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“Enough.” Jianyu drew his arm back to cradle it against his chest and protect it from the rattling of the carriage.
“But I don’t understand,” Esta said. “If that thread is linked to Tom Lee, how was Nibsy able to tap into it?”
“I do not think he was,” Jianyu told her.
“I saw what happened,” Esta argued. “Your arm didn’t start bleeding until we were there with Nibsy. He did something to you, and whatever that thread is doing now, he was the cause of it.”
Jianyu grimaced. “Only because he was trying to use the mark against me.”
“It happened again?” Viola asked, frowning.
“I believe so,” Jianyu told her. “It felt much like when Jack tried to perform his ritual. This bit of corrupted magic asserted its previous claim over my magic once more. This is the result.”
“It protected you again,” Harte told him.
“Protection? This you call protection?” Viola asked, horrified. “Guarda! Even now it’s growing. This is no protection. This is a curse, and if you don’t remove it, you’re going to lose your hand.”
Jianyu wished it were so easy. The pain radiating through his arm was from more than a simple wound. The silk cord’s icy magic felt as though it was seeping into his bones. “From the way this feels? I worry I will lose more than my hand.”
“There has to be something we can do,” Esta said. “There has to be some way to get out of your bargain.”
“There is no way to remove the charm without Lee knowing and taking his payment in full,” Jianyu said with a grimace.
Viola eyed the cane. “You have what you need,” she told him, nodding toward the silver Medusa’s head. “Take it to Lee. Get that piece of evil off you while you still can.”
“No, Viola.” Jianyu hissed in pain when the carriage hit another rut in the road. “No. I will not do that. I cannot. Whatever happens to me, Tom Lee cannot have possession of the cane. He cannot be given that kind of power or control over the Devil’s Own. No one should have that sort of control over another.”
“Be reasonable, Jianyu,” Viola begged, eyeing the black vines crawling up his arm. “Lee won’t wait forever, and you won’t last if this continues.”
He could not stop himself from groaning as the wagon hit another bump and a fresh bolt of pain lanced through him. She was right, but he did not see what there was to do about it.
“See?” she told him. “If you allow this to continue, it will kill you.”
“You would let Lee control you?” he asked. “Because if I give him this cane, that is what will happen. He will control everyone who was once loyal to what Dolph tried to build. He would have you, Viola. He would use you and your magic for whatever purposes he desired.”
Viola lifted her chin. “He could try.”
Jianyu bit back a smile at his friend’s fire, but this was bigger than either him or Viola. “Even if you were willing to risk it, could you truly hand over the lives of all of those who were once our friends? All those we once vowed to help Dolph protect?”
She had no answer to that.
“Giving Lee the cane is not the answer,” he told her, sure of this if nothing else. “I pledged my loyalty to the Devil’s Own, and I will not betray them. I will not betray you, either, my friend.”
“They wouldn’t do the same for you,” she told him.
“But you would. You already have,” he said, thinking of all they had been through.
Viola did not seem to agree. She was not going to let the issue go. “Jianyu—”
“I have no plans to be a martyr, Viola.”
“What is your plan?” Esta asked.
“These past weeks, I have been considering the issue, and I believe there may be a way, at least to buy more time.” He looked at Darrigan. “You retrieved the papers?”
Harte nodded, patting the front of his shirt.
“Perhaps they hold the key,” Jianyu said, hoping that his reasoning was correct. “Morgan believed that Newton’s Sigils could create a protective barrier. Perhaps we can use them as protection from the magic Lee is using against me.”
