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Cordelia’s expression shifted. “There’s other rumors too, you know. Rumors that Ruth stole the real necklace from the Society, and that when y’all left St. Louis, you took the Djinni’s Star right out of Ruth’s grasp.”
Maggie glanced at North, looking every bit as guilty as if she’d taken the necklace herself.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” Cordelia asked, excitement brightening her watery blue eyes.
North and Maggie exchanged an uneasy glance, but Esta decided to take control of the situation before the two of them could make things worse.
“We couldn’t exactly let Ruth keep it, could we?” Esta asked, like this was obvious. Denying it would only make the sharpshooter more suspicious. The best she could hope for at this point was to keep Cordelia on their side and buy a little more time. Clearly, the other girl was loyal to the Antistasi. If Esta could make Cordelia believe that she, too, was loyal to the Antistasi’s cause, the sharpshooter might be less of an obstacle. She might even be a help. “After what happened with the serum, we couldn’t risk Ruth using the artifact against anyone else—other Antistasi, for instance. Could we?”
Cordelia turned to Maggie. “So when y’all left St. Louis, you were choosing the Antistasi over your sister?”
“My loyalty to the Antistasi didn’t begin when I left St. Louis,” Maggie told Cordelia, and Esta was surprised to see there wasn’t even a hint of prevarication in her words.
Cordelia considered this for a long, uncomfortable moment before her expression cleared. “Well, where’s it at?” she asked. “I’d sure like to take a look at it.”
Which was, of course, impossible. The Djinni’s Star was with Harte, traveling toward the other side of the continent. Not that any of them needed to know about that.
But North and Maggie looked uneasy, and Esta had the sense that the two Antistasi didn’t want this woman to know they’d lost the necklace. Maggie opened her mouth and closed it again, like a fish gulping for air.
“We can’t show you right now,” Esta said, stepping in to save Maggie from another poorly told lie.
“Why not?” The suspicion returned to Cordelia’s expression. “Y’all ain’t fixin’ to keep it for yourself, are you?”
“Of course not,” Maggie said too quickly.
“Then it won’t hurt to let me have a peek, as a show of good faith.”
“We would,” Esta told Cordelia, trying to draw the sharpshooter’s attention away from Maggie, who apparently couldn’t lie to save her soul. “Of course we would. But we don’t have the necklace with us at the moment. You said yourself what a risk it was we were taking today,” Esta reminded her. “You don’t think we’d take the chance of putting something as important as the Djinni’s Star in that kind of danger, do you?”
Cordelia frowned. She didn’t want to agree with this logic, but she also couldn’t find any fault in it. “Where is it?”
“Somewhere safe,” Esta said. “We wouldn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands, would we?”
“And that box there?” Cordelia said. “What was so important that y’all were willing to die for it?”
“Something that could help the Antistasi,” Maggie offered.
Cordelia’s brows drew together thoughtfully, and then realization seemed to strike. “You’re talking about another artifact.”
“Why would you think that?” Maggie said, unable to hide the anxious tremor in her voice.
But Cordelia only crossed her arms and stared at them. “That settles it. I’m not going anywhere until you show me what it is you took.”
“Go on,” North told Esta. “Open it.”
“And try to be quick about it,” Cordelia said, like she’d already guessed Esta’s plan to delay. “I have another show this evening, and I don’t need people noticing that I’ve gone missing.”
“These things take time,” Esta told them. She made a show of leaning her ear close to the lock and slowly working the tumbler.
A lock like this actually didn’t take that much time—and she already had the combination—but none of the Antistasi watching her knew that. Esta wasn’t in any hurry to box herself into a corner, though. Once the dagger was in play, things would become more complicated. Especially without her affinity to rely on.
“We should just break the damn thing open,” North said, after a long few minutes of silence had ticked by while Esta pretended to listen to the lock.
“And risk damaging what’s inside?” Esta asked.
North grumbled but didn’t press any further. Still, with each turn of the tumbler, Esta could sense the impatience in the room swelling. But there was nothing she could think to do that would help her avoid opening the lock. She’d taken the Quellant, so there was no way to stop time, and even if she could, it wouldn’t do her any good. As long as North had that watch of his, he could bring her right back. If that happened, Esta would have lost whatever trust she’d built with them.
“Almost—” Esta said, trying to stall as her mind continued to race. There had to be a way.…
