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“Don’t apologize. Not for that.”

He winced a little as he propped himself back against the cave wall.

“Maybe another time,” Ren said. “We can continue our exchange.”

He smiled before taking another bite of his food. Ren glanced sideways at him.

“And don’t get all haughty now. Just because I held your hand.”

That familiar scowl surfaced, but it didn’t hold for long.

“You still haven’t said what spell you used.”

“Now that I know what I can extract from you, I was considering withholding the information for later.” Another scowl. She smiled at him. “It was a brightening cantrip.”

Theo shook his head. “I’ve never seen a brightening cantrip that looked like that. What’d you combine it with?”

Ren grinned. At least he was smart. “I concentrated the cantrip into a sphere, increased its velocity, and then used the impact exclusivity charm to direct—”

“The brightness at whatever the spell struck. That’s clever. Really clever.”

She pretended to be pleased by the compliment, though she’d have preferred if he stopped being so surprised by her skill. At least Ren had him right where she wanted him. If they survived, Theo would be a fool not to see her usefulness. Agora’s words about the city’s elite came back to her. Creatures like him bore easily. A little flirting along the way would make sure that Theo didn’t lose interest by the time they made it back to Kathor. But he’d be suspicious if Ren came on too strong too fast. What did a boy with the world at his fingertips—with friends who acted more like servants—really want? Ren’s guess had been proven correct. He wanted someone who wasn’t afraid to challenge him. Someone who wasn’t there to agree with everything he said and every plan he made. She knew she could give him that.

“You’ve got this crease,” he said. “Right here.”

He tapped the spot between his eyebrows.

“It’s settled in permanently, because you always make the same face when you’re thinking.”

She threw him a scowl of her own. He laughed.

“Don’t worry. It’s cute.”

She pretended to be embarrassed before offering a response.

“I have to think twenty steps ahead of everyone else. It’s the only way to survive when you come to Balmerick with nothing, when you’ve been through what I’ve been through in life.” She caught and held his gaze. “I’ve earned that crease, however cute you may think it looks. Good night, Theo.”

She settled in, turning so that her back was to him. Let him think about that one for a while. Let it roll around in his mind and fester. Ren fell asleep easily, the smell of ashes still hanging in the air.

28

Ren dreamed of her father’s death again. Only this time she was led by that shadow—by some version of Clyde—into the aftermath. Those memories were just as gutting.…

* * *

The constable was explaining what had happened with the bridge. No one was at fault, he said. An accident. It was coincidence, he told Ren’s mother, that all the men who’d organized the canal strike had been in the same place at the same time. No, they couldn’t confirm that a meeting had been arranged in their honor. There was no record of such an appointment on any of the official itineraries of Landwin Brood. Press charges? On whom? The bridge? Hadn’t they been the ones who were responsible for building it in the first place? It would be like prosecuting the dead. No, there was no point in pursuing such a case. Ren had listened from her room. She’d never forget the younger constable standing outside their window, down in the alley, crying silently when he thought no one was watching.…

* * *

Ren stumbled out of their cave. Everyone was still sleeping as she dry-heaved into the bushes. Her hands were shaking. She’d carefully buried all these memories. She’d set them aside, converted her fury into fuel. And she hated how easily Clyde’s power drew the worst moments of her life back to the forefront. It was threatening the balances she’d worked so hard to create and maintain. All the safeguards that veiled her biggest secret.

Her stomach churned uncomfortably as she thought about what had happened in the cave. The feel of her hand in Theo’s. The way his rose-pale lips brushed her knuckles. But as her mind replayed that moment, Theo’s face blurred and widened. It was Landwin Brood smiling at her. His lips were the ones pressed to her skin. Ren dry-heaved again.

No darkness lasts for long.

She heard her mother’s constant refrain, their only comfort since her father’s passing. Ren had accepted those words, until one day she realized that their family’s darkness had a name. It was a person, and people could be destroyed. Her despair became anger. Anger breathed purpose. It had been ten long years since her father’s death. Ren had spent every waking moment in service to a single goal. One that even her mother did not know about.

On the surface Ren was a smart girl who worked hard. Her mother believed a fine job with a good salary would change their luck. Ren knew that was simply a means to an end. She needed money and she needed power and she needed a position because the larger goal demanded it. Her eyes flicked back to the mouth of the cave. It looked like a door into the dark.