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Her face fell, her eyes becoming two fathomless pits, a slow wakening terror rearing in their depths.

“Polly, listen—”

“Then it’s done,” she whispered. “We’re done for.”

I nodded slowly, then steeled myself for my next words. “I have to tell him, Pol,” I whispered. I looked over my shoulder as she did, the square beyond the windows empty. “I’m sorry. I’m doing it today—or tonight, if I must wait.”

“Nina, youcan’t,” she whispered, her voice catching with urgency. Her face had reanimated. She gripped my hands fiercely. “You’lldie, Nina.I’lldie.”

“I don’t believe that,” I said, shaking my head, but tears were running freely down the slope of my nose. “Patrick loves me.”

“He won’t. Not once he knows, Nina. Loyalty iseverythingto these people. You don’t know them as well as I do.”

“I was raised by these people,” came my retort, more biting than I had intended. “I grew up in a town full of them, remember?”

Polly looked like I’d knocked the wind out of her. She shook her head in dismay. “You truly believe that, don’t you?”

I leveled her with a stare, the most empathetic I could conjure. “I do. And I believe Otto loves you as well.”

She stiffened. Dropped my hands.

“Do you love him, too, Polly?” I asked. “Could you stand to see his home burned down to the ground by fire Charmers?”

She had begun to cry, tears cascading over the apples of her cheeks.

“No,” she said. “I don’t want that.”

“Then there is no other choice,” I said gently. “There are infantrymen coming this way. Patrick needs to know. I’m sure they can put up a fight.”

“But they can’twin,” Polly said wanly. She shook her head at the tiles. I saw the toll of the past years finally colliding with her. “What use are guns against fire Charmers?”

I took her shoulders in my hands. “I’ll bury them under piles of dirt if it comes to that,” I said. “I’m telling him, Pol. I came to let you know, because… because I wouldn’t fault you if you chose to run.”

“Run?” she echoed. “Back to the House of Lords?”

“Yes. But if that’s what you choose, then you should leave today.Patrick is traveling to Baymouth. But he’ll return before long, and when he does, I’ll tell him they’re coming, Pol. And I won’t need to say who it was keeping Tanner informed. He’ll piece it together.”

Polly shook her head, swallowed a sob. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I hope you’ll stay,” I bid her. “Patrick will show us mercy. I know he will.”

Polly looked at me once more, shook her head in doubt. “I hope so.”

I hugged her tightly, briefly, then left her to her scribbles.

I walked into the square. Margarite’s Modern Ladies, Seamstress Extraordinaire, bore up on the right, its windows still guarded by those faceless sentries. I exited the square through the brick arch and traveled down salt-dusted streets, counting grates, imagining the numbers that could be encased within. The hills rose in the distance, mined to holy hell with all manner of metal explosive.

They won’t come close, I heard Patrick say.

Heard it all the way back to Colson & Sons.

With Theo gone, the Margarite crew was left to do nothing. Scottie and Otto seemed to have been unsuccessful in tracking him down. They lingered by the bar, turned about the pub restlessly, infuriated Tess Colson with every gathering minute. “Surely,” she gritted out, “there is somethin’ in this parish that begs your attention.”

Briggs puffed on a cigarette and paced in tightening circles. “?’Spose we could head down to the market, mind the queues for a bit.”

“I’ll come,” Otto offered, tipping off the end of his stool. “Better than sittin’ on me arse.”

Scottie stretched with a yawn, reclining on his chair. “Might stick around, Mrs. Colson, if you don’t—”