AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jianyu could still smell her perfume or her soap—a warm, sweet fragrance that made him suddenly unsteady. He glanced at Cela’s brother, but if Abel thought anything of his sister’s actions, he did not show it.
“We saw the man jumping from the building, and we thought…” Cela didn’t finish.
“That was Logan,” Jianyu said.
“What happened?” Viola asked. “Did you get the ring?”
Jianyu shook his head. There would be time later—to explain how Logan had attacked him and fled, to figure out what had happened to the boy and the artifact he had taken. “Did either of you take something from the Order’s chambers?”
Viola frowned, but she took a package from her skirts no broader in diameter than a bowl of rice. She offered it to Jianyu, and when he peeled back the handkerchief she’d wrapped around it, cold energy filtered through the air.
He could not stop the smile that split his face. “We may not have the Delphi’s Tear, but neither does the Order. Without the ring, they will not be able to reestablish their power. They need the artifacts to fortify the Brink, but even if they might retrieve them, without these sigils, they will no longer be able to control it.”
NEARLY HOME
1920—Brooklyn
Esta watched the lights of the city—her city—grow closer and brighter as Dominic Fusilli’s truck cut through the streets of Brooklyn. A moment before, she’d been in the heart of Chicago, but now, through whatever magic Dom used to create the entrances of the Nitemarket, she was home… or nearly home. She hadn’t expected her heart to twist at the thought of returning. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it, her city, with its tangled streets that never slept. For Esta, it had been only a matter of weeks since she’d left, but suddenly those weeks away felt so much longer.
Across the Hudson River, the Manhattan skyline wasn’t quite the one she’d grown up with. There was no Chrysler Building with its Art Deco spire, no Empire State Building anchoring Midtown, and no Freedom Tower at the tip of the island. Those iconic landmarks wouldn’t be built for years to come, but in this version of the skyline she could begin to see the promise of what the city would one day become. These streets glowed so much brighter than anyone could have imagined back in 1902, and the light the skyline threw off, the way it illuminated the atmosphere like a halo around the city, settled something in her chest.
She would not let herself think of the memory of the dagger plunging into Jack’s chest, past bone and sinew, or of the memory of Jack’s eyes—suddenly too human—pleading with her. She would not let herself wonder how she would go on living with blood on her hands, even if it had been necessary, even if Jack had deserved to die right alongside Thoth. There would be time enough to think of that—to live with that—later.
Esta felt the tension vibrating from Harte, and she realized he was holding himself away from her. She didn’t let go of her hold on the Book as she took one of their remaining Quellants and offered it to him.
“She’s quiet,” he said, hesitating.
“Take it anyway.” She placed it in his hand. “Just in case.”
He took the small white pill with shaking hands and placed it in his mouth. His eyes closed as he bit down, shuddering again as his throat worked to swallow. Little by little, the tension in his body eased, and eventually he opened his eyes. He stared at her as though testing himself.
“Better?” she asked after a long moment.
Harte nodded, though from his grimace—and from experience—Esta knew it was also worse.
“We won’t need it for much longer,” she assured him. “We’re going to find a way to get her out of you. We’re going to find a way to control her once and for all.” We have to.
Harte didn’t immediately agree. He leaned closer now, and there was something unsettling and almost resigned in his expression as he lifted his hand, tentative at first, to brush a lock of her hair back from where it had fallen into her eyes. Apparently he’d decided it was safe, because he cupped her face gently and tilted his own forward so he could rest his forehead against hers. “I saw Jack holding on to you up on the stage, and I thought I’d lost you.”
“Not a chance,” Esta said, feeling suddenly weak in the knees at the memory of Jack about to drive the dagger into Harte’s chest.
But she couldn’t let herself think about that, so she kissed him instead.
For a moment, the entire world narrowed to the feeling of her lips against his. For a moment, nothing else mattered. The dark blood that stained her dress, the way Everett rocked quietly in grief, even the difficult road that still lay ahead of them—it all melted away. There was only Harte. His hands framing her face, his breath intermingling with hers. For a moment, she could forget. For a moment, she could hope.
Too soon, he broke the kiss with a sigh. But he didn’t move away.
“I won’t lose you,” he told her softly.
She pulled back a little. “What makes you so certain I don’t feel the exact same way?” she asked, giving his words back to him.
Esta knew they were standing at a crossroads, and the moment before them was far bigger than any single person, bigger even than she and Harte together. There was no way to save any one of them without saving the whole of magic, but they would be working against the snapping jaws of time itself. Still… they now had four of the lost artifacts. And they had the Book as well. The Ars Arcana was theirs again, and with the towers of the bridge awaiting them in the distance, and the promise of the city beyond, Esta would do whatever was necessary. She would find a way to to keep the promise she had made to Seshat. She would find a way to save them all.
WHAT WAS TO COME
1902—New York
James Lorcan waited in the shadows of Madison Square Park, watching the uppermost floors of the skyscraper for some sign of what had happened within. At the building’s base, police clashed with Five Pointers. No one else was looking up, and so no one saw the figure that seemed no larger than a bird leap from the top floors. No one saw him tumble downward for less than a heartbeat, before a parachute emerged and carried him on the wind.
