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“Only Tom Lee has the power to remove it,” Jianyu said. “And he will not until I deliver what I have promised him.”
“You’ve done nothing but deliver,” Cela said sourly. “He keeps you running day and night. Nothing is ever enough.”
“Perhaps, but I have not yet given him what he wants most,” Jianyu reminded her.
“I know. And after seeing what that cane did to Viola’s back, I understand,” Cela said with a sigh. “Even if you could get it from Nibsy Lorcan, you wouldn’t hand it over to Lee—or anyone else.”
Jianyu was not sure why a part of him uncoiled at the realization that Cela knew him so well. When had he ever been seen so clearly? Perhaps not since Dolph. Perhaps not even then.
“Maybe another solution will present itself,” Jianyu told them, not at all believing that such a fantasy would come to be.
The truth was that Tom Lee would never let him go. The truth was also that Jianyu would never offer up the Devil’s Own.
“But you don’t believe it will,” Cela said, her voice hollow with understanding. “You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”
“Nothing is certain,” he told her, wishing that he felt the truth of his own words. “But this piece of thread is the least of our problems.”
“That piece of thread will kill you,” Cela argued.
“If Jack Grew destroys the Brink, it will kill us all,” Jianyu reminded her. He had already explained what Jack had revealed to him.
“I still don’t understand,” Ruby said. “Wouldn’t that solve your problem? Without the Brink, anyone with the old magic could leave the city. None of you would be trapped here.” She turned to Viola. “You could leave. We could go anywhere.”
“It’s not that easy,” Harte said. He stepped toward the table. “Jianyu’s right. If Jack brings down the Brink, it doesn’t mean freedom for Mageus. It means the end.”
“Of magic?” Ruby asked.
“Of everything,” Jianyu told her.
Ruby frowned. “How can that be?”
“Because everything is connected,” Harte said. “All of the magic the Brink has taken over the years is still linked to all of the old magic in the world and to all Mageus who still carry an affinity for it. If the Brink is destroyed, it would destroy everyone who has a connection to the old magic.”
“That would kill hundreds—maybe thousands—just in this city alone,” Cela said, her eyes meeting Jianyu’s.
“It would destroy magic itself,” Viola corrected.
“You would all die?” Ruby asked, her eyes wide with new fear.
“Not only us,” Jianyu said softly. “The old magic is not some spell to cast or control. It lives in the spaces of all things.”
“End magic, end the world,” Viola said.
“Doesn’t Jack know that?” Cela asked, clearly horrified. “How could he not?”
“I’m sure you could fill whole libraries with all that Jack Grew doesn’t know,” Ruby said wryly. “If what you’re saying is true, we have to stop him.”
“We?” Viola looked at her.
“I’m with you now,” Ruby said, taking her hand.
Jianyu watched as color rose in Viola’s cheeks and the two women shared a secret look, a silent conversation between them. He glanced at Cela, who was watching as well, and then suddenly she looked up at him, and he felt his world shift.
He looked away first, unwilling to consider the warmth building inside his chest. Unwilling to let himself hope. Cela Johnson was not for him. Who was he but an outsider to this land? Trapped in the city, trapped now too in a country that did not want his kind. She deserved far more than he could ever offer.
But he did not have to look to know that Cela was watching him still.
“He’s not going to bring down the Brink,” Harte said. “Or, at least, he didn’t before.”
