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She was shaking her head, unable to admit it even to herself.
“How long have you known this might be a danger to us?”
“I didn’t know,” she told him. “Not for sure.”
“When?” Jianyu demand.
She flinched at the rare fury in his words. “The night of the solstice.”
“You kept this information from me?” Jianyu asked. “I thought we were together in this. I thought—”
“I didn’t believe it!” Viola snapped, fear warring with the anger she felt at herself for not listening to her instincts. Then her shoulders sagged. “When it happened, I told myself it was nothing. I didn’t want to believe it could be possible, but…” She shook her head again, as though the motion could shake away the truth. “When we were coming down from the roof that night, before Paolo was taken, Nibsy made another of his stupid threats, and I thought I felt something. But it shouldn’t have been possible.”
“Perhaps not, but it is,” Jianyu told her, reaching behind himself, so he could rub at his own back, where the tattoo of an ouroboros that matched hers lay beneath his tunic.
“No,” Viola said, her mouth tight. “I cannot believe this. I won’t. It must be a trick. If he could truly use the marks as you say, you would not have escaped.”
“He allowed me to leave,” Jianyu told her. “Cat and mouse. He is only toying with us, but when his patience runs out, he will come after the discs. And as long as we wear the marks, he can unmake us.”
Viola tightened her grip on the dagger. “He can’t use the marks if he’s dead.”
“Even if you could get close enough to kill him, it is no answer,” Jianyu said. “Not when the Devil’s Own all still believe in his forked tongue. We cannot fight them all,” Jianyu told her. “And I know you, Viola. You do not want to kill those we once counted as friends.”
Viola cursed softly, a string of Italian that would have made any of her brother’s men blush. But Jianyu had already turned back to Cela, pleading.
“That is why you have to go,” Jianyu said, turning to look at Cela. It was there again, that expression of longing in his eyes when he looked at her. The one that made Viola feel bereft.
“He’s right,” Viola told Cela and Abel. “As long as this danger exists, we cannot protect you.” They could not even protect themselves.
“It’s what I’ve been telling her for weeks now,” Abel said.
“We don’t even know what the discs do yet,” Cela argued. “You could be sending me away for no good reason at all.”
“If Nibsy Lorcan wants them, it is essential that he never gets them. You are the only one who can do this. You are the only one of us who can cross the Brink and take the discs where Nibsy Lorcan cannot reach them.” Jianyu paused. “Where he cannot reach you.”
A shrill whistle sounded from outside the small, high window in the wall.
“That’s Joshua’s signal,” Abel told them. “It’s time to go.”
Jianyu felt the mood of the room shift as everyone went silent. From somewhere just outside the building came the sound of shouting.
“We’re leaving,” Abel told Cela. “And we’re leaving right now.”
But before they could get out the door, Joshua was there, launching himself into the room and shutting it firmly behind him. “They’re here!” he said, panting with the exertion of his sprint. “Five men. They saw me before I could get in here.”
Through the thin wooden door, the sound of pounding and shouting came from the other end of the hallway.
“I can take care of this,” Viola said, stepping toward the door, but Jianyu caught her gently by the arm.
“You cannot touch them,” he said. “If they are looking for you, they likely know your affinity. If you harm them here, the Order will know. You will put everyone in this building in the Order’s sights.”
“He’s right,” Abel said, his jaw going tight. “If the Order knows Mageus were being hidden here, it would make the entire community look complicit.”
Joshua swore. “This is exactly what we were worried about.”
“We won’t allow that to happen,” Viola promised them, looking at Jianyu.
He understood immediately and offered her his hand as the pounding and shouting drew closer. “Take hold. Quickly, and they will not find any of us.”
