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I clasped them tightly behind my back.

“You’re very convincing with him,” he said suddenly, his gaze disconnecting.

Something wretched cracked open in my chest. “I have to be. I—”

“You’ll do what you must,” he finished for me with a nod, already backing away. “And so will I.” He turned his back, headed for the mouth of the alley and all those earthbound stars in the street.

“Theo?” Polly called to his back.

“One week,” Theo said to the cobbles, and in the quiet it found its way back to us.

I waited an extra moment after he’d turned the corner, disappearing into the whorls of mist. Then I turned to Polly, took her hands in mine. “I need to ask you something,” I said, and I knew how dangerous it was.

Her dark eyes pricked. She swallowed thickly and waited.

“The…attachmentyou have with Otto.” Her fingers twitched in mine. “It’s real, isn’t it?”

She hid her face from me, her tone despondent when she said, “I know that it’s pointless.”

“It isn’t,” I said. “I know you don’t wish to see him come to any harm. If the Lords’ Army find their way into this town, the people here will stand and fight, Polly. They won’t run to save themselves. They will all die.”

Tears rimmed the crescents of her eyes. She blinked them back. “I know.”

“They don’t have to, Polly,” I said, taking her shoulders in my hands now. “You can make sure they live.”

She closed her eyes tightly. “Damn it,” she said. “There is very little time. Do you understand that?”

“Yes. Can you hold them off?”

“I’ll stall them,” she said. “They know about the land mines. They won’t be in a hurry to blow themselves up.” She took my hand and squeezed it in hers. “But I don’t have plans to die, Nina. This must work.”

“It will,” I vowed, but the words stuck to my insides.

“Then I’ll help.”

And then she disappeared as quickly as Theo had, skirting the corner and vanishing, leaving me with the fog of my breath and a mountainous dread taking hold.

I shivered all over. The missive in my palm was crinkled beyond repair.

I shredded it to pieces, until my fingers could no longer pluck apart the fibers. I trod over them as I stalked back through the alley, back to Main Street with its passing trolley and the lanterns. I shivered, heaving breath after breath of frosty air and listening to the sounds of the late hour. Drifting laughter and boot treads weaving their way back to their beds. All of Kenton’s occupants at rest. No fear hammering their chests. No whistle in the distance. No battalions on the hills. No children in the alleys.

An insulated, condemned peace. Would it be on my shoulders if it shattered?

I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and swallowed the sobsthat erupted from my chest. Soon, Patrick would climb the stairs and knock at the door of number fifteen. If I asked him, he’d offer himself as a reprieve.

And I would offer the same. Forever, if I could. He could have whatever remained of me.

In return, there would be this one betrayal. Unavoidable. Necessary.

Somewhere hovering beneath the cloud line, an osprey squalled its warning. A lick of foreboding followed my footsteps all the way over the threshold of Colson & Sons, up its winding staircases and through the doorway of number fifteen.

I fabricated a new vault in my mind and locked away all that guilt and disgrace. It would have its time.

There came three knocks.

CHAPTER 52PATRICK

Winter had seized Kenton overnight.