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When the wagon came to a stop, Viola turned to Ruby again, pleading. “Please,” she said. “It will be better if I know you’re safe. If anything happened to you—”
Ruby’s eyes were glistening with tears as she leaned forward and kissed her, silencing her words. “I feel the same,” she whispered. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here waiting, and when this is over, we’re going to cross that bridge together.”
Viola looked up at the Brink, visible now. Icy energy mixed with sizzling heat, and the corrupt magic and natural power it had harvested for over a century pulsed and shivered, undulating slowly. Beyond the span, in the east, the edge of the world was beginning to glow with the promise of another day.
She kissed Ruby once more and vowed that day would arrive.
BETTER MEN
Jianyu helped Cela down from the bed of the wagon despite his misgivings. He would have rather she remained aboard and left with Abel, as Viola had suggested. They would have been safe in Brooklyn, whatever happened. But he saw the set of her jaw, the sharp determination in her eyes, and knew better than to waste his words with arguing. The truth of the matter was they would succeed or the world itself would die. Safety was an illusion that none of them could afford.
He released his hold on her waist and immediately regretted the loss. As her brother looked on from his perch on the wagon, he was unsure of what to say.
“Cela… I—”
But she shook her head. “Don’t you dare start telling me your good-byes,” she said. She had pulled her bravery around her, but he did not miss the way her lips trembled or the shine of tears in her eyes. “We have things to discuss, you and I. We’ve got plenty of time.”
“Cela,” he started again. She needed to understand. “If anything happens—”
“I’ll be right here,” she said. “Where I belong.”
He did not answer, but simply looked at her, trying to memorize every curve and angle of her face. He could not quite make himself move forward, but neither could he turn away.
She turned her face up to him and kissed him softly, there with her brother in plain view.
With his heart in his throat, Jianyu glanced up at where Abel sat, watching, but if Cela’s brother had any feelings about what he had just witnessed, they did not show.
Without another word, Jianyu joined his friends. Dolph was standing not six feet from the fiery wall of the Brink, gazing up with a sort of terrible wonder.
“You could have sent word,” Jianyu said as he came up next to his friend.
“No,” Dolph told him, glancing in his direction. “I couldn’t have. And you did well enough on your own.”
Jianyu huffed. He had let Nibsy Lorcan destroy everything Dolph had built—everything they had built together.
“You held it together,” Dolph told him as though reading his thoughts.
“Not enough,” he said with true regret. “The Devil’s Own will be glad to have you back at the head.”
“I’m not coming back,” Dolph told him. He turned to Jianyu. “If this works, I’m leaving. And if it doesn’t…” He shrugged. “There’s nothing in the city for me now.”
“But the Strega,” Jianyu said. “Everything you built?”
“It will be in good hands,” Dolph told him. He took the cane topper from within his coat and examined it. His jaw tightened, and without any warning, he lobbed the silvery head out over the edge of the bridge to the waiting water below. Then he turned back to Jianyu. “Well? What do you say? They’ll need someone to lead them. A better man than I’ve ever been.”
Realization dawned as Jianyu understood what he meant. “I could never,” he argued, taking a step back from the Brink and Dolph and everything that his offer entailed.
“You could,” Dolph told him. “It’s yours if you want it. It’s yours already, if you’ll only take it.”
“We have to get moving,” Esta said. “Something’s happening.”
Jianyu noticed then that the vibrations beneath their feet were growing in intensity. The streets of the city had grown even brighter and more frenzied.
“It’s the sunrise,” Viola said.
He understood immediately what she meant. At the solstice, the setting sun had charged the streets with power. Now the rising sun was doing the same. If it reached the correct angle…
“Quickly,” Jianyu shouted, already taking one of the sigils he had been carrying and offering it to Dolph. “We do not have much time.”
