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Problem is, you never keep them. Everybody knows you break your vows each game.”
    Had I? I slanted Selena a questioning glance, but she had her laser focus locked on Joules.
    “Well, then, this game is different. We refuse to kill.”
    “Oh, is that so?” His hostility was palpable—and strengthening, for some reason.
    “It is.” My hopes for an alliance were circling the drain. Now I just wanted to get out of here alive. I readied my army. I could bind them with vines, giving us time to escape.
    “Liar!” Joules yelled. “You think I canna see your hand, bitch? Youalready killed!” Without warning, he heaved his javelin straight at me.
    Like a blur, Selena loosed her arrow; it struck his javelin, sending it off course. The spear hit the neighboring house. Lightning exploded it, firing debris over us.
    Chunks of the house hit the closest oak like ax blows, cracking its trunk wide, sending pain ripping through me. Shingle fragments sliced into the side of my face, and blood streamed. He’d attacked? After I’d offered a truce?
    He’d attacked . . . me ? Fury filled me, and I screamed with it, my red hair whipping, my hands directing. Roots erupted from the deep, piercing the surface of the ground around him and Tess. As Joules aimed another javelin, a vine snaked around his waist and arms, slamming him to the ground.
    Limbs from the remaining oak curled around him, the wood groaning as it ratcheted tighter. He thrashed to get free, but he was bound fast.
    Gabriel sounded a battle call, diving to attack, but my tornado forced him back.
    When vines circled Tess like serpents, she gave a nervous cry and swirled her staff in a circle above her head, as she might a lasso. Both Joules and Gabriel appeared to wait with bated breath.
    Nothing happened. She was supposed to be one of the strongest? I stifled a yawn when she twirled her little stick again. Bored with the World, I launched my vines at her.
    She batted them with her staff, but they kept coming. Tears streaming, she hunched down with a whimper.
    Joules flailed against his bindings. “Let me go, you bitch!”
    Death laughed. —I knew this Empress of Peace act wouldn’t last long. You’re far too proud of your . . . craft.—
    Before I’d even made a conscious decision, I was sprinting for Joules, tree limbs parting for me. Nearly mindless with rage, I leapt atop him, perching on the limb clenched around his chest, careful to avoidhis electrified skin. I could feel his currents bombarding his bindings.
    “Wood,” I explained. “Such a poor conductor.” As he struggled, I raised my dripping claws to finish him. “Looks like you’re helpless.”
    Death urged me —Do it. You once told me how good it feels to sink your claws into flesh. Don’t you remember?—
    Tess screamed, “Don’t you hurt him! P-please, don’t!”
    Yelling with frustration, Gabriel tried to elude my tempest to save his friend, but he was too injured, too slow.
    “ Póg mo thóin ,” Joules grated. “Kiss my arse, Empress.”
    “Ah, Tower, you should have taken my offer.” My voice was breathier, evil-sounding. “Poison is such a painful way to go.”
    Death whispered —Why must you always taunt them so? Make a clean kill and be done with it.—
    Shut up!
    Though Joules appeared horrified, his tone was full of bravado. “Do it, then. What I want is on the other side anyway.”
    I leaned my head closer to his, savoring the way my burning glyphs reflected in his terrified eyes. “Come. Touch. But you’ll pay a—” The words strangled in my throat, because I’d caught sight of . . .
    Jackson.
    He’d come running down a nearby alley, bow at the ready, but froze upon seeing me.
    My heart leapt. He hadn’t left us?
    He took cover behind an old shed not fifty feet away. He wore a hunter’s coat, a hoodie, and fingerless gloves. The straps of his familiar bug-out bag fitted over his broad shoulders. His biker boots had been replaced with hiking boots.
    He’d