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Inside the boundary formed by the silver discs, the air felt heavier. Magic crackled and cold power lashed at his skin. Esta was in the center, wrestling with Jack. She’d managed to pin him down, but her face was contorted in agony with the effort of holding him and Thoth. Darkness was beginning to pour from Jack’s mouth, but it remained within the narrow boundary they’d created. With every passing second, it swirled faster and faster as Thoth tried to escape.
Harte knelt across from Esta, with Jack between them. Her eyes widened when she saw him there. He couldn’t hear anything over the roaring that filled the circle, but he knew what she was trying to tell him. She wanted him to go, to save himself and the others, but he only shook his head.
“Together!” he shouted, and then he pressed one hand over hers and one to Jack’s chest and focused everything he was into both of them. He sent the command out, felt it hit against the wall of Thoth’s consciousness, and pressed onward.
Just a man.
Beneath his knees, the building quaked again, and Harte felt the blistering heat of Esta’s magic sizzling along his skin.
He’d known from the beginning that she was powerful. He’d known all along that her affinity was unique. But Harte hadn’t truly realized what Esta could do. Until that moment, when he felt the full force of her affinity coursing around him, he’d never truly understood what she was capable of. Beneath his hands, he felt Thoth’s pain and fear. He sensed the ancient being’s absolute terror at what was happening to him, and Harte finally understood then what Esta could do—what she was.
Like Seshat. The same.
It was why the goddess had wanted her from the beginning. Because with her affinity, she could unmake the world if she wanted to. She could tear at the threads of creation and spread wide the spaces between what was and wasn’t. She could destroy everything, and in the midst of that swirling storm of magic and darkness, he wondered if maybe she would.
Esta gave another wrenching groan, and Harte felt her magic snapping and sizzling around him as she called to the Aether and commanded the quintessence of existence. He could feel the heat of her power, the strength of it.
The malevolent cloud around them began to churn until suddenly it broke. Not into hundreds of pieces, as it had in Chicago, but into nothing. He felt the instant Thoth was torn from creation, because suddenly Harte’s connection to the man within was gone. At the same instant, Esta pulled her hands away from Jack and nearly collapsed.
Jack wasn’t moving, but he was still breathing—not that Harte was overly concerned.
Esta started to fall over, and Harte lurched to catch her. He moved around Jack, so he could better position her in his arms. She was breathing heavily, and her skin was clammy and damp with sweat.
“Is he gone?” She trembled a little, her body exhausted from all she’d just done. “Did we do it?”
Harte nodded. “You did.”
Relief flickered across her face, but then all at once her features contorted in agony, and she let out a shout of pain. Her mouth opened in a silent scream.
“Esta?” Harte brushed her hair back, tried to get her to look at him, but her eyes were opened, focused on the midnight sky above. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”
She looked at him then, terror in her golden eyes.
Suddenly, Viola screamed, and Harte felt the boundary around them, the wall of energy created by the sigils, become dangerously fragile. Viola’s body had gone rigid. Her head was thrown back, and her spine was arched. Jianyu was the same. They looked like they were being tortured.
Something moved on the edge of the roof. Harte turned in time to see Nibsy Lorcan approaching.
Harte adjusted his hold on Esta and helped her to her feet. He’d be damned if they’d face Nibsy on their knees. The boundary around them felt suddenly dangerous, and Esta whimpered. Her knees seemed to go out from beneath her, but Harte caught her up against him again.
They had to get out of the boundary.
“Drop the sigils,” Harte told Viola. “Just let them go. You have to break their connection so we can get out of here.” He pulled Esta toward the edge of the circle, but the cold energy surged again, pushing him back into the center.
Viola let out a keening moan, but she didn’t drop the balls of light in her hand.
“Now, now,” Nibsy said, mocking. “It’s far too soon for you to be leaving. After all, I’ve just barely arrived. And we have so much to do.”
Harte looked at Jianyu and Viola, but they were clearly struggling against some unseen force.
“They can’t help you,” Nibsy told him, taking a silvery object out of his pocket. “Not so long as I have this.”
The Medusa’s head from Dolph’s cane. Harte stared in disbelief. “We took that,” he said, his mind spinning. How had Nibsy gotten it back? “We unmade it.”
“You don’t really think I’d walk around carrying the real one? Unlike Dolph, I’m not some dumb mark, Darrigan,” he told Harte. “But it seems you are. And with the ring to amplify my affinity, I can do so much more with this beauty than Dolph ever dreamed.”
He kissed the gorgon’s mouth. Viola cried out, and Jianyu groaned in pain. Esta had gone stiff in his arms. Somehow Nibsy was using his control over Viola and Jianyu to control the area within the sigils, and Esta with it.
Nibsy only smiled.
