Nibs dabbed at his nose with the back of his hand. “I think it already is.”
“You’d betray your own kind? For what?” Harte said, his mind racing. “Dolph would free you. Hell, he has some do-gooder notion of freeing everyone.”
“You don’t actually believe that.” Nibs shook his head, disgust shadowing his features. “Dolph is no saint—you know that. ?You’ve seen what he’s capable of. You’ve seen what he’ll do for power. He loved Leena more than he loved anyone, and he managed to use her, to break her.”
“What the Order did to her wasn’t his fault,” Harte said, finally accepting that truth. Harte might have wanted to blame him still, but Dolph hadn’t created the Brink. He hadn’t been the one to push Leena over it.
“No, but the marks were.” Nibs nodded. “How do you think the marks worked, Darrigan?”
“Ritual magic. You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know,” Harte sneered, refusing to let Nibs goad him into attacking again. Not with Viola watching.
“So you know he used Leena’s affinity to create them?” Nibsy’s eyes were dancing. “Of course you didn’t know that. No one knew that particular fact.”
“Dolph never would have done that to Leena,” Harte said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.
“Don’t kid yourself. Leena had always been his protection. Her ability to block any Mageus within her sight from using their affinity against Dolph or his people kept him safe. But everything they worked together to build wasn’t enough for him. So he did a ritual to bring the marks to life, but he used her affinity in it. It weakened her. It made her angry, too. She said she forgave him, but I’m not sure that was completely true.” He tilted his head, thoughtful. “Maybe if he hadn’t taken so much from her, she could have fought the Order. Maybe she wouldn’t have died on the Brink.”
“Everyone dies on the Brink,” he said, not taking the bait.
Nibs inclined his head. “So I wonder why you would want to keep it up?”
“I’ve agreed to help Dolph, haven’t I?” Harte said, unease creeping through him. He couldn’t know. “We have a deal. You know that.”
“I know what you’ve told Dolph. But I also know you’re a talented liar, Darrigan.” Nibs shook his head. “I know a lot of things. About you. About Dolph. About how people work and the choices they’ll make. You might say I have an affinity for it.”
So that was his talent? The absolute sureness the kid seemed to have made his skin crawl. “You don’t know shit.”
“I know that Dolph is blinded by his need to put things to rights for Leena. To avenge her. But bringing down the Brink won’t destroy the hate and suspicion that feeds the Order’s power. It’ll only be the opening shot of a war he’s not ready to fight. Do you really think he’ll simply give the power of the Book away when he realizes what we’re truly up against? He couldn’t even leave Leena what she already had.”
Harte shifted uneasily. He didn’t trust Nibs—not after what he’d seen in the boy’s heart and mind—but what he was saying made a sick sort of sense. Still, he knew what Nibs intended. . . .
“So you’d take it upon yourself to undercut him? You’d take the Book’s power for yourself?? Use it to rule the Mageus who are left?”
“Saw that, did you?”
“I saw everything, Nibs.”
“Then you know that you and I aren’t so very different, Darrigan. We’re both working against Dolph. Neither of us has any desire to destroy the Brink. Which is why we’re going to keep working together. And in exchange, I’ll give you what you want most—a way out of the city.”
“Are you forgetting that you pledged Dolph your loyalty? When he finds out what you’re planning, you’re as good as dead.”
“You mean because of the mark?” the boy asked, ripping back his sleeve to show the tattoo below the crook of his elbow. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Darrigan. When Dolph tried to save Leena, the Brink took his ability to control us. The marks are useless now.”
It couldn’t be true—and yet Dolph had agreed almost too easily to Harte’s demand to refuse his mark. “Even if that’s true, you’re underestimating him.”
“No, I think my estimates have been perfect. My estimations are always perfect.” He gave a shrug that couldn’t hide his smugness.
“Not so perfect. I bet you weren’t estimating that you’d have a broken nose tonight.”
Nibs frowned, but he didn’t argue. “All that matters is that Dolph’s done everything I’ve expected him to do so far. And so have you.”
“Not anymore. I’m out,” Harte said, backing away. “I don’t want any part in what you’re planning. You might need me, but I don’t need you.”
Nibs laughed. Blood dripped down his lips and chin as he talked, but he didn’t seem to notice it. “You don’t understand, do you? There isn’t any way out for you, Darrigan. You’re in this to the end.”
“Like hell I am.”
Nibs took a step toward him. “What do you think you’re going to do? I know what you’ve been planning all along. You think you’ll take the Book and run, don’t you? Leave us all trapped in here while you find freedom. But let me ask you one question—do you have any idea where your mother is right now?”
Harte froze. “What does that matter?”
“You tell me.”
“After what she did to me, she can rot for all I care,” Harte said stiffly, but panic was already roiling in his stomach.
“Oh, that’s good,” Nibs said, clapping slowly. “Quite the performance. If you hadn’t asked Dolph to hide her from Kelly, I might even have believed you just now. But she’s your soft spot, Darrigan. Always has been. Dolph knew that. It’s why he sent Kelly after you.”
“Dolph wouldn’t work with Kelly.”
“To get you, he would. He did. It was my suggestion, and it’s worked out beautifully. They made a little trade—Dolph’s secrets for Kelly’s lackey. And you reacted exactly as he expected you to.” He licked his lips. “Dolph’s still too tied up with Kelly to bother giving me any trouble, but you ran right into his snare. The fact is you do care what happens to that mother of yours, and as long as you won’t cut her loose, the string she has you on is always going to be your noose.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Harte spat. If he could just get close enough to Nibs to touch him again without Viola noticing . . .
But she was still watching, and he had a feeling that if he did anything else to Nibs, she’d be in the mood to kill first and ask questions later.