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“There!” someone shouted.
The crowd rippled again as hundreds of faces turned, looked upward to the highest tower of the Garden.
“That explains where Ruby went,” Harte murmured darkly.
“What is she doing?” Viola asked. She gripped Esta’s arm, and there was no mistaking the fear that cut through her voice.
“I don’t know,” Esta told her.
Ruby was standing on the topmost ledge of the tower, far above them. Her hood had been pushed back, and with her brilliant blond hair shining in the night, everyone below could see who it was. But she wasn’t alone. In her hand was a small silver gun, and she had it pointed directly at her companion’s head.
“She has your boy, Morgan,” someone shouted. “Isn’t that Junior?”
It was clear from the way his face had drained of color that he was terrified. His hands were raised, and he was pleading for his life as Ruby nudged him toward the edge.
“No,” Viola said. “This can’t be. She wouldn’t—”
“She’s not,” Esta said, glancing back at Jack, who was watching the events unfold with amusement glinting in his watery blue eyes. As she watched, she saw his pupils expand and his eyes darken. “He has her under some kind of spell or charm. She’s not in control right now.”
“I’m going,” Viola said.
“No!” Esta grabbed Viola’s arm and grimaced as she felt the lash of her affinity. “Viola, no. We have to get to Jack. That’s how we’ll stop this. That’s what will save Ruby.”
“I can’t leave her there,” Viola said.
“If you go running up there now, who knows what will happen,” Harte told her. “You’re likely to startle her into doing something that can’t be undone. We need to take care of Jack. Now, while the crowd is distracted.”
“What if she falls?” Viola asked. Her violet eyes were glassy with tears.
“We cannot leave her there,” Jianyu said. “I will go. I can approach without her knowing. I can stop her from this course.” His mouth went tight. “I can try.”
Esta considered the situation. “Okay.” Even if she knew it was a distraction. “We can’t let her fall, and if Ruby kills Morgan’s son, it’ll create a new problem.”
“I will not allow that to happen,” Jianyu said, but his gaze drifted to a spot just over Esta’s shoulder. “There is more trouble coming. You need to get to Jack before it arrives.”
Jianyu was gone before he could explain, but when Esta looked back over her shoulder in the direction Jianyu had been looking, she understood.
“Madonna,” Viola said, crossing herself. “These ones are bad news.”
The cauldrons that had been burning with fantastical fires all night were now smoking, and as Esta watched, the green-gray fog-like smoke began to swell and grow until they were not columns of smoke at all but enormous beasts made of fog.
AS ABOVE
Jianyu opened the light around himself and, beneath the cover of his affinity, he dashed for the tallest tower at the far end of the rooftop, hoping he would not be too late. Taking the steps two at a time, he ran up toward the tower where Ruby Reynolds was holding J. P. Morgan’s eldest son at the end of a gun.
She must have been bespelled earlier. It was the only explanation for why she had led them into that trap of a chamber. It was the only explanation as well for why she would threaten the life of one of the most powerful men in the city—possibly even the country.
Jianyu was nearly to the top of the tower when he heard someone let out a bloodcurdling scream. And then came another.
Picking up his speed, he pushed himself until his lungs ached and his legs burned with the effort. Finally, he reached the top and saw that both Ruby and the Morgan heir were still there. No one had fallen. No one had died.
But the rooftop below was awash with chaos.
They should have expected this. They should have predicted that Jack would use the same tricks as before. Jianyu watched with a sense of too-familiar horror as three enormous beasts hewn from fog and smoke began to attack the crowd. But he could not help those people now. Not when the Morgan heir was pleading for his life.
Jianyu considered the problem. Any move he made to reveal himself might cause Ruby to jump or fall or fire the gun. He could not do anything to startle her, especially since he had no idea what kind of charm she was under. He had no idea what might trigger a reaction.
The only solution was to stop her before she understood what was happening. He could only hope that whatever corrupted magic had her in its grasp would not sense him before he could get to her.
