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“She was a beautiful artist, and she taught me to draw and paint. She would steal coins out of my father’s pockets while he slept to buy supplies. She used to insist that I was made for bigger places and I knew she meant the Artisan school. She filled my head with dreams of going there when I came of age. And then she left, and I never understood why.”

She didn’t go on. Didn’t seem able to. She swallowed and shut her eyes. “She’s been taken prisoner by the House,” she said then. “As a way to punish me, I suppose.”

Patrick exhaled, his chest a cage his heart sought to break out of. He felt awash in that old hatred again—for the House and Tanner and every peer who’d come before him. “Tanner is a monster,” he said, his loathing plain and hot to the touch.

He wondered why she’d never mentioned her mother before, or if she’d just decided, this day, that she trusted him enough.

Nina picked at her fingernails; her eyes flitted to the ceiling as though searching for something—resolve, perhaps. “I’m telling you, because you have something that can free her, as well as your own father.”

Patrick frowned. “Of course I’ll—”

“I’m not talking about tunnels,” she said, impatient now. “Patrick, I’m talking about the Alchemist. Domelius Becker.”

Patrick stilled. He saw the direction of her thoughts without her needing to speak them. “Nina—”

“He can be traded, Patrick. There is nothing more important to theHouse of Lords than idium. Give them their Alchemist, and Tanner will give you every last prisoner, our parents included.”

But already, Patrick shook his head. She didn’t understand war games. How to transact with politicians. “I can’t do that, Scurry girl.”

She visibly deflated at the words. “Please,” she said, desperate. “Youcan. You’re just choosing not to.”

“There’s another way to get them out.”

She let loose a sound of frustration. “Is idium more important to you than theirlives, Patrick?”

“Nina—”

“Answer the question,” she insisted. She didn’t yell or scream, but her voice shook, quaked. “Is idium more important than your father? Than my mother?”

He wished he could tell her something different. “Idium… is everything,” he told her. “It’s the key to this war, Nina. To progress. I wish it weren’t so, believe me.”

Her eyes welled, and she nodded, turned her body away from him.

Surely she understood. She wanted the same thing as him, after all: true freedom. She knew what he knew, didn’t she? There was no other way to win than to utilize the Artisans’ very weapons against them.

Patrick stepped toward her, eyes on the sweeping curve of her neck and shoulders. “I’ll get them both out, Nina. I swear it.” And he wasn’t one to make promises he couldn’t keep.

“You’re confident you can do it?” she whispered, and when she turned her face to him there were tears spilling onto her lashes. “And come back?”

He had to come back. There was no other choice. For Colson & Sons and the Miners Union and Nina. There would be life after the fighting stopped. There was room for more. “If your mother is alive and willing,” he said, “then I’ll bring her back.”

Her hands shook. She brushed the tears away from under her eyes. Then she nodded and squared her shoulders, shaking off the maelstrom. “Then I’ll stay here.”

“With me,” Patrick added, stepping closer. “To be clear.”

She peered up at him, and he was moments away from abandoning honor. “Say it.”

“I’ll stay with you.”

“Because I won’t be able to leave you alone if you’re close by,” he said, reaching her at last, tracing the underside of her jaw.

She shivered. Heat crept up her neck from beneath her shirt.

“When it’s all finished, Nina, I’ll come knockin’ on your door. Do you understand?”

She swallowed. Nodded. He wondered if she was aware that she was rocking onto her toes, stretching upward.

“I’ll keep everyone safe. And when it’s done, you’ll be with me.” He kept his lips a hairsbreadth from hers, watching her eyes close and her breaths shorten. He needed to be sure it was the same for her, this need. This incessant fucking desire. He thought he might come undone, right there, to see her so wanting. “Is this what you want?”