I see. Changed by what?
Not what. Who.
Down below, in the live magic show on the stage, half a dozen knives were embedded in the wheel around the pretty woman. The man in the tuxedo was taking a bow for an applauding audience.
The hairs on Arthur’s neck were standing on end.
If Jade was nervous, she was hiding it perfectly. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said. “Who changed your plans?”
“The same man who’s forcing me to allow your friends to steal the siphon.”
Arthur froze.
Jade blinked several times. “I beg your pardon?”
“Don’t play coy, Miss Laurent.” There was something ugly blazing in the seller’s eyes even as the rest of him sat perfectly still. “You can’t possibly imagine how enraging it is to sit here and let myself be robbed. Me, Lord Blanshard, with magic Baron Zeppler can only dream of.”
Jade leaned forward, without fear. “Then tell us why you are.”
“As if it’s my choice,” the seller, Lord Blanshard, spat. “He wants you to steal it. But frankly, I would rather both of you were dead.”
Blanshard’s two henchmen suddenly stepped forward.
Arthur pushed off the wall, fists ready—
The audience below shrieked. There was a high-pitched buzz of metal whizzing through air as the woman tied to the wheel screamed—and three knives cut like bullets across the balcony, stopping an inch from Blanshard’s and his two henchmen’s throats.
One of the henchmen let out a strangled yelp. Blanshard glanced down at the knife floating at his throat, then raised his eyebrows at Jade. “Not a dream reader, then.”
“I’m afraid not,” said Jade.
“And I’ve underestimated you.”
“It would seem so.” Jade smiled, her eyes narrowed. “Jianwei, darling, I think we have no more need for pretenses.”
Blanshard’s eyes flicked to the right, where Arthur assumed Zhang’s astral projection was suddenly visible.
“Is our path clear?” Jade asked the air.
“You’re playing right into his hand,” Blanshard said lowly. “This is what he—” His mouth suddenly closed as if on its own, his lips unnaturally stuck together. Rage flared in Blanshard’s eyes again.
Jade abruptly stood. “Let’s go, Arthur.”
Arthur didn’t ask questions. He passed his would-be assailant, the knife still hovering at the other man’s throat, and reached for the curtain, holding it open as Jade strode at an almost-run in front of him.
They thundered down the stairs together, Jade moving impressively quickly in her heels. “This way,” she said, grabbing his hand and tugging him away from the main doors. “And quickly; I can’t hold those knives forever, and I’m almost too far already.”
They burst out the side of the building. Zhang’s physical form was at the curb, holding a taxi door open.
“Let’s go!” he called. “The others got the siphon; they’re on their way to the cabaret.”
Arthur let Jade and Zhang in, then climbed in behind them just as Blanshard’s henchmen came running out the main doors of the building.
But as their cab pulled away from the curb, leaving the henchmen behind, Arthur felt no relief, only more trepidation than ever.
You’re playing right into his hand.
Chapter Twenty-Three
