pressed the radio button. “Isn’t it amazing? Everything looks clean.”

Over his mount’s pounding hoofbeats, he said, “Still can’t believe you’re coming with me. I’m goan to take you home, Evangeline Greene!” The joy in his voice sent my heart soaring. “Goddamn, I love you, woman.”

I parted my lips to finally say those three words—

—QUAKE BEFORE ME.—

I jerked in the saddle. Arcana call?

Dread spiked inside me. “Jack!” I cried into the radio. “The Emperor’s here! You’ve got to get away!”

BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions, one after another, rocked that snowy valley. A split second later . . .

The white ground turned black in an outward surge. A blast of heat.

A scorching shockwave slammed me, seared my face. Flung me off the horse. I hurtled through the air. Landed on the back of the rise.

I plummeted down the slope, clutching the radio, screaming for Jack.

How far had he ridden? A rock sliced my head. Was he outside the blast? The air turned to sulfur. How far?

I crashed face-first into a boulder. Bone snapped. The radio shattered. Quakes hammered the ground.

Blood sprayed from my mouth as I screamed, “Jack!” I struggled to my hands and knees. I crawled up the shuddering hill.

My vision was blurred . . . sight couldn’t be right. Smoke rose in a mushroom plume, as if from a nuclear bomb.

Had he escaped? I shrieked, “JACK!”

I made the rise. Sheer will to stand. I gazed into the valley.

At hell.

Flumes of lava spewed from the ground. Flames so hot they consumed rock. From the two mountain peaks, more lava poured, filling that valley. A seething red pool where the army used to be.

Fighting realization: Jack was down there. “No, NO!” Vines sprang from the ground, following me as I ran toward the firestorm. The heat blistered me even from this distance.

Just before I reached a curtain of red, an arm seized me around my waist.

Death stood behind me? He’d ridden after me?

Between heaving breaths, Aric said, “You can’t . . . save the mortal. The Emperor . . . advances. We leave—now.”

“NO! I have to get to Jack!” I fought, but Aric snatched me against his chest. I clawed at his armor, at the scalding metal. “Let me go to him! Let me GO!” Nothing would keep me from Jack. My vines coiled around Death, trying to pry loose his viselike hold on me.

“Flames will kill you!”

“I don’t care, don’t care! You want Jack dead! You want me not to save him! I can find him!”

Death gripped my shoulders, shaking me till my head rolled. He twisted me around toward the valley. “Do you see any signs of life? No human could’ve survived this!”

“Don’t ever underestimate him! Everyone does and he ALWAYS surprises them. He’s alive!”

“Look upon this sight, Empress!” The valley floor was blanketed in lava, had to be thirty feet deep. Waves of it lapped at this rise. “Mark this image. Where will you search for him?”

I didn’t know, just knew I wanted to be with Jack. As Aric dragged me away, I fought him even harder.

The Arcana clamored.

—The Emperor struck.—

—Took out the Archer.—

—The Moon sets. The Moon rises . . . no more.—

Was that last one Matthew’s voice?

MATTHEW, I NEED YOU! Where is Jack?

Silence.

ANSWER ME!

Selena had been riding directly beside Jack, watching his six. If she were dead . . .

“AHHHHHHH!” I screamed my pain, my fury. The earth trembled again—from me.

“You’ll share a grave with him!”

“Good! Let me go!” Death kept taking me farther from Jack. I stretched my arms out, fingers splayed toward the heat. “He can’t be dead.” I sobbed. “Can’t. NO, NO, NOOOO!”

“You want to follow the mortal? Get your revenge first. The Emperor mocks your pain.”

I could hear that fiend in my head—laughing.

The red witch exploded inside me, a force that could never be contained. I shrieked, “You will PAY!”

As the Emperor laughed and laughed, Death murmured in my ear, “I have your grandmother, sievā–. That was the gift I spoke of. We’ll teach you how to kill the Emperor. You’ll avenge Deveaux.”

“Don’t you understand? Jack’s not DEAD!” I screamed that over and over. “He’s alive!”

With my mind teetering on the brink, I spied something in the skies above us. I gaped, disbelieving.

Real? Unreal? Just before oblivion took me down, a mountain of water curled over our heads, racing toward that hell of flames. . . .