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She had no idea where Jianyu was—or if Jack had gotten to him first. She could attack maybe one of the creatures, or she could attack Jack himself, but any attack would leave Ruby unguarded.
She lifted her knife, aiming for Jack.
“Kill me if you think you can,” he told her, a sneering laugh in his voice. “But it won’t stop my creations from ending you.”
Viola froze. When she threw her knife at Jack, she would be completely defenseless. If Jack Grew wasn’t lying, if these creatures somehow could exist without his direction, she’d be weaponless and without a way to defend Ruby or to rescue Theo. She could attack him herself, but it meant leaving Ruby without protection. Torn, she kept her knife poised, when she heard a voice whisper close to her ear.
“Give me your knife.”
OUT OF TIME
1980—Central Park
Harte could practically feel Esta’s nervousness as they rode in Dakari’s carriage into the park. He hadn’t said no or called her a madwoman, but that was a long way from him agreeing to help them. It was one thing to listen to a fantastical story. It was another completely to say yes to what they would be asking him.
As Dakari steered the carriage into the park, away from the crowds on Fifth Avenue, Harte wrapped his arm around Esta’s shoulders and rubbed his thumb against her arm, trying to calm her. With the clothes they were wearing and steady clippity-clop of the horse’s hooves, Harte could almost imagine they were already back, that they were already living another life. He and Esta, together.
But there was so much that needed to happen for that future to become real, and Dakari was the key. Even if Esta thought she had everything figured out with the Book and the Brink, there was no future for them as long as Nibsy’s diary remained stubbornly unchanging. They had to take Nibsy out of the picture, and they needed Dakari’s help to make that possible.
The diary still seemed like some kind of a trick Harte couldn’t quite figure out. He would never hurt Esta on purpose, much less kill her. That fact alone should have made the words on the page impossible. And yet the entry had remained stubbornly consistent. The only thing that had affected it at all was their current idea to involve Dakari, but even that hadn’t changed the words. It only made the ink on the page seem less sure of itself.
Dakari steered the carriage into an out-of-the-way corner of the park, and they alighted while he secured the horse and gave it an apple.
“You can do this,” Harte whispered, urging Esta on. Then he listened to her spin the story of her life.
She started from the beginning. Or maybe it was the end. She told Dakari everything—everything except his own death. And when she was done, when she had lain out everything they needed of him, he frowned for a long, uncomfortable minute.
“And you think I can help you with this?” Dakari asked, his voice filled with doubt.
“You’re the only one who can,” Esta said. “I know it’s asking a lot…”
Dakari shook his head. “That’s an understatement. I don’t know, man.”
Harte had the sudden sense, then, that Dakari would refuse.
“You don’t have to decide now,” she told him. “It’s your choice, completely.”
“You’re telling me I could change everything?” He didn’t seem as though he believed her.
She nodded. “The Guard. The Order. The way they hunt our kind now? It’s not supposed to be like this. You could live in a different world. You were supposed to live in a different world.”
He looked down at the two pocketknives that rested in the palm of his hand. The knife his father had carved. The knife there should have only been one of. “Dammit.”
“I know,” she said. “I always was a pain in your ass.”
He smiled a little at that. “I can’t promise you anything,” he told them.
“You don’t have to,” Harte said. “I can give you everything you need.”
“And nothing you don’t,” Esta reminded Harte, cutting her eyes in his direction.
“The choice will be yours,” Harte told him. But he wondered if he could really walk away, knowing Dakari was likely their only chance.
Dakari thought for a long stretch of minutes while the wind whistled in the trees above them. The horse nickered softly, tired of waiting for its next destination.
Esta suddenly slipped her hand into Harte’s, and the world went silent around them.
“What are you doing?” he asked, panic rising. She was risking the Guard finding them by using their magic.
