The Shattered City by Lisa Maxwell

Author:Lisa Maxwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2022-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

OTHER PASTS, OTHER FUTURES

1983—Grand Central Terminal

Esta allowed Harte to lead her into the waiting subway car just before the doors slid shut, but her arm was still buzzing with warmth from the old lady’s magic. From between the various graffiti tags that covered the windows, she watched the woman droop to the floor while the people on the station tried to hold on to their hats or held their hands up to ward off the swirling wind.

There was still magic in the city, maybe even more than when she had grown up. There were still Mageus there, too, despite Thoth and the Order and everything Esta herself had done to the course of history. Maybe the Brink was still standing, and maybe the Order had more of a presence, but she remembered the old lady’s words and wondered if what she’d done in Chicago had helped others like her. Maybe instead of forgetting, instead of simply allowing magic to die, more had decided to fight.

“What was she doing to you?” Harte asked as they found two empty seats. His voice was barely audible over the clacking of the car.

Esta rotated her arm and tested her injured side. “I think she was healing me?”

He frowned, as though he didn’t quite believe anything could be that simple. She wasn’t sure that she believed it either, but her side no longer ached. The wounds on her arm no longer felt tight and sore.

“But what was all that about being marked?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she told him. “I’ve never heard of any kind of trace or mark before—not in any time. But who knows what Thoth has been capable of since I freed him.”

“You tried to stop him,” Harte reminded her.

“It doesn’t matter what I tried to do,” she argued. “Not when the results hurt people.”

“I know,” he told her, and there was a pang of regret in his words. She didn’t have to ask to know he was thinking about Sammy.

She leaned into Harte, resting her head against his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around her, nestling her into his embrace. They didn’t need to say anything else, not when they both understood each other so perfectly. She wished she could let herself imagine that they were any young couple on their way uptown together. Safe. Content. Normal.

But Esta had never been normal, whatever that meant, and there wasn’t time for playing pretend. She had no idea what the trace was that the old woman said they’d been marked with, but she suspected that it was the reason the Guard had found them at the Algonquin. She’d used her affinity to get them the clothes and likely had set off some sort of magical alarm. It meant they couldn’t use their affinities or any magic without summoning the Order. It meant they likely wouldn’t be safe as long as they were in that time, in that version of the city.

“We have to go back, Harte. And we have to go soon.”

Harte let out a tired-sounding sigh.

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