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Viola handed Esta a blade. It was the knife she’d brought back from the Professor’s library, the twin to Libitina. “Those beasts are nothing but corrupt magic made by corrupt men,” Viola told her. “And like men, they can die.”
But Esta knew that a knife, even one as deadly as Viola’s, would never be enough. There were too many of them.
“We’ll never get to them all in time,” she said, watching Morgan being pushed ever closer to the edge of the roof.
“We need to go after Jack,” Harte told them. “Attacking those things individually will take too much time, and it will force us to split up. Which is likely exactly what Jack wants.”
“Harte’s right,” Esta told Viola. “If we get to Jack, maybe we can stop this. We just need to find him.”
Suddenly, the building shook violently, like an earthquake had just rippled through the bedrock below. Esta grabbed hold of Harte in time to stay upright, and they clung to each other until the worst of the shaking stopped.
Viola cursed, crossing herself as she looked beyond the place where they were standing.
Esta turned to find a mass of greenish-gray smoke billowing up over the ledge of the building. The smoke continued to creep up over the edge of the roofline, rising around them as it coalesced again into another one of the beasts. Tendrils of smoke transformed into an enormous arm, and as it reached for them, Viola let out a vicious scream and sent her knife flying through the air.
It struck true, and as it disappeared into the smoke, the beast roared. Its chest split, bursting open as the creature was obliterated, but as the fog dissipated, a figure fell to the ground. It had been carrying someone within itself.
Cela, Esta realized in horror as the monster fell, releasing its victim. The knife had gone clear through its fog-formed body and had found purchase in Cela’s side.
Abel screamed his sister’s name and ran for where she’d fallen.
Viola started to follow, but Esta grabbed her. “We need to get to Jack.”
“No,” Viola said, trying to tear away from Esta. “I can save her. I can—”
Esta looked over to where Cela had fallen. Abel was there with her, holding her head in his lap. Her eyes were open, and though her face was bunched in pain, she was speaking to him.
“We will save her,” Esta promised. “But we have to stop Jack. If we don’t, more of those will attack. Until we destroy Thoth, none of this stops.”
Viola’s brows drew together, and Esta knew she wanted to argue. She tried to pull away, but Esta held her fast.
“You have to trust me on this, Viola,” she pleaded. She’d seen a future where Jack won, where the destruction of the Brink ended everything. She could not let that happen. “If Jack gets away, the Brink could fall, and then everything will have been for nothing. No one will make it out. Please help me. For Cela. For Theo.”
Certainty settled over Viola’s features. “Fine. Show me where the bastardo is. It’s time to end this.”
“There,” Esta told Viola, pointing to the stage, where Jack watched with amusement as his uncle and the others were being pressed back toward the edge of the roof. Soon, they’d run out of room and have nowhere else to go.
As the monsters herded the Inner Circle toward their inevitable end, Jack pressed a lever in the base of the Tree of Life, which had long since been emptied of its bare-chested birds. With a grinding of metal and gears, the branches slowly began to fold down and away, and in their place an enormous machine rose from within the stage.
Jack turned to them as his machine ascended into place. His eyes were already flooded with the inky blackness that signified Thoth’s presence. “Esta Filosik,” he purred in a voice older than the city. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Esta glanced at Harte and then at Viola, giving each of them a subtle nod to make sure they were ready. She could only hope that Jianyu had been successful in the tower and was in place as well.
She knew from the blackness that filled Jack’s eyes it would be pointless to use her affinity. To capture Thoth, they had to surround him, and they had to do it without depending on their magic. But they’d planned for this very eventuality, and she trusted her friends.
“I see you’ve decided to join us as well,” Jack said to Viola. “Convenient, though you and the Chinaman were supposed to wait for me downstairs.” His mouth curled. “No matter. I can harvest your power here as well as anywhere.”
Jack took the Pharaoh’s Heart from within his robes and slid the ornate blade into the machine. As it locked into place, Esta felt a burst of warning cold, and when the enormous orbital arms of the machine started to rotate, the building shivered. As they rotated, dodging in and out around one another like an enormous gyroscope, the arms picked up speed, and the dangerous energy snapping through the air started to build. She felt the Aether lurch as that icy energy coursed around them, like a whirlwind of power circling through the air.
There was no sign of Jianyu, but Esta knew they were out of time.
This was the same type of machine that had killed Tilly. And if they didn’t stop Jack, one like it would kill Sammie’s mother and countless others in San Francisco. If they didn’t stop him there and then, he’d never stop. Not until the old magic and everyone who had an affinity for it was wiped from this land.
Esta looked at Harte and saw the determination in his stormy eyes. Saw, too, everything he felt for her. Everything that lay between them. And she vowed that their story would not end there on that desolate rooftop at the hands of a madman. She would steal them a tomorrow. She would bring a different possibility into being.
Viola came up beside Esta, shoulder to shoulder. She straightened her spine and lifted her chin as she gave Esta a sure nod. Now or never.
Time seemed to hold its breath as Esta looked around the rooftop—at the chaos Jack had caused, at the steadfastness of her friends. There was no sign of Jianyu, but they couldn’t wait. She had to trust that he was in place.
