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Cela understood immediately what Jianyu intended. Relief rocketed through her as she grabbed hold of his outstretched hand. Viola followed a half second later, but Abel and Joshua didn’t move.
“Come,” Jianyu said. “I can get you past them.”
But Abel only shook his head. “You get my sister out of here. Make sure she’s safe. Joshua and I will stay back and distract them. We’ll meet you at the new place.”
“No, Abe.” Cela started to release Jianyu, but his fingers tightened around hers.
“They aren’t looking for us,” Abel told her, and the determination in her brother’s expression made her pause. “Don’t worry, Rabbit. We’ll be right behind you.”
But it wasn’t enough. The Order’s patrols wouldn’t care if Abel and Joshua belonged there. She couldn’t just leave him behind, not when it was her fault that they were still there. If she hadn’t argued so much about waiting for Jianyu, they’d already be gone, and Abel wouldn’t be in danger.
“Abe—” She started to plead with him, but a violent pounding shook the door and silenced her.
“Open up!” a man shouted from the other side.
The patrol didn’t wait. A second later, the door flew open, the latch splintering at the force of the booted foot that had kicked it down.
Cela felt the world tilt suddenly, and her vision shifted, like she was looking through wobbly old glass. Before the men entering the room could careen into them, Jianyu pulled Cela and Viola back along the wall. Just barely out of reach.
Joshua and her brother were standing shoulder to shoulder, looking every bit as formidable as the light-haired white men who had just destroyed the entrance.
“Can we help you gentlemen?” Joshua said. He kept his voice contrite, almost humble. It was a dance he’d done too many times before. But Cela didn’t miss the way he lifted his chin.
Don’t start anything, Abe.
Cela felt Jianyu nudging her to the side, but she couldn’t just leave them there.
Just hold your temper and get out alive, she pleaded silently.
“We’re looking for a couple of maggots who were rumored to be seen in this neighborhood,” one of the other men said.
“Maggots?” Abel shot Joshua a doubtful kind of look. “Haven’t seen any maggots around here.” He paused, giving the men a steady glare. “Haven’t seen any Mageus, either.”
One of the men stepped forward. His expression was twisted into a sneer of distaste. “Same thing, ain’t it, boy?”
A muscle clenched in Abel’s jaw, but to Cela’s relief, he didn’t take the bait. Joshua was silent next to him, but he crossed his arms over his chest in defiance. How many times had they done this, faced men who refused to recognize their manhood? Too many. She knew it wore on him—it wore on her, as well—but it hadn’t broken him. It wouldn’t. Abel Johnson was too damn strong.
Cela felt Jianyu nudge her again, this time tugging gently at her arm, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t leave her brother there with those men. Not until she knew he was safe.
“Search the place,” the first man commanded. He was still glaring at Abe with open disgust, and he kept his gaze steady as the other two started tearing the meager furnishings apart.
Abel’s gaze shifted slightly to glance past the man confronting him, ignoring the pair who were already tearing apart the room. His eyes seemed to find the place she was standing, invisible though she was, as though pulled by magnets. Or maybe like magic.
Go, he told her without saying a word. Go. It was a command that she couldn’t refuse. Because it would only make it worse to stay—for him, and for them all.
This time she allowed Jianyu to pull her along. Together, they inched into the hallway, where they saw another two doors had been busted open by the other pair of mercenaries. She heard crying and felt Jianyu tug at Viola—a reminder that she could not use her magic here, not without harming the very innocents they were trying to protect.
In a matter of seconds they were out the back of the building in the rank-smelling alley where outhouses stood leaning unevenly in a row. Like every tenement, refuse from the residents was piled along the curb. But the area wasn’t empty. There was a single white boy standing there like the whole place belonged to him. Cela had heard enough about Nibsy Lorcan that it took only one glance at the boy’s gold-rimmed glasses and silver-topped cane for her to know who the kid was.
Jianyu skidded to a halt. Cela heard his sharp intake of breath, and the world went back into focus as he released her hand and reached for his chest. The boy blocking the way out of the alley only smiled softly as both Jianyu and Viola crumpled to the ground, like marionettes being cut from their strings.
“It’s good to see you again, Cela,” the boy said, his voice soft and almost conversational.
“Again?” Her skin was crawling with warning. Her friends were on their hands and knees now, struggling against whatever magic this boy was spinning, but she didn’t dare look away from him. It was like coming face-to-face with a snake. Any sudden movement, and she didn’t doubt he’d bite.
“We’ve never been formally introduced,” the boy said. “But I’ve been watching.” He gave her a small, dangerous smile that sent a skittering of unease down her spine. “You seem like a smart enough girl, but you have dangerous taste in friends.”
She sensed Jianyu collapse, and Viola followed quickly after. She wanted to stop whatever was happening to them, but she had the sense that showing how much she cared would be a mistake. Besides, she wasn’t about to kneel in front of this kid, not even to tend to her friends. Instead, she kept her eyes focused on the bespectacled boy and pretended that Jianyu and Viola weren’t gasping for life at her feet.
