Page 78 of Up in Smoke

“The shooter could have been a woman,” he reminded me.

I could think of many reasons a woman might want to off me, assuming she thought offing me would give her a chance with Sandro. “Maybe she just wanted to remove the competition because she wanted to be the one in your hands. I could buy into that.”

He grinned at me. “You’re biased.”

“It’s your salsa. I really like it. By really like, I mean, there’s no more salsa left in the fridge, and the chips are all gone, too. I ran out of salsa, which was why I needed to locate you, the man who makes my salsa.”

“I’ll make you some more when we get back to Asylum and start working on making sure Mansfield doesn’t trash the entire country with his ambition,” he promised.

“Do you think we’ll be able to stop him?” I asked, staring at the sketch of the twisters and the train still in the dirt.

“I don’t know, but all we can do is try. I think I understand why he got rid of every scryer he could.”

“Oh? Why?”

“He likely used them to confirm he could use the magic of death’s door for his purposes. Silencing them meant he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone discovering his plans until it was too late to act. He isn’t the only one with contacts outside of the Alley. And none of them will stand idle while someone tries to destroy everything we know—doing so through murdering innocents.”

I considered his words, nodding while I debated what we could do—if we could do anything at all. How could we stop Mansfield when we knew so little? I focused on my breathing until I calmed enough I could think about the situation. “Do you think Mansfield is the mastermind, Sandro? Or is there someone pulling his strings?”

“I think he’s the mastermind. He’s not great at business, but he’s charismatic and good at telling people what they want to hear. If he’s working over the targets of his scheme, it wouldn’t be hard for him to get a huge following among the lower classes. His experiment with the fox hybrids in Asylum is likely a test to prove he can—and plenty of hybrids cooperated for a chance at a better future.”

“Like me,” I muttered, flattening my ears.

“It doesn’t hurt you find me attractive, we get along, and you like my parents. But yes, like you. But unlike them, I have your interests at heart, as I fully intend to keep you at my side until we’re too old and tired to travel anymore and begin a campaign to dote on our children like my parents plan to dote on us and my brothers. We won’t discuss your parents.”

I could accept that, although my guilt continued to nibble away at me. “What do you think, Ryleigh?”

“I think you two have exactly one chance to get back to Asylum, try to figure out what his real goals are for changing the quadrants or turning the United States into one massive boundary, and stop him before he destroys everyone and everything we hold dear. If I could join you in Asylum, I would. I’m better off here. New Orleans breathes, and she inhales anger and exhales curses, and all of them involve the disturbances in the Alley. She is aware you fight a battle for another, and she has chosen you as the Queen for good reason. In time, that burden will pass to another, but for now, it is yours to bear. Or, perhaps, she simply acknowledges it is a burden you have chosen to bear, and you will do as you must to save your home. And then, ultimately, you will do what you must to save my home. She knows this. So do you.”

I nodded. “I won’t let her sink without a fight. Nor will Sandro.”

Sandro nodded. “And the next Queen? You know of her?”

Ryleigh smiled. “I know of her. She is much like Jade was in her early days in New Orleans, scampering around the streets unaware she has a destiny she will grow into once our crystal city beneath the surface is born. Her magic will be better suited for New Orleans and her future.” Ryleigh’s attention fell on me. “She may be New Orleans’s future, but you are the one who will make certain New Orleans has a future. If the Alley falls, we all fall.”

“You would think he would have thought this through a little better,” I complained. “I don’t even understand how I can do anything. I don’t have any strong magic in the Alley.”

Ryleigh shrugged. “He probably believes the magic he plans to unleash will fully obey him, sparing those he wants, while killing off everyone who is in his way. His greed and ambition blind him.”

I eyed Sandro. “Are you sure we can’t just assassinate him?”

Sandro snorted, but he shook his head. “I have no idea who would replace him, if it would make his allies push forward their date, or what other futures it would change. Right now, we have something fairly concrete. What I know of Manfield’s plans fits with the date and when he would bring the first few trains back into the Alley.”

Ryleigh smiled at me. “You’re uniquely suited for this task, Jade.”

“I am? Just how?”

“When he begins to open death’s door, and if the pulses become strong, while everyone else flounders, you will be able to stand strong. You will be able to act when no one else will. Sandro, there might be one way you can close death’s door, but it would not be without risk to you.”

“An epic,” Sandro replied with a troubled expression. “I wouldn’t precisely close death’s door, but I would take the magic and use it and restore the magic to what it should be. I don’t know if I could survive that.”

Something in the Voodoo queen’s expression worried me, as she reminded me of a cat who’d made off with some salmon and gotten into the cream. “Oh, you will, and the consequences of your survival will change the world one day.”

I glared at the Voodoo queen. “Go to your room and think about what you’ve done, you wicked woman. We do not need any more dire portents. We have no vacancies for any more dire portents, so you’ll just have to take your extra dire portents home with you.”

Laughing, Ryleigh embraced me and rubbed my back. “Who said anything about that portent being dire, ma chéri?” She pulled away and kissed my cheeks. “Good things will come, although you may not think so while you’re walking such a challenging road. But much like my beautiful city, I have faith in you—and faith in your pet. Just trust in his strength, and when you do think his strength has failed, do what you do best. Survive. Cling to the impossible until they become possible. Fight. I will do everything I can from here, but I dare not go with you. I must be elsewhere. Return as soon as you can. New Orleans waits for you to finish what you have begun.”

I nodded. That much I could do. “We’ll do our best.”