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“Now!” she screamed, and just as they’d planned, Esta ran directly for Jack.
As she’d hoped, her attack drew his attention, distracting him long enough for Harte and Viola to get in position. They already had their sigils, were already setting them spinning, when suddenly Jianyu was there as well—appearing from the night behind Jack. He was holding two of the sigils and with his position, completed the circle with her and Jack inside.
Not only Jack.
When Esta had lunged for Jack, Thoth had surged. But she’d expected him to. She’d been ready, and he’d been so focused on attacking her that it was already too late for Thoth or Jack to stop the others from trapping them within the boundary of the sigils. Already, Esta could feel the strange, cold energy as the discs transformed into golden orbs of light and power. Harte shouted the command, and she felt the Aether shift as a boundary erupted, connecting the sigils, trapping her and Thoth within.
She barely had time to appreciate the silence within that circle, the way that she felt suddenly severed from everything around her, because in an instant, Jack was on her and it was clear that he wasn’t going to go easy on her because was a woman.
But she’d expected that as well.
With a vicious twist of her arm, Esta tore herself out of Jack’s grip and, letting her body move on instinct that had been drilled into her for her entire childhood, she maneuvered around him, swept his legs out from under him, and then pinned him to the ground. Her knee was across his throat, holding him in place, as she pushed her hands against Jack’s chest.
“Where is your weapon, girl?” Jack—or the thing inside him—said in an ancient voice.
She gave him a cold smile. “I’m the weapon.” Who needed a knife when the power within her could slice through creation? She focused on her connection to the old magic, and as her affinity swelled, she pressed her magic into Jack.
Jack suddenly looked nervous. When he spoke again, it was Jack’s true voice that came from his mouth. “Please, Esta,” he said, his voice breaking. “Please. I don’t want to die.”
She felt a pang of pity for the fear in his eyes—for the humanity he’d thrown aside. But there wasn’t time for pity. Not when the world was at stake.
She pressed her affinity into him further and found Thoth’s power waiting there.
“You cannot win, girl.” The thing inside Jack began to laugh. And when he spoke again, the voice that came out of Jack’s mouth was her own. “You cannot free the world of me, Esta Filosik. Not without destroying yourself.”
She would not be distracted.
Reaching for her magic again, Esta forced the spaces apart. Tearing at time and existence and the substance that held Thoth to this world.
Jack’s eyes went inky black again, and Esta could sense Thoth’s fear. She felt his anger as well, but she didn’t pause or hesitate. She concentrated harder, focused all her magic—that connection to the spaces between all things—into Jack, into Thoth, and then she began to slowly tear them apart.
She felt Thoth—all that he had ever been—struggle against her hold on him. She heard his laughter somehow echoing deep within herself, a wild and hysterical cackling that would have been terrifying if she didn’t have his very existence in the palm of her hand.
With everything she had, she took hold once more, but Thoth reared up suddenly, blasting her with the strength of power he’d collected over centuries. The force of it jangled along the connection between them, and she felt her affinity begin to waver.
POWER CONTAINED
Harte felt the strange, unnatural energy of the barrier created by Newton’s Sigils course through him like icy dread as Esta battled alone against both Jack and Thoth together. As she fought, the power within the sigils surged and pulsed more wildly than they ever had before.
The building quaked beneath his feet, and the city shuddered while darkness swirled within the confines of the sigils like some malevolent storm about to break. Esta was clearly straining now, and her expression was twisted with the determination to keep Thoth from breaking free. He felt the warmth of her magic waver and prayed to any angel or demon who might hear that her affinity would be enough.
Around the circle, he saw his friends struggle to keep hold. Viola cursed and gritted her teeth. Her expression was tense with the strain of fighting against the magic that whipped through the air around them. Jianyu’s neck was corded with the effort of holding on.
“We can’t let him out,” Harte yelled, reminding them all of what was at stake.
He sensed the boundary they’d created was growing fragile and unsteady, and he had the sinking sense that it was too much. Thoth was too much. But Harte had walked through a world where Thoth’s power wasn’t contained by any one man, and he refused to let that happen again.
The darkness billowed within the confines of the sigils, pushing and pawing like some demon sent to destroy. But Thoth was neither god nor demon. He’d once been nothing more than a simple man who, like Jack, had tried to claim far more than he’d had any right to. The centuries might have twisted him into something more, but at heart, he was human, the same as Seshat had been. Not even Mageus. And a man could be moved.
“Take this,” Harte said, gesturing to Viola that she should take the sigil he held. “Esta needs help. Take it!”
Viola hesitated, momentarily confused at his command, before she realized what he intended. Carefully, she inched closer, until he could set the spinning ball of power in her hand. With it, she could take his place and keep the boundary unbroken.
“Whatever you do, don’t let go,” he told the two of them. “Everything depends on it.”
“We won’t,” Jianyu shouted. “Go!”
Without hesitation, Harte stepped into the storm.
