If Seb had the necklace, he would have given it to Gerald in exchange for Jamie’s life. She was sure of that.
So who in the name of God had the pearl?
All Sin knew was that she did not.
She looked at Mae, and saw that Nick had grabbed her arm.
“You promised,” Nick murmured, low so only Mae and Sin could hear. “You promised me I could have first try. And I promised you I would take care of Jamie. Let me.”
Mae’s whole body was taut as a bow, taut with the longing to fly to her brother, but between her teeth she said, “Fine.”
Nick stepped forward. Sin looked at Jamie, his thin, bowed back and the expression he wore on his face, trying to look brave, and she was sorry for him then.
“Tell me, Mae,” Gerald said. “Where have you hidden the pearl?”
Mae looked at Nick. It was a nasty moment for Sin to remember that Nick couldn’t lie.
“You won’t kill him.” Nick’s voice rumbled in the center of his chest, lower than his usual tone. She thought it might be his version of uncertainty.
Gerald stopped toying with his ring.
“Watch me,” he said softly.
It was obvious that some of the other magicians were uneasy. Helen, who had put the sword through Jamie’s mother, looked like she wanted to be sick.
Sin had to wonder why they cared. She’d seen them set fire to her home, which could have had children in it, and then she remembered the way Helen had been with Lydie.
They thought magicians were the only real people in the world. They didn’t want to witness their leader killing one of their own.
Gerald was making a bad mistake. He would regret this.
Regret wouldn’t save Jamie. Sin didn’t dare move. Nick was unmoving as stone.
The one who moved was Jamie. Crouched there with the white stone of the Monument towering behind him, the Latin inscribed on it making it look like the tallest gravestone in the world, he looked small and helpless, his mouth trembling.
Sin saw that only one of his arms was chained. The other was free.
Between his skin and his sleeve, she saw a glint of metal.
The magicians thought that Sin had disappeared with the magic knife, the only weapon that could have cut her chains. They didn’t know that Sin had given it back.
What this called for was a diversion.
Sin stepped forward, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
“What if I have the pearl, Gerald?” she asked in a ringing voice. “I don’t care what happens to Jamie.”
“If you have the pearl,” Gerald said, and advanced on her, “I doubt you’re bright enough to have hidden it. We can just take it.”
A lick of fire burst from Gerald’s fingertips, turning into a rope of light headed straight for Sin.
It veered off into the sky abruptly when Gerald, the most recent in a long line of men who had underestimated Sin, had to dodge back from an arrow.
“Do you ever get tired of being wrong?” Sin asked as the magicians scattered, looking to the roofs.
None of them were looking at Jamie, as oblivious to him as the passersby along the dark road, making for the Tube and unable to see their little enchanted space.
Jamie brought the knife down with a crash on his chains.
The knife hit his chains and stopped as if it was made of plastic.
The magicians had not been fools enough to chain up a powerful magician with anything but chains that were enchanted themselves to resist magic. Sin froze in horror.
Everyone was looking at Jamie again now. The magicians murmured, a half-pitying and half-satisfied sound rippling from head to head. Gerald glanced back over his shoulder and laughed, light and mocking, as if at a stupid child.
Across gray stones and a dark sky, gold glinting far above him, Jamie’s magic-pale eyes narrowed to glowing lines.
He brought the knife back around, its blaze blurring the air around it, its hungry whine louder than ever.
Jamie launched himself to his feet, stumbling forward, free. The chains fell clinking to the base of the Monument.
Jamie’s left hand lay, severed neatly, palm up on the gray stones.
A trail of blood blazed scarlet behind him as he staggered forward, and several magicians stepped up to help him and then stopped themselves.
All but one.
Seb lunged forward and grabbed Jamie, both of them hurtling past Sin and landing practically at Nick’s feet. Sin
