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“An untrained one,” he said with a shrug.

“Of lead, I presume. Or perhaps steel. Why keep that from me?”

He looked into the fire, perhaps to give himself a moment to cultivate an answer. “You asked me last night if I trusted you,” he said. “I confess, I don’t come by trust so easily.”

“Do your men know?”

“They do.”

“Theo and Polly?”

“They suspect, but I don’t tell them everythin’.”

I fell quiet. I let the knowledge settle around me and took him in anew. “So, then, we’re both kids from the brink turned Artisan imposters.”

His mouth twitched. “You’re smiling,” he said. “Why?”

“It’s nice not being the only one.” I paused. “Can I ask one last question?”

He nodded warily.

“The last Alchemist is alive.”

He didn’t answer, only turned that coin over in his fingers a few times. “Sounds like you’re tellin’ me, not askin’.”

“Is that a yes?”

“You’ll need to give me an answer to get an answer.”

I braced myself. For one fleeting moment, I thought he might ask me something with a catastrophic answer. And I wasn’t sure I could lie.

He weighed his words carefully. “I promised you a ticket out of here, to somewhere safe. Away from the Trench.”

I waited, his question banking up in the silence.

“I wondered… if I could prove to you that I could protect you… if you’d ever consider this place, here with me, as somewhere safe.”

He didn’t rise from the chair. Didn’t adjust his position. And yet it felt as though he had just grabbed me by the rib cage and squeezed.

“You want me to stay in Kenton Hill?”

He nodded slowly, and in the following seconds I felt completely translucent, as though a mere bob of my throat or the flicker of an eyelid would be too telling.

But he had cast his own veneer aside. Behind those simple words was a deep wanting, and I saw it plainly. It mimicked my own.

“How did we get here?” I asked aloud, the question genuine. I could no longer see the paths behind us.

He smirked, though his eyes remained tight. “You’re making a habit of askin’ me that.” His tone implied he didn’t much care how we’d arrived. He waited patiently for my answer.

I knew I should tell him yes, that I’d consider it, consider him. It was the obvious answer. Theo and Polly would want it.

Get closer to him, make him trust you. Find the Alchemist.

I could see how quickly he would fall in love with me. It seemed almost as though he were predisposed to it. That his mind was already made.

What I could not fathom was howIwas not to fall in love with him.

I was failing already. Tumbling into it.