The Serpent's Curse by Lisa Maxwell (literature books to read txt) 📗

North’s shoulder. The darkness that had overtaken her as they ran from the train was still shadowing her vision. At first she didn’t know where she was.

Then she remembered—the train, the posse, and then… nothing but Seshat’s power.

“What the hell?” North’s voice sounded strangled, but she couldn’t see what had put that emotion there. Actually, Esta couldn’t see anything but his backside.

“Put me down,” she demanded, trying to wriggle free of his hold, and he complied, letting her slide to the ground. She barely managed to catch herself on unsteady legs before she turned to see what the other two were looking at.

In the direction of the town, a cyclone was growing, but from the way it glowed with an eerie light, it didn’t look like anything natural. It was a monster of a thing, a towering column of heat and light that wove itself along the ground between them and the men on horseback. Strange colors flashed within as it tracked back and forth, blocking the riders’ path. In the distance, Esta heard explosions sounding, like firecrackers.

“Where did that come from?” she asked, her head still swirling. It was so enormous that, even from where they stood, she could feel the telltale warmth of magic in the air, soft and compelling. She knew in an instant that whoever had created the cyclone had used an affinity.

“I don’t know,” Maggie told her. “You fell and then, out of nowhere, fires started erupting. They looked like…” She shook her head, frowning. “I don’t know how it’s possible, but they looked like my incendiaries.” Maggie glanced at North. “Do you think there are other Mageus here? Maybe even other Antistasi?”

“It’s possible,” North told Maggie. But he didn’t sound like he thought it was likely.

Esta had the strangest premonition then, like a shiver of dread running down her spine. Something had happened that she couldn’t quite remember. She was sure of it. “We need to go,” she said, trying to shake off her unease. “Who knows how long that thing will keep those marshals occupied.”

North took the lead as they started running for the oil fields, which had been their original destination, but Esta still felt off-kilter. Her vision remained tinged with the shadows that had darkened it before she passed out. With the posse occupied by the strange cyclone, they made good time, but when they finally reached the towers, they realized that the fields that had looked deserted from a distance were actually crawling with laborers.

Skirting around the edges of the area, the three of them moved from the shelter of one tower to another. Eventually they reached a place where they couldn’t go any farther. Cutting through the center of the sprawling oil fields was another set of tracks, which held a line of massive tanker cars ready to transport the raw petroleum. There were men, too, lots of them. Beyond their hiding place, dozens of workers checked the pipes that were loading the tankers and prepped the shipment for travel. The engine stood waiting, its massive boilers releasing steam in a slow, lazy hiss.

The three of them pulled back, retreating to the shelter of an old, abandoned shed. Esta’s skin crawled when they entered it. Something about the place felt… wrong, but it was also weirdly familiar in a way she couldn’t explain.

“We’re stuck,” Maggie said. “There’s no easy way around all those men.”

“Even if there were, we don’t know what’s on the other side,” Esta agreed.

“We could try for the town,” North suggested. “Maybe we could blend in, lie low for a while.”

Esta knew that would never work. “Once those marshals realize we’re not on the train, they’re going to start searching,” she said. “In town or here, it doesn’t matter. If they knew we were on that train, it means that someone recognized us. We’re not going to be able to blend in.”

“I could take us back,” North said, reaching for his watch. “Maybe we could jump another train and get farther down the road, ahead of them.”

Something in Esta recoiled at that idea, but she couldn’t have said why. “No,” she told him, going on nothing but instinct. “How much time could we possibly buy? Six hours, maybe twelve. The authorities already know we’re headed in this direction. A few extra hours isn’t going to help if we’re spotted again—not when a telegram takes only a few seconds. They’re going to keep hunting for us, and eventually they’ll close in.”

“We got off the train, didn’t we?” North asked, frowning. “We can’t just give up now. We have to keep going.”

“Maybe there’s someone here who’d be willing to help,” Maggie said, biting at her lip. “Those fires didn’t start themselves, and they didn’t seem to be on the side of the riders.”

“Maggie’s right,” North said. “Maybe there are Mageus here who could hide us. We might find ourselves some allies, maybe even a few Antistasi.”

“Considering the way we left things with Ruth, any Antistasi we find might also be enemies,” Esta reminded them. There was something about that strange cyclone of flame that just felt wrong to her, something that told her there was more to it than she understood. Not that she’d convince the two of them on a hunch. She went for logic instead. “Think about it,” she pressed. “By now plenty of people know what we did in St. Louis. Just because there might be Mageus here doesn’t mean they’re necessarily friendly. Or maybe…” A thought occurred to her that seemed too ridiculous to be true.

“What?” North pressed.

Time was such a tricky thing, twisting and unpredictable, but Esta had never had to account for someone else who could manipulate it before. “You said those fires looked like your formulas, didn’t you, Maggie?”

Maggie nodded. “Yes…”

“Is it possible that we already went back?” Esta asked. The two of them only stared at her, so she explained. “Maybe we’re the ones who rescued ourselves.”

North was still frowning, but he wasn’t disagreeing. His hand went to the pocket