Page 115

I wanted so badly to sit. To think.

“We should be frank with each other,” he said then, now close enough that I could smell sour breath. “Why don’t you tell me what orders Tanner gave you?”

You’re on this side, I reminded myself.This is your side.“Find Domelius Becker, then bury everything.”

He watched me for too long, until I felt undressed by his eyes. “And you’re willing to carry it out?” he asked, voice steeped in doubt.

I’d made a promise to myself to not think of it, to not imagine sinking Kenton Hill into a pit. “I don’t have achoice.”

But Theo seemed to be weighing things in his mind, trying to find the side to bet on. “What threats did Tanner use to persuade you?” he asked, and hidden beneath all the whiskey and jealousy was a muted concern. He softened.

“Execution,” I said shakily. “For myself—and for my mother.”

Theo’s eyes went wide. He turned away, ran his free hand through his already mussed hair. “I—I didn’t know,” he said.

“How could you?” I frowned. “You’ve been here.”

He nodded to the shadows.

“And what were you threatened with?” I dared to ask.

“Threatened?” he asked. “After Crafters robbed the laboratories, stole the last Alchemist, and left my mother to die?” He shook his head. “There were no threats, Nina. I was an ordained lord for the House, and when our Right Honorable head gave me my orders, I simply followed them, as I’d pledged to do.”

“So the scandal of your exile was—”

“A lie,” he nodded. “A very thorough one. How else could the Miners Union trust me? They needed to think I was already a traitor to the House.”

I had no right to reproach him, but still, I did. I was here under duress, while he was here of his own volition, though I supposed the result would be no different. My hands would be as dirty as his.

“I volunteered myself, Nina, if you can believe me so stupid.” He looked around the room with distaste. “And in return, Tanner made me a promise.”

I quailed. “What promise?”

“You.”

I froze.

Theo turned his back to me, gazing toward the window and the town beyond. “He promised me that he’d find you. Finally, after years of my pleading and petitioning. Of doing every fucking thing asked of me, he finally agreed.” When he turned back, his grin was contemptuous. “They looked for you at first, did you know? I badgered my father, badgered anyone who would listen, to try harder. But eventually, they gave up. Assumed you dead. They stopped looking. Exceptme. Ikept looking. I found your supposed first address in Sommerland and learned that there had never been a girl born to the name Nina Clarke. I looked at the registry from the year of our siphoning, and you weren’t there, either. Therewasa Nina Harrow, though. A girl from the brink. Her name was blackened out with so much ink, it was nearly impossible to read the indentations.” He exhaled deeply, his shoulders falling. “I learned that you’d lied to me. All that time.”

I said nothing as he swayed. Guilt wrapped a hand around my innards and squeezed.

“I began to wonder how a girl from a pit like Scurry could become an earth Charmer, of all things. It’s so incredibly unlikely. An act of God, surely.” He scoffed, stumbled. “The more I dug, the deeper it went. The idium isn’t a prophecy. In fact, there is no such thing as prophecy, only alchemy.” He shook his head. “I wondered if you’d tell me, Nina. I’ve wondered for years… was it an accident? Or did you figure it out when you were still Nina Harrow and decide to make yourself into something big?”

I was only twelve, I wanted to tell him.I was twelve, and I couldn’t go home.

“I found the vials in a cellar,” I told him. “And overheard someone talking about them. I stole an Artisan vial and swallowed it.”

He huffed an acknowledgment. “Clever. Though, you always were. Smart, but quiet about it. That’s what I loved about you.” For a moment then, he seemed lost. A muscle along his jaw throbbed.

“I couldn’t tell anyone,” I said softly. Even to me, it sounded like a weak excuse. “What was done was done.”

“And you couldn’t trust me, because I was the son of a lord.” The words dripped with bitterness.

“I considered confronting Tanner. I almost burst into his office and threw all my findings onto his desk, but that day, a group of miners were caught outside the National House with boxes of dynamite, and I watched them shoot down four police officers before they were subdued. One of them took a knife out of his pocket and dug a copper’s eyes from the sockets, held them up like damned trophies.” Even now, the memory seemed to nauseate Theo. “For all his faults, what Tanner says is true. The Miners Union are barbarians. Animals.” He took another swig. When he blinked now, his lids stayed closed for long moments. “I made a decision then about which side I’d rather have in charge.”

I wondered if it were John Colson who’d lifted the knife and taken a dead man’s eyes. He’d been among the group arrested that night. “You chose to avenge your mother?”

“I chose the Artisans” came the answer. “I chose Belavere Trench the way it wasbeforewar ruined it. Tanner had the idea to bait the Miners Union out of hiding, to allow them to take one of us into the fold. And in return, he agreed to find you. He promised to keep you safe.” Theo approached, though his legs wobbled. His hands slipped awkwardly around my neck, and he held my face, blinking at me as though I’d just now materialized. “Two years I’ve been here, working for the Colsons. Trying to find the damn Alchemist. But always hoping foryou.”