Zhang was suddenly at Rory’s side. “Come help me check on all of Zeppler’s henchmen?” he said quietly, making it a question.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s go,” Rory said hastily.
He followed Zhang away from the manor, away from the baron and the others. Gravel crunched under their feet as they walked down the drive.
Several yards away, they crouched next to the first guard, who was breathing but still unconscious.
“They’re doing the right thing,” Zhang said quietly, as he checked the man’s handcuffs. “I just—I don’t know, maybe we should help, but I wanted to give them a moment.”
“Yeah,” Rory said, with feeling. “This was their fight. The baron ripped apart their lives, destroyed their friendship, got their other friend killed. Let them finish it. I hate the prickling of all that magic in the air anyway.”
He glanced back up at the four of them, eyes soft. “And Jade and Ace are probably gonna have a lot of complicated feelings after this. Sometimes what you can do to help is be ready to be the strong one when they need you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
By the time Rory and Zhang finished their rounds and walked back to the others, they found Zeppler unconscious on the ground. Gwen had her wedding band in her hand. Ellis passed her the ring box, and she closed the ring into it.
Rory tensed—
Gwen held the box out to Jade.
Jade blinked.
“This ring now holds Zeppler’s telepathy,” Gwen said quietly. “Do what you will with it. I suggest giving it to the de Leons; when they get their siphon back, they should be able to put it under protection with the relics.”
Ellis bent with a grunt and picked up the siphon. “Here, Ace,” he said gruffly, pushing it into Arthur’s hands. “Destroy that pomander, then give this back to Sebastian’s family. Maybe they’ll decide to destroy all the relics, or maybe they can figure out a way to use it to help subordinate paranormals instead of just making paranormal despots.”
Arthur held the siphon awkwardly against his chest. He still looked too pale, and deeply exhausted. His eyes were haunted, and no matter how hard Rory tried to catch his gaze, Arthur couldn’t seem to bear to look at him.
“So.” Rory folded his arms. “Ace getting snatched by the Puppeteer was your plan of last resort.”
“No,” Gwen and Ellis said, in the same breath.
“You getting captured by the Puppeteer was never part of any plan,” Ellis said, with feeling. “That would have been too far, even for revenge.”
Gwen bit her lip. “We hadn’t come up with anything better than switching rings. But when Arthur fell under blood magic, we ran out of time.”
“You double-crossed us,” Arthur said, his voice hoarse. “So you could triple-cross the baron.”
“And forwhat?” Jade looked deeply hurt. “I thought we were coming around, I thought maybe we’d get there again. How could you betray us?”
Gwen swallowed. “Thoughts are impossible to hide,” she said. “Rory and Arthur couldn’t know the plan. To fool a telepath, they had to believe the betrayal was real all the way down to their bones.”
“But why not involve, or at leasttellone of us?” Jade said plaintively. “How are we ever supposed to trust either of you again?”
“You probably can’t,” Gwen said quietly. “And that’s why we couldn’t tell you.”
She gestured at the four of them, Arthur and Rory, Jade and Zhang. “Friendships like yours, feelings like yours—they are their own kind of magic. And a betrayal this deep, necessary to fool a telepath—your trust in one another might not have survived.”
She shook her head. “We would not destroy you like that. Better Ellis and I do it alone, and remain your villains, while your love for each other stays unspoiled.”
Arthur took a breath. Rory’s heart clenched as Jade stared at Gwen.
And then Jade suddenly pulled her into a hug. “I am so mad at you.”
Gwen hugged her back, something desperate around the edge. “Can’t exactly blame you.”
“I’m going to be mad at you for ages. Possibly forever.”
