The Serpent's Curse by Lisa Maxwell (read an ebook week .TXT) 📕

“It won’t hurt him,” she added quickly. The color deepened on her cheeks, like she was embarrassed—maybe even a little ashamed—of the concoction. Or maybe she was embarrassed because she’d been caught trying to keep this one from him.

Maggie knew how he felt about some of her formulations. It was one thing to use a bit of smoke to get away from the Jefferson Guard or the Society, but when you started messing with people’s minds—with their free will? Well, North didn’t quite know what he thought of that. “What, exactly, does it do?”

Even with her furious blushing, at least Maggie had the courage not to look away from him as she explained. “The solution will confuse his memories for a few days. He won’t be able to give anyone information about what happened or what he saw. Not for a while, at least. It will buy us some more time.”

“Can you two talk about this later?” Esta asked, looking even more pale than she had a moment before. She gave a nod to indicate that they should keep moving, and from the look she was wearing, North decided not to argue.

Outside the train, nearly two dozen riders, maybe more, were frozen on horseback, exactly like the porter had been. They looked like statues made of flesh and blood, defying the very laws of nature. Some of them were staring toward the train, and others had their mouths open, like they were caught in midshout. All of them were wearing a kind of angry determination North had seen in the eyes of Sundren too many times before.

Suddenly he understood the full significance of what Maggie had already realized. Esta could manipulate time. And she didn’t need any watch to do it.

Maybe that revelation shouldn’t have come as such a shock to him, but North had always thought the pocket watch his father had given him made him somehow exceptional. Now he understood that the watch—and his own affinity right along with it—wasn’t much more than a parlor trick compared to what Esta Filosik could do. He’d been around a lot of Mageus during his time with the Antistasi in St. Louis, but North had never seen anything like this. Like her.

The Devil’s Thief.

He’d helped Mother Ruth and the Antistasi use the legend of the Thief to undertake all manner of deeds as they fought against the Veiled Prophet Society, but North had never really imagined that there could be anything to the stories. He’d thought it was all a bunch of horseshit to pretend that any single person could be that powerful. Now he found himself thinking—and hoping—that he’d been wrong. Esta had better be every bit as powerful as all the papers believed, because if she let go of time now, they would be exposed.

They maybe could’ve tried to make it to the town, but who knew what was waiting for them there—probably more of the same marshals, since that was the direction the riders seemed to have come from. In the near distance, though, a cluster of wooden towers sprang up from the otherwise desolate landscape and gave them another option. They looked like oil rigs.

“If we can get over there,” he told them, pointing toward the oil fields, “maybe we can lie low and figure out what to do next.”

“Then let’s go.” Esta nodded for North to lead the way.

They took off together, with the two girls following North in an awkward, loping run. Each step drew them closer to safety, and North started to think that maybe they could get out of the mess they were in after all.

They were about fifty yards from the train when North felt Esta jerk him back, her grasp tightening like a vise around his hand. He looked back to find out what had happened, but what he saw didn’t make any sense. Esta had stopped short, her expression twisting like she was in pain, but it was hard to look at her for very long. North could see her clearly enough when he didn’t stare straight at her, but he couldn’t quite focus on her. Beyond Esta, the world had gone all blurry-like. He couldn’t make out much of anything at all, including Maggie.

North didn’t have time even to begin processing what he was seeing before Esta’s hand went suddenly slack. Her grip had been so steady, so determined, that the last thing he’d expected was for Esta to let go of him, so he wasn’t prepared when her hand slipped from his and her legs collapsed beneath her. The second Esta released him, everything lurched into chaos. North was already moving, acting on instinct to scoop Esta into his arms before she hit the ground. Around them, the noise of the world felt suddenly deafening with the heavy roar of the train and the thunderous beats of the horses’ hooves.

A shout went up, and North knew they’d been spotted. The shot ricocheting off the ground next to them a moment later confirmed it. With one look at Maggie’s terrified expression, he began to shift his grip on Esta so that he could reach for his watch.

“Put me down,” Esta demanded, wriggling to get free from his hold. From how feebly she was pushing at him, he wasn’t sure she could walk on her own, but North let go. Sure enough, her legs wobbled a bit, and he had to catch her with one arm.

Maggie held out her hand to Esta. “We need more time.”

But Esta didn’t reach for Maggie’s hand again, like North had expected. Esta’s eyes were wide and her face had drained of all its color. She was shaking her head. “We need to go—the watch.”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” North ground out as he flipped open the cover. His hands shook as he adjusted the dial. “Grab hold of me,” he told them.

Another volley of shots rang out, the clear report of them echoing through the hot Texas sky as he closed