HELPLESS
1902—New York
The sound of Ruby’s scream cut through the noise and hit Viola like a dagger to the gut. She turned in time to see Ruby trying to catch Theo as he fell to the ground.
The crowd was scattering now, no longer bothering to fight each other as they tried to get away from the threat. Another gunshot erupted, and then another, as the street descended into madness.
Viola looked around, searching for her brother and Torrio even as she lunged back into the mess of the crowd for Ruby and Theo, but instead of finding the Five Pointers, she realized that the gunshots had come from a different source—two groups of the Chinese tongs were facing off in the midst of the madness. It was as though the entire Bowery had completely lost its mind.
Theo was on the ground, the fine wool of his suit already marred by the dirt of the streets and the blood that was seeping from his chest, and Ruby was there with him, cradling him. The girl’s rosy complexion had gone an almost ghostly white, and her mouth was moving without any words coming out. But Theo was still breathing. His eyes were open, and he looked at Viola. “Get her out of here,” he said, his voice racked with pain.
“No.” Ruby glared at Viola. “I’m not leaving without him.”
All around them was violence, but from the seriousness in Ruby’s expression, Viola knew it would be pointless to argue. “Then you’d best help me get him up,” she told Ruby.
With a sure nod, Ruby helped Viola hoist Theo upright as he groaned in agony. If Viola had expected the willowy-looking girl to falter beneath the weight of him, she was wrong. Ruby’s face was creased with the effort of supporting Theo’s weight as he dropped an arm over each of their shoulders, but Viola admired the girl all the more for her determination.
Even as her heart clenched to see the way Ruby looked at Theo.
By the time they moved him far enough away from the fighting to be safe, Theo was all but deadweight. Still, Viola urged them to go a little farther, until they found the relative safety of a doorway to a tenement that she recognized. Once, the people inside had been loyal to Dolph. She could only hope that they would recognize her as a friend instead of a traitor.
They pulled Theo inside, where the noise of the street was blocked out by the door. One tenant opened his door long enough to determine he wanted nothing to do with whatever was happening in the hallway.
Ruby cradled Theo against herself, patting his cheek softly, but Theo was fading. His eyes were half-open, but Viola could tell by their glassiness that he wasn’t focusing on either one of them. His skin had gone pale as death, and his lips were already tinged with blue.
“No,” Ruby said, her voice nearly breaking when he didn’t respond. “You stay with me, Theodore Barclay. Do you hear me?” There were already tears on her cheeks. “Don’t you dare leave me here alone.”
But Theo didn’t respond. His breathing was shallow, and there was a rattling sound coming from his chest that Viola knew too well. All at once she was in Tilly’s apartment again, helpless to do anything as she watched her friend die.
Except she wasn’t helpless this time.
“Please,” Ruby said, leaning her forehead against Theo’s. Over and over she pleaded, her voice trembling. But Theo didn’t respond.
“Move,” Viola said. Her voice sounded as empty and hopeless as she felt inside, but she could do this one thing, even if it meant exposing what she was. “Move,” she repeated, pushing gently at Ruby.
Ruby looked up at Viola, her eyes filled with tears, and opened her mouth to refuse, but Viola cut her off.
“I can help him,” she said more gently. “But you need to let me.”
Reluctantly, Ruby backed away from Theo, who was still bleeding. He was alive, though. Viola could tell from the blood that continued to flow from the wound in his chest.
She didn’t want to touch him. She didn’t need to touch him, but she knew it would be easier and would work faster if she did, so she placed her hand on his chest, over the wetness of the fabric. His blood was hot and slick beneath her fingers, but she ignored how clearly it spoke to her of dying as she pressed her affinity into him.
Little by little, she found the source of the damage and used her magic to knit him back together, until his body forced the bullet from the wound and into her hand. She didn’t stop or allow herself to look up at Ruby, but continued to direct her affinity toward him, into him, pulling together the spaces that had been ripped apart by the violence of the bullet.
Pulling the life back into him.
He gasped suddenly, and she waited until he opened his eyes to back away. Her hands were sticky with his blood and holding what was left of the bullet. But he would live. He would be fine. And so would Ruby.
Viola looked up, drained but satisfied with what she had managed, only to find shock and horror in Ruby’s eyes.
“It was you,” Ruby whispered before Viola could so much as explain. “It was never John Torrio who was Mageus, was it?”
Viola’s head was shaking of its own accord, even as she wanted to explain, to tell Ruby everything—how she had been ordered to kill her and how she had refused. But something in Ruby’s tone stopped her, a coolness that Viola hadn’t expected.
“You lied to me,” Ruby said. “All this time, you were lying to me.” There was something new in Ruby’s eyes now. “You’re one of them.”
Confusion swamped her. “I—” She didn’t know what she was supposed to say. “But you told me you wanted to destroy the Order,” Viola pleaded.
“Because they depend on magic for their power.” Ruby’s expression was a well of disgust. “Because this city will never be safe as long as unnatural power remains a threat. It destroyed my father—my entire family was nearly destroyed as well because of it,” she said.
“I thought—”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see what you were.” Ruby’s eyes were filled with angry tears. “I should have known, but I let you get close to us. I actually begged you for help,” she said, her words crumbling into a fit of hysterical laughter that broke into a sob. “And look what happened.”
Something about the accusation in Ruby’s voice had Viola’s temper snapping. “I never asked you to come after me. I told you to stay away. I tried to warn you, didn’t I?”
But Ruby wasn’t backing down. “Theo nearly died because of you.”
Theo made a soft sound, but Ruby couldn’t see that he was already improving, not through the haze of hate that shone in her eyes.
Viola staggered to her feet. “I’m not the one who dragged him into that mess today. I’m not the one who refused to leave.” She lashed out at Ruby with all the hurt and anger she felt burning inside of her. It was a flame that would consume her. “That was you, Miss Reynolds. You can blame me all you want. You can hate me for what I am, for something I had no choice in and no ability to refuse, but while you’re telling yourself stories about who and what is evil, you should remember that Theo getting shot is your fault,” Viola said, her voice breaking. “I’m the one who saved him.”
“Get away from me,” Ruby told her, shielding Theo with her body. “From both of us.”
The look in Ruby’s eyes was one Viola had seen too many times before. The combination of loathing and fear struck her clear to the bone. She had spent too long trying to be what she wasn’t, so this time she didn’t fight. She honored Ruby’s demand, and without another word, she turned and left. And she didn’t look back.