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“I’m not going anywhere, Esta.” His breath was warm on her face. “Not now, not ever.”
“I don’t want you to regret it,” she whispered.
“I could never regret choosing you,” he told her. Then he kissed her again, slow and deep, and as she lost herself in the feel of his lips, the strength of his arms, and the warmth of him, her worries began to ease.
He pulled away and broke the kiss only when a passing carriage clattered by. “Let’s go home, Esta.”
Home. The word meant more than their small apartment just north of Washington Square. It meant Harte and the future they could build together. It meant everything.
She looped her arm through his, and with their bodies pressed close together, they continued through the snow. They’d gone only a little more than a block when he spoke again.
“Do you miss it?” he asked. “Your affinity, I mean? I know what it was like to take the Quellant, but at least I knew that it would wear off eventually. What you did, what you sacrificed…”
“I wouldn’t change anything.” She’d be lying to say that it had been easy to adjust, but she didn’t regret the choice she’d made. “I’m still not used to not having a connection to the old magic. It feels a little like losing a limb must. Like my affinity should be there. Like it is there, and I’ve just forgotten how to reach it.”
“You’ll never go back to your own time again,” Harte said softly.
“I know.” She’d made peace with that. Mostly.
They turned north to cut through the park. Gas lamps flickered, throwing their soft light on the shimmering snow. Esta looked up at the sweep of stars overhead and knew she’d be okay. With Harte next to her, with her friends safe, she would be grateful for every day that lay ahead of her. They would make their own magic. And if she would never again see a speeding car or enjoy the luxuries of her own time? It did not matter. What she’d received in return was so much more.
But in the depth of the night, it was easy to see what the city would become. It was so easy to remember the towering height, the speed and the noise. She looked up, where one day there would be a great arch anchoring Washington Square, and beyond, uptown, where one day buildings would scrape the clouds. She thought she saw the shape of something glimmering there in the night sky, the familiar peak of the Empire State Building. And she wondered…
The night eased around them, and her steps slowed to stopping.
“Esta?”
She slipped her hand into Harte’s and watched with wonder as the glimmering tower became more clear, more real. Her heart began to race.
“I think…” But it seemed too dangerous to say the words aloud.
“What is it?” he asked.
She could not stop smiling. It couldn’t be. And yet…
The city settled around her, welcoming her home. Embracing her as its own. Urging her on. There in the darkness she could see the infinite. She’d sacrificed everything willingly. She’d given up her magic in its entirety. But it wasn’t gone. Instead of being within her, it was all around her, anchoring her to the city. Connecting her to time itself. Her magic was still there in the spaces of the night, ready and waiting for her to reach for it. To grasp it.
“Come with me,” Esta said, and together she stepped with Harte into the darkness, through time, to that other city waiting beyond.
