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But Jericho wasn’t looking at Cordelia or paying her any attention. His gaze was on Maggie, and there was a light in his eyes that made her stomach flip a little. “Maybe Esta doesn’t have to be necessary to our plans,” he said softly. “To yours and mine.”

“What are you talking about?” Maggie asked, not quite understanding. The Antistasi’s plans were their plans. Weren’t they?

Jericho came over to take Maggie’s hands in his. She could feel how rough they’d already become. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days, Mags. Maybe we should let this whole business go. The Antistasi. Esta Filosik. We could leave it all behind. We could start a life somewhere before we run out of chances.”

Maggie’s whole body suddenly felt cold. “Even if Esta’s gone, we still have a chance to get one of the artifacts.”

“One of them?” Cordelia asked. “But y’all said you have the necklace.”

Maggie exchanged a nervous glance with Jericho.

“You said you had the Djinni’s Star,” Cordelia repeated. “Y’all told me the necklace was safe.”

“We did have it,” Jericho told Cordelia. “But her partner took the necklace and ran off as we were leaving St. Louis.”

“Y’all are telling me you lost the artifact and the Thief??” Cordelia said, her expression unreadable. “That’s the real reason y’all disappeared after the train explosion, ain’t it? You were hiding your failure. I bet you wouldn’t have even bothered to return to the Antistasi if I hadn’t found you.”

“Of course we would have!” Maggie exclaimed. Her stomach churned at the way Cordelia was staring at her, but she had to stay calm. She had to figure this out. “I thought if we could get the dagger, it would make up for losing the necklace,” she explained. “We hoped it would be enough.” She turned back to Jericho. “Which is why we have to get the Pharaoh’s Heart. We can’t give up now. Not when there’s still a chance that we could help the Antistasi to change things—really change things—for Mageus in this country.”

North pushed back a piece of hair that had fallen into her face. The motion was so gentle, and the look on his face was tender enough to make Maggie want to cry. “If the Antistasi haven’t changed anything in a thousand years, what makes you think that we’re the ones who can finally get the job done?”

Because I have to, Maggie thought, the buzzing panic swarming through her again now.

“Who else will do it, Jericho?” she asked instead.

“Let Cordelia here take over,” he said. “Let’s get out of here. You and me. Right now.”

Jericho didn’t understand. How could he, when she hadn’t told him everything?

Maggie’s head was shaking already, as though her body knew what the answer had to be. “You found me because of the Antistasi. Who am I if I’m not this?” she asked him. “Who am I if I walk away without even trying to make it right?”

Jericho let out a ragged breath, and she could sense his growing frustration. “I found Ruth’s organization because I was young and hotheaded, but you have to know by now that I only ever really stayed for you, Mags. Maybe Esta disappearing is the sign we needed. Let’s go somewhere new and start a life together. We could stop running and fighting and just be. We don’t have to stop helping people. You could help a lot of people with those formulas of yours, if you wanted to. We could build a little home and maybe even have us a couple of kids. We could be happy.”

Maggie could practically see them already, the children the two of them might have one day. Carrot-colored hair and freckles and impish, dimpled smiles. She could see them running and playing in this fairy tale he was building for her out of nothing but his words, and her heart clenched. Because she wanted it so desperately.

But it could never be hers if she walked away from this.

“And what then?” Maggie asked, her voice hollow as she turned the dream against him. “If these children you’re imagining are born with the old magic, will we teach them to hide themselves away, as we were taught? Will we teach them to push down whatever affinity they might have and tell them that the old magic is a secret no one can know?”

North’s expression softened. “I don’t know, Mags. I don’t have all the answers, but we’re not the only ones with hardships in this world. There are plenty of Sundren who carry their own burdens through life, and they don’t let those problems stop them from loving and living.”

Maggie was aware of Cordelia standing nearby, watching and listening to every word they said. The sharpshooter had contacts in the network, but Maggie was only truly worried about one.

You’re not the only one with friends in high places. Cordelia’s words ricocheted through her brain, stirring up fear. Hardening her resolve.

Maggie wished she could set her responsibilities aside and step into Jericho’s arms, but her burdens weren’t so easy to set down, not when they were shaped like the lives of the people she loved. For her, stepping away from the path she’d been on her whole life would be more like walking off a cliff.

“I can’t give up now,” Maggie whispered, almost wishing that it wasn’t true.

“It’s not giving up to reach out and claim a life for ourselves, Mags,” North said, squeezing her hand gently. In his eyes was the hope for a future she’d never thought to imagine.

She might have said yes. The word was pressing at her mouth, willing her to let it out, but before she could, a noise drew her attention. A moaning sound that soon solidified into a girl.

Esta was back.

A SIMPLE TRICK

1904—San Francisco