But Esta forced herself to ignore the sappy sentiment. It took everything she had to guide them to the moment she wanted. In the distance, the Freedom Tower—the city’s one-fingered salute to the rest of the world—began to fade. The city dimmed around them and she felt that push-pull sensation, like she would fly apart and collapse in on herself all at once as she pulled them to the date she needed. The park receded and the city of yesterday began to materialize, and just as she was almost through, just before the present disappeared and the past was made real, Logan began to scream and tear at the bag he had strapped to his chest, the bag that contained the other artifacts and the Book.
Instinctively, she understood that this was the best chance she would have. She gave her arm a vicious twist, wrenching herself away from him, and Logan, who was still focused on the bag, let her go just as they landed hard on the damp cobbled streets of Old New York.
Her entire body was shaking with the effort it had taken to get away from him, and the cuff on her arm was warm. The neighborhood was eerily quiet for the middle of the day. In the distance, she heard the clanging of bells and smelled the heavy chemical smell of buildings burning.
Slipping through time always left Logan momentarily dizzied, and it did this time as well. He’d barely managed to pull the bag off and toss it away from himself when a group of darkly dressed boys came around the corner. Five Pointers.
Their eyes lit when they saw the two of them lying on the sidewalk, Logan still dazed from the trip, and their pace increased.
But before the boys could reach her, Esta pulled time slow and scooped the bag up. She brushed the grime of the streets from her dress, and with the world silent and still around her, she started to walk. She had somewhere she needed to be, a life she needed to save. She had to go back. She had to get to the bridge. Logan could fend for himself.
THE MAGICIAN
March 1902—The Brooklyn Bridge
The Magician stood at the edge of his world and took one last look at his city. ?Around him, chaos erupted on the bridge, but his eyes were on the only thing that mattered—Esta.
Go, he willed her. She had to take the Book where they would all be safe from it. She had to take herself there too, far away from Nibs or Jack or anyone else who might use her. Including him. If the Order ever found out what she was, what she could do . . .
Go.
But she wore the same stubborn expression he recognized from every other time he’d tried to get her to do something. She wasn’t leaving. She wasn’t getting away while she could. He’d expected her stubbornness, though, had known he would have to take the decision from her. It was only one step. A single step and it would all be over.
He closed his eyes and let himself feel the wind on his face one last time as he leaned into it—
And then he was falling, and the air around him pushed and pulled at him, pressing in on his body until he was so dizzy he thought he would vomit, his head pounding with an unnatural pressure. He fell and fell until he hit the ground in front of him, with something—someone—pinning him down.
He heard a soft, feminine moan, and the weight rolled off him.
“Jianyu?” Esta’s voice came to him like a dream. “What are you doing here?”
It took him a second to find his voice, to make himself understand what he was seeing, but it was Esta. It was really Esta, not some dream of her. ?The bridge was empty and silent, and she was sprawled across Jianyu’s back, looking more confused than he’d ever seen her. And he wasn’t dead.
“He was helping me,” Harte said, pulling himself up. He was still reeling from the shock of seeing her. The absolute wonder at being alive, when moments ago he’d thought Jianyu had decided to let him fall.
“Helping you?” She pulled herself off ?Jianyu, who lay unconscious on the ground. “Helping you do what?”
“Fake my own death.” He swallowed uncomfortably when her expression seemed more angry than relieved.
Esta just stared at him with her eyes wide and a look of utter consternation on her face. It was maybe the first time he’d ever seen her at a loss for words.
“You’re shaking,” Harte said, touching her cheek with a trembling hand. Her skin was pale, her hair a mess around her face.
“I’m fine,” she told him, but she didn’t push him away. Then, all at once, her face crumpled. “You idiot,” she said, slapping Harte. “You told me you were going to jump.” Her voice was nearly manic, and her eyes were wild with unshed tears. “I thought you were dead,” she cried, her voice cracking as her chin trembled.
“I’m not dead,” he said softly, glad to hear his voice was so steady, considering how shaken he felt. He hadn’t known for sure that Jianyu was going to be there, as they’d planned. When he’d leaned into the wind, Harte was forcing himself to put all his trust, his entire life, into someone else’s hands.
She slapped him again, and he raised his arms to fend off the attack, but fell over instead, his head spinning from the motion. “Esta, stop!”
“You lied to me again!”
“I had to,” he said, pulling himself upright again. He caught her hands, gently, so that she couldn’t hit him again. “I needed you to get the Book away from Nibs and Jack, and I knew you wouldn’t leave any other way.”
But her expression didn’t soften. Her golden eyes were still filled with fire. “You told me the Order would never stop hunting you.”
“They won’t.”
Jianyu moaned nearby but hadn’t yet come to.
“Then why?”
She seemed to have calmed down, so he released her hands. “I was going back to the city, to stop Nibs and the Order . . . to create a different future for you to return to.”
Esta went still, her expression wary. “And I’m just supposed to believe you now?”
“He speaks truly,” Jianyu added with a groan as he finally pulled himself upright. “We arranged everything after Dolph was found.” He took a look around and seemed to realize finally that the bridge was empty. “What happened? Where did everyone go?” he asked, puzzled.
“They left hours ago,” Esta explained.
“Hours?”
“For you, it would have felt like moments,” Esta told him. “I thought I was just grabbing Harte. I didn’t realize you were there too when I reached through.”
Jianyu looked utterly perplexed. “Reached through?”
“Through time,” she said. “I couldn’t come all the way through. So I just kind of . . . pushed you past the moment you were in, to a different time.” She rubbed at her arm, and pain flickered across her expression. “It’s a long story.”
Jianyu peered at Esta with confusion and no little amount of curiosity. “I would be most interested to hear your explanation.”
“Later.” Harte turned to Esta. “We had to make the Order and Nibs, everyone, believe that I was gone,” he said, trying to explain. “Hell, you were supposed to believe it too. You were supposed to stay in your own time, when you’d be safe.”
“There’s no such thing as safe anymore,” she said softly. Then she looked to Jianyu. “Does Viola know too? Was she in on this?”
“I thought the fewer who knew, the better. Easier to avoid suspicion around Nibs,” Jianyu told her.
“Nibs,” Esta said, her voice breaking.
Then she told them about Nibs and Professor Lachlan, about Dakari’s death and Logan’s betrayal.
“How did you ever get away?” Harte asked.