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Her knife was already in her hand when she reached the large back gathering room. She found Ruby immediately, huddled in the corner of the room with her face turned away from the scene.
“Are you okay?” Viola asked, touching her face, her neck, her arms. “Where are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Ruby said, her eyes squinting against the brightness in the room. “I was only startled. It’s just so much—”
Cold magic crackled through the air as Viola turned to take in the scene playing out in the center of the room. Darrigan and Golde along with Golde’s son and one of the others were holding blinding orbs. A visible wall of energy connected them to form a curtain of light, and behind that boundary, Esta was bent over Jianyu’s body. His eyes were open and the muscles of his neck were corded with his screaming, but she couldn’t hear anything other than the low roar of counterfeit magic swirling around them.
On the other side of the circle, Abel was holding Cela back.
Viola stepped closer, trying to see beyond the boundary of energy and light. Esta looked like a girl made of fire. Her eyes were closed as she gripped Jianyu’s arm, and as Viola watched, she felt a wave of warm magic swirl around them, warring with the cold energy in the air.
Then the blackness that had sunk into Jianyu’s skin began to ripple.
GONE
The Safe House
Esta had felt the difference the second she’d stepped into the circle of light. It was like the atmosphere within the boundary created by the sigils was different somehow. Her ears had crackled, threatening to pop from the pressure, and her skin had gone hot and cold all at once as the corrupt magic brushed against her. Sound had drained away, leaving only silence, and when she’d reached for her affinity, she had found it strong and sure.
She knelt next to Jianyu, who was no longer conscious. He was still breathing, just as Harte said, but time was running out. Examining his wrist, she suddenly wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. It had seemed so simple before, but now that she was standing at the threshold, she hesitated.
What did you think you were, child? Seshat had purred. Esta was like Seshat. The same as Seshat.
Esta hadn’t wanted that knowledge then, but she’d felt the truth of it in Chicago. She’d been so close to just destroying every bit of hatred in that arena. You can touch the strands of time.… You can tear them apart.
Esta had tried with Thoth, but she had failed. She’d only made things worse.
But you didn’t have the sigils, she reminded herself.
Shoving her misgivings aside, Esta closed her eyes as she reached for time, that indelible net of creation within which all things were suspended. It hung clear and distinct around them, but she noticed that the time inside the circle was somehow different from the rest. It was as though it had been severed, set aside as a space beyond.
She filed that information away, and this time when she pulled, she focused on Jianyu—on the silken cord that had woven its way into him. Little by little, she called on the spaces between things, pulled and tugged, until… there. She could feel the very molecules that made the thread—the protein and carbon and every atom within it. The silken thread was breaking apart as chaos rushed in. She reached in, grabbed hold of the very essence of the thread.
And then she tore it from the world.
She unmade it completely by allowing the spaces between—the chaotic power of the old magic—to swallow the thread whole, like a snake devouring its prey.
Suddenly, Jianyu gasped, and his arm jerked awkwardly.
Esta jolted as her connection to the piece of silk evaporated as though it had never been, and when she looked down, the silk was gone. Jianyu’s wrist was bleeding, but there was no sign of the dark veining magic that had threatened his life.
She turned to Harte, who had been watching, and the smile on his face matched her own. But when she stepped toward him, she realized she couldn’t get close. Whatever boundary the sigils created kept her in just the same as it kept Tom Lee’s connection out.
“You have to break the ritual,” she shouted, but the flash of confusion on Harte’s face told her that he couldn’t hear anything. She pointed to the spinning ball of light and mimed breaking a stick in two.
Harte immediately understood. He lowered his hands and stopped the sigil from spinning, and with a burst of icy energy, the chain of magic that had formed the boundary around them broke. Then he caught her up in his arms and held her tight.
“You did it,” he whispered. Then he kissed her, long and full. When he drew back, there was no mistaking the pride in his eyes, or the heat. “I knew you could, but… You know what this means?”
She did. The world tilted a little as the effort—and the importance—of what she’d just done nearly knocked her over.
Cela was there—Esta hadn’t even noticed her return, but she was kneeling beside Jianyu, who was already coming to. Abel was standing close by and helped them both up from the floor.
Esta let herself lean into Harte’s body. It wasn’t just that she was exhausted—or it wasn’t only that. This was the answer they’d been looking for.
She’d tried to kill Thoth once before by killing Jack, but it hadn’t worked. She thought she’d unmade Thoth then, but now she felt the difference. Now she understood. Maybe if they could trap Jack using Newton’s Sigils, they could contain Thoth until she could rip him from the world in truth this time. They could make sure he never walked the earth again in any body, in any form. Maybe they could destroy Jack without killing him.
“We can finish this,” she told him, feeling more certain with every passing second. “We have everything we need. We have the Book and the artifacts. We’ll use the sigils to take care of Thoth, and once we do, we can stop Jack as well. There are still two weeks before the Conclave. And then we can use Seshat’s power to take care of the Brink.”
