What did Morgaunt mean about I.Q. tests and the dybbuks of Mages? And coming into his powers? Sacha couldn’t make sense of it, so he focused on the only thing that did make sense to him: his mother’s locket.
“You mean you didn’t plan that?” he asked. “then how did it end up in Edison’s lab?”
“I took it away from the dybbuk and had Edison plant it in the lab before you arrived. I was rather proud of that idea. Though I paid dearly for it in the end. It only made the dybbuk more suspicious of me. You’ve got a nasty, sneaky side to your character, Sacha. Has anyone ever told you that?”
Sacha stared at Morgaunt. he felt a rising panic in his chest. It had begun the moment Morgaunt spoke the word
Morgaunt turned away for an instant to check the doors. Sacha glanced at Antonio — and Antonio nodded toward the knifed lying forgotten at Morgaunt’s side.
“Keep talking,” Antonio mouthed.
He was right, Sacha realized. even if they couldn’t distract Morgaunt enough to get hold of the knife, they could still give Wolf and his rescue party a better chance of taking Morgaunt by surprise.
“So … uh … how did you summon the dybbuk?” he asked.
Morgaunt turned back to him with a mocking grin. “Good try,” he told Sacha, “but that is what we Wall Street Wizards call a trade secret.”
Sacha case around desperately for another question to ask. “Uh … what about Edison?”
“You disappoint me,” Morgaunt said scathingly. “I knew you had to be a romantic fool to work for Wolf. But I didn’t think you were a hypocrite, too. Seriously, Sacha. how much do you
The smoke was becoming unbearable. Out in the main section of the theater, a heavy rafter groaned and shattered. It hit the floor with a terrifying crash, pulverizing two rows of seats and lighting up the wreckage like a bonfire.
“Well, I don’t want him to
“Why not?” Morgaunt asked with what sounded like genuine curiosity. “Because you don’t want him dead? Or because you just don’t want to have to feel guilty about it?”
Sacha didn’t have an answer to that.
“Of course, there is another way out,” Morgaunt said, quite casually. “You could hand yourself over to the police and confess to having set the fire yourself.”
“What?” Sacha yelped.
“It’s what the dybbuk would have done if it had succeeded in killing you. Your stubbornness on that front has caused me a great deal of inconvenience. Still, I think the situation is salvageable. And if you examine all your options, you’ll see that it’s by far the most humane solution. Wolf will be disgraced, of course. But at least he’ll be alive. And what’s more, I won’t be forced to make an example of your unfortunate family.”
It was odd how Sacha saw the full force of Morgaunt’s personality only now, when he spoke through another man’s body. A less honest man would have flattered Sacha. A less honest man would have pretended that Wolf wouldn’t be fired in disgrace. A less honest man would have told him all about the power he would give him and the wonderful things he would do for his family. But Morgaunt didn’t stoop to that. He just laid out his plans, logical as clockwork, and made Sacha see that he had no choice but to follow them.
Sacha searched desperately for a way out of the trap. Morgaunt waited for him to think the problem through with the patience of a chess player who has worked out all the moves and knows with mathematical certainty that he will win no matter what his opponent does. When Sacha opened his mouth to give Morgaunt an answer, he still wasn’t sure himself what he was going to say.
And he never did find out. Because at that moment Lily Astral burst into the theater at the head of a rescue crew that included Inquisitor Wolf, Philip Payton, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Houdini, and half a dozen plainclothes Inquisitors.
A cool breeze seemed to waft into the theater with them. Sacha felt his head clear and his breath come easier. Suddenly Morgaunt’s ruthless logic seemed much less convincing. But Morgaunt was far from finished.
As the rescuers dashed into the theater, he drew down the flames that crackled overhead — just as Sacha had seen him draw magic out of thin air back in his library — and flung them straight at Wolf.
Wolf was defenseless. He didn’t seem to have a clue what was coming at him. To Sacha’s horror, he had even taken off his glasses. Did he think he had time to wipe them on his shirttails and think things over before protecting himself from Morgaunt?
Then, at the last possible instant, as the fireball hurtled toward him, Wolf looked up at Morgaunt.
Wolf worked no visible magic. He merely stood there, with a blank look on his face, watching Morgaunt through eyes as flat and bleak as a winter sky. Only Sacha saw Wolf’s magic, and he saw it with the second sight that he now understood was a curse as well as a talent.
Suddenly Sacha didn’t ever want to see magic again. He knew now why ordinary people feared and distrusted Inquisitors — and why ordinary Inquisitors feared and distrusted Wolf. And he knew that after tonight, no matter how long he worked with Wolf and how much he came to like and trust him, some part of him would always be terrified of the man.
But however terrifying Wolf’s magic was, what happened next was worse.
Morgaunt again made the gesture he had used to call down the flames on Wolf. But this time he called down the power of the gathering crowd outside the burning theater. Sacha could feel their fear and panic surging through the air like electrical current. He could almost taste it.
Wolf countered Morgaunt’s new magic. Where Morgaunt had seized the power of unknowing and unwilling people, Wolf drew on a very different power. It rippled and flowed around him just as Sacha had seen the streets of New York ripple and flow before the Rag and Bone Man appeared. And suddenly Sacha could have sworn he saw Shen standing beside Wolf. Except this was a sort of sunlight-through-clouds echo of Shen that was the absolute opposite of a shadow.
The other forms that began to glimmer around Wolf were stranger still. They towered over him like giants, their faces strangely familiar. Here was the Rag and Bone Man, straddling his ancient horse like a rider of the apocalypse. Here was a tattered, worn-down beggar whose face seemed to change from moment to moment so that he looked like everyone and nobody. And here was a pale woman in white whose face was the saddest thing Sacha had ever seen in his life.
But the powers Wolf had called upon weren’t enough. Morgaunt’s stolen power was stronger. And it grew stronger still with every person who joined the mob outside the theater.
Wolf stumbled. he dropped his glasses, and they shattered with a crack like a gun going off.
Instinctively, Sacha took a step forward to help him — and realized that he could move again. In the heat of the battle Morgaunt must have forgotten about him. He glanced sideways and saw the same realization in Antonio’s eyes. They looked at each other for no more than a split second. Then they both lunged for the knife.
Sacha reached it first. He snatched it up and stabbed at Morgaunt. But Morgaunt jerked away at the last second, and the blade cut through empty air. An instant later, Morgaunt had hold of the knife too, crushing Sacha’s fingers and threatening to wrench it from his grasp.
Antonio ducked past Sacha and grabbed Morgaunt’s other arm. Over his shoulder, Sacha caught fleeting glimpses of Wolf and his ghostly helpers. They were taking advantage of Morgaunt’s distraction, making more headway against him now that Sacha and Antonio had joined the fight. He could hear TR urging them on, and see Payton and Houdini edging around the theater with Lily in the hopes of outflanking Morgaunt. But would it be enough?
Suddenly Morgaunt gave a great heave. Antonio flew through the air, landed in a heap, and lay still. Sacha struggled for the knife, gritting his teeth to hang on despite the punishment Morgaunt was inflicting on him. He felt his fingers go numb and knew he couldn’t hold on much longer. Then Morgaunt began to twist the knife in Sacha’s hands, driving it relentlessly toward his throat.
Closer and closer the blade came, until it was only inches from Sacha’s face. In desperation, Sacha did the only thing he could think of: he bit down on Morgaunt’s hand as hard as he could and hung on for dear life.
Morgaunt screamed. He wrenched Sacha into the air and slammed him back down with a bone-jarring thud. Sacha’s head swam and his knees buckled, and he knew he could only hold on for a few more seconds…
