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“We have the Book and the artifacts, and thanks to what the girl did, Seshat’s trapped within its pages,” he argued. “She’s not a danger anymore.”
“She’s not the only danger,” Esta told him.
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
She hadn’t had time to tell him—not with all that had happened. Or maybe she’d been avoiding it. “It isn’t over, Harte.”
“Seshat isn’t a threat anymore, Esta.”
“But the Book is,” she told him. “As long as there’s a piece of pure magic in that Book, someone could use it. As long as it remains apart from the whole of magic and vulnerable to time, everything is at risk. Whoever controls it could control time itself. It isn’t enough to put Seshat back into the Book. We have to fix the ritual Seshat began.”
“We don’t—”
“We do,” she argued. “Until it’s done, no one is safe. The world isn’t safe. We need to return the piece of magic to the whole. I need to, Harte.”
“It isn’t your job,” he said, looking panicked. “You can’t save the world. You shouldn’t have to.”
“Seshat thought I could. And if I can—because I can—I do have to,” she countered. “And what about the Brink? What about the city? We could fix the Brink and free the Mageus trapped here. I could free you. Those answers are up there. I know they are.”
Harte was silent at first, but finally he gave in. “Fine,” he said, not sounding like he meant it. “But quickly. And if anything else happens, we leave. No arguments.”
“But—”
“I’ve lost you once today, Esta,” he told her, his voice breaking around the words. “Don’t ask me to do it again.”
Her heart clenched. “You’re not going to lose me, Harte—”
“I can’t,” he said. His eyes were determined. “I won’t. Promise me. If I say we leave, we leave. No questions. No arguments.”
She bristled at the command in his tone, but there were too many shadows flickering in the depths of his eyes for her to be truly angry.
“At the first sign of trouble, we’re gone,” she told him. “I swear.”
He didn’t look convinced, but his shoulders relaxed a little. “So what’s the plan?”
She considered their options. “The elevator,” she told him, realizing it wasn’t included in any of the images on the monitor screens. “I’ll have to let go of time to use it—”
“No—”
“We’ll be at risk until it opens,” she said, ignoring his protest. “But they haven’t entered the library yet. As long as we can get to the top floor before they get through the door, they’ll never see us.”
He studied the glowing screens. “This is a terrible idea.”
“There’s no other door, Harte.” She pointed to the end of the room, where the doorway had been sealed off by something more than a simple steel plate. “There’s only one way in and out of this floor—through the elevator. We might as well go to the library.”
His jaw was set, and he still looked unconvinced, but he allowed her to pull him toward the elevator doors.
“Ready?” she asked, hoping that they weren’t making a mistake.
He didn’t look ready at all. “There has to be a better way.”
“There isn’t. Not as far as I can see.” She gave his hand a sure squeeze.
Not bothering to wait for Harte’s next argument, Esta took one more breath before she let go of her affinity and allowed the seconds to spool out. Immediately, the buzzing alarm was back, and so was the sizzling noise from the doorway. Without wasting any time, she pushed the call button. They waited, their hands still clasped tightly together—ready for anything—as they listened to the groaning climb of the lift. The noise of it echoed through the building, louder than it had ever been in her childhood, and she knew the Guardsmen could likely hear it too.
The elevator came to a lumbering stop, and as the doors began to open, she pulled Harte back at the last second. Just before one of the Guard rushed out.
Without hesitating, she pulled at her affinity, cursing as she slammed the seconds to a stop. But the Guard had already seen them. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
