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

my husband brought the pieces home, I sensed them, even before he showed them to me.” She paused.

Esta waited silently, because it felt like something as simple as breathing might shatter the moment. But she immediately understood the implication of what Patience Lowe had just told her.

“I knew that my husband couldn’t have obtained such pieces honestly, because I knew that they were too important for someone like him to have. When their true owner came for them, I didn’t want to be empty-handed.” She went to the bed and lifted the mattress, propping it on her shoulder so she could pull something from within the frame. Then Patience brought a small package wrapped in white linen and knelt next to the hole in the floor.

Esta’s eyes were locked on the package that rested in the woman’s lap. But she was afraid to lean too much into the hope that already made her feel light-headed.

“My husband never knew what I was or what I could do. He was too fond of talking about righteousness and abomination, and I knew from the beginning that it would be dangerous to reveal myself to him,” Patience told Esta, her expression sour. “He thought these pieces were merely expensive, but I knew better.”

“You knew they were powerful,” Esta said. Because Patience is Mageus.

Patience unwrapped the package, and Esta almost sobbed in relief the second she saw the glint of silver and felt the power of the cuff’s dark stone call out to her.

“You may be right about this one being a good man. He saved my boy when my husband would have sacrificed his only child for a bit of gold. If you truly believe you can save your friend, then I can’t keep these from you.” Patience held out the parcel, the necklace and cuff gleaming against the soft linen.

“Thank you,” Esta said, taking them. The artifacts were delicate pieces, but they were heavy with the weight of magic, and when Esta touched them, she could feel their power calling to her. She slid on the cuff immediately and tucked the necklace into the leather pouch with Maggie’s concoctions.

Esta had no sooner secured them and turned her energy to figuring out how she would get Harte up from the hole in the floor than bells began chiming. It was almost like the heavens themselves were celebrating, except that there was nothing celestial about the sound. It was a tinny, jagged noise that sounded every bit like a warning.

“Mama,” the boy said, coming into the room with a look of panic.

The color had drained from the woman’s face. “There’s someone in the tunnel,” Patience said, glancing back over her shoulder. She spoke to the boy in urgent, rapid German.

“Were you followed?”

“No. I was careful.”

“Then how could they find us?”

She turned to Esta. “We must go. It is not safe here—”

“Not without him,” Esta refused. She could save him. She would.

“No one should be in that tunnel. My husband built it as a way to escape from the enemies he made. If someone is there, they followed you. If they followed you through those tunnels, they are not friends.”

“Help me carry him,” Esta begged. “I know you have done so much already, but please, I need to get him outside.”

Patience was shaking her head, backing away with her arms around the child. “I can’t. If they find us here with you—” She shook her head again, then took her son’s hand and disappeared through the door. They were gone before Esta could stop them.

THE WORLD CRUMBLES

1904—San Francisco

Esta couldn’t blame Patience for running with her child. Not when she’d kept Harte alive long enough for Esta to find him, and especially not when she’d relinquished the cuff that could save them both. Esta had no idea what it must be like to have a child, the constant, urgent need to protect that small life, even at the cost of your own. She didn’t really even know what it felt like to have a family. But she knew what she felt for Harte. She wouldn’t let him go. She would not give up, not now.

If I can get him outside…

Esta didn’t know San Francisco. She had no idea what she might find when she slipped ahead through the layers of time. She understood it would be dangerous with Seshat lurking beneath Harte’s skin, but desperation made her reckless.

“Come on,” she said, barely noticing how bad Harte smelled as she took him under the arms and started to pull him up out of the hole.

Harte had lost so much weight in the days since she’d seen him that he felt almost skeletal in her arms. With every tug, a terrible keening erupted from his throat. It sounded awful, painful—not quite human. Still Esta didn’t stop. With the cuff on her arm and the necklace in the pouch tucked close to her body, she kept going. As she pulled him little by little through the apartment, the jangling bells became more insistent, and then she heard new sounds coming from the storeroom. Someone was pounding on the trapdoor in the floor.

Esta ignored that threat as well. If she could only get Harte outside the building, it would be safer to use Ishtar’s Key. On she went, steadily tugging him along, until they were in the narrow alleyway outside the small apartment.

Night had not yet descended, but the alley was tucked far enough back from the larger street that it lay deep in shadows. Only the faintest hum from the city beyond reached her there. Exhausted, Esta lowered Harte to the ground and saw that he was looking at her. His mouth was moving again, and this time she recognized the whisper of her name hissing from his lips.

“See you,” he whispered, each word a rattling breath. “Once more…” And then he reached for her, but before he could touch her, his eyes fluttered closed and his hand went limp, falling away.

Esta leaned