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His mother reached for him again, but he jerked away and stormed off. A few seconds later, they heard a door slam.
“I am sorry, Golde,” Jianyu said.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” she said with an apologetic shrug. “He’s young. He doesn’t understand.”
Jianyu turned to Esta. “We cannot keep people here forever.”
“We won’t,” she told him. Then she turned to the others. “I know it’s hard,” she said. “I know it’s difficult to believe, but I’ve seen the world that this will become if we don’t stop Jack Grew. I wish we didn’t need to wait. I wish we could take every one of you outside the Brink right now, but if we lose the sigils, we lose everything.”
“If we keep people trapped here, against their will, perhaps we already have,” Jianyu argued.
“You can’t think that,” Cela said.
“No?” he asked, feeling suddenly uncomfortable with the intensity in her expression and the fire in her dark eyes.
“No.” It was Yonatan who spoke now. He’d helped with the ritual to remove the cord from Jianyu’s wrist, but he mostly kept to himself. “The boy is wrong. He’s too young to know how wrong he is, but I see what you’ve done here. The lives you’ve saved.” The man shrugged. “Maybe it’s hard not to be free, but when has our kind ever been truly free in this city? You’ve given us safety, and now we’ll give you our patience. And we’ll trust that you’ll keep your word.”
“We will,” Esta told them. “I promise. After the Conclave.”
It seemed to settle the mood of the building, but Jianyu was still bothered by what Logan had said. There were still people in danger because of what he and Darrigan set into motion.
“Darrigan, could I have a word?”
Harte glanced to Esta, who nodded, before following Jianyu out to the front parlor, where they would be less likely to be overheard.
“What is it?” Darrigan asked once they were alone.
“I cannot help but think about what Logan told us—about the destruction we caused and the people we have put in unnecessary danger.”
The Magician frowned, but his expression held interest. “What are you thinking?”
“It will not be enough to destroy Nibsy’s cane if he has others to command,” Jianyu said. “I think it is time we pay another call on John Torrio and Sai Wing Mock.”
He considered the proposal. “I think you’re right. Let me just go tell Esta and the others what we’re doing. They should be able to handle the cane while we’re gone.”
“I’ll wait for you outside.”
The air was warmer than it had been all week, but it still chapped Jianyu’s nose and lips as he waited for Darrigan.
“So you’re leaving, just like that?” When Jianyu turned back around, Cela was standing in the doorway at the top of the stoop. “Running off to save the world without so much as a good-bye?” she asked, descending the steps slowly toward him.
He felt caught in her gaze as she approached him and tipped her head up to look at him. Her brown eyes seemed even deeper, and now he could see the flecks of green near their irises. He was not sure at first what to say. “There is something I must do.”
Her expression softened. “There always is.”
Confused by her words, he started to move back, to put the distance between them that he always maintained. But she caught his hand.
“Not this time,” she said. “Where are you going, anyway?”
“To make amends for a problem I caused,” he told her.
“You know you didn’t make Torrio and Mock Duck mean as snakes, don’t you?” She was closer now, and he could smell the scent of her, floral and tropical, with a note of something woodsy and clean. “You’ve done more than anyone could have asked.”
He did not respond to that statement. He had no idea how.
Cela looked up at him. “Tell me something.”
“Yes?”
