Rain hammered the street like gunfire. Quinn stood thirty feet from Eva, white coat glowing faintly under the streetlights, golden designs shimmering as if alive. His visible hazel eye narrowed with delight, the black bandana patch dark with water.
"Promethea," he said, voice carrying through the downpour, "you really want to do this tonight? Mon cœur."
Eva didn't answer with words. She simply raised one hand.
The fight began without warning.
Harlequin snapped his fingers. Golden light exploded around him. The Ethereal Deck spun into existence in a whirlwind of glowing cards.
"Caduceus Shuffle."
Sword flew first, a razor-edged projectile of pure misfortune. It streaked toward Eva's chest.
She sidestepped with inhuman calm. The card struck the wet pavement behind her instead. Where it landed, the concrete cracked and a thin line of golden fire ignited, not from the card, but from the ground itself. Eva had brushed her fingers against the building wall moments earlier. Anything she touched was now hers to burn.
The flames raced along the crack, unquenchable, hungry, turning rain to steam as they spread.
Quinn laughed, low and theatrical. "Putain, still as dramatic as ever!"
He dealt again, Chains, golden links snapping toward her ankles. Eva leaped, landing lightly on the hood of a parked car. The moment her boots touched metal, the entire vehicle erupted in white-hot Prometheus' Flames. The fire roared upward, swallowing the car in seconds. It would burn until nothing but ash remained.
Quinn activated Winged Sandals on himself, a burst of speed carrying him sideways in a blur. He threw Empty Purse mid-air. The card struck Eva's shoulder, or should have. She twisted, letting it graze her coat instead. The fabric ignited instantly, white flames licking across the material, but Eva didn't flinch. She tore the burning coat off and flung it at him like a blazing whip.
The coat flew, trailing fire that refused to die. Quinn dodged, but a corner clipped his sleeve. Golden designs on his white coat began to blacken and smoke.
"Bordel," he muttered, spinning away. "You always did play dirty."
He chained three cards in rapid succession: Sword, Misfortune, Chains. The combo forced Eva to retreat across the street, flames blooming wherever her feet had touched moments before, lampposts, mailboxes, even the rain-slick asphalt itself turning into rivers of unquenchable fire.
The entire block was starting to glow.
Quinn pressed the advantage, flipping card after card with showman flair, his laughter mixing with the roar of flames. "Come on, Promethea! Show me the Queen of Hell Flames I remember!"
Eva's eyes never left him. She pressed her palm flat against the brick wall of Khaladore's apartment building. The entire façade ignited in a sheet of white fire that climbed upward like a living thing, heading straight for the third-floor window where Khaladore's light still burned.
Quinn's smile faltered for the first time.
He blurred forward with another Winged Sandals burst, throwing Fortune's Shield at the building in a desperate attempt to block the flames. The golden barrier flickered, holding for a heartbeat, then shattered as Eva's unquenchable fire ate straight through it.
The heat was becoming unbearable. Steam and smoke filled the street.
Eva stepped forward through the inferno, untouched, her white hair whipping in the updraft. She had touched the ground, the walls, the air itself with every movement. Everywhere she had been was now a weapon. Flames surged toward Quinn from three directions at once, floor, walls, even the raindrops that had touched her skin earlier now falling as tiny burning comets.
He dealt desperately, Empty Purse to drain her stamina, Misfortune to make her slip, Sword after Sword, but the flames simply consumed the cards mid-flight, turning golden light to ash.
Eva raised her hand again. The fire around them tightened like a noose.
Quinn's hazel eye widened. For the first time all night, the playful grin slipped.
"Merde," he breathed. "You've gotten stronger, Promethea."
He snapped his fingers one last time, a wild, desperate Fool's Gambit that flooded the street with random luck effects. Cards exploded in every direction, some healing him, some slowing the flames, some simply vanishing in bursts of golden light. It bought him three seconds.
Just enough.
Quinn turned and blurred away into the night, white coat trailing smoke, golden designs blackened and ruined. His voice echoed back through the rain as he vanished around the corner.
"This isn't over, mon cœur! Tell the Mouse I said hello!"
Eva stood alone amid the dying flames. The fire she had started continued to burn, slow, patient, unquenchable, eating through concrete and metal alike. She watched the spot where Harlequin had disappeared, expression unreadable.
Then she turned her gaze back to the third-floor window of Khaladore's apartment, where the light still shone.
The rain hissed as it met the flames, but the fire refused to die.