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The footsteps reached her just as she unsheathed her dagger. She smelled something oddly pleasant, like flowers or winter spices, and she sensed magic, potent and subtle, and then the figure was upon her.

Slashing out blindly, she caught something. Two hands slammed into her shoulders, sending her flyingback. Her feet stumbled over stone, then nothing. Fern’s stomach dropped.

She fell through the darkness and into the pit.

Chapter forty-nine

The Promise

Fern hurtled through thedarkness and crashed into the water.

The impact shook her bones, the shock of the cold wrenched the breath from her lungs. She struggled, kicking desperately to make her way back to the surface. She broke through with a gasp and was immediately pulled back under. A forceful current dragged her down, and she fought with all her might against it.

She reached the surface and broke it once more, gulping air in. Her arms beat ceaselessly to keep her afloat, her every muscle fighting the water. She stared around wildly, her hair a cold wet mask over her eyes and cheeks, searching desperately for some light, some purchase, anything.

Two dim lamps, set into iron grids at each end of the pool, glowed faintly. Emmeline was close by, her pale face catching the feeble light. She hung over a pipe, her arm stretched out, her mouth open in yells Fern could not hear over the roar of the water, the splashing of her thrashing limbs.

Fern nodded anyway, blinking the water out of her eyes. She swam, still clutching her dagger. The pain of her injured arm and burnt hands was crushed in the teeth of her terror. She could not drown, not here, not like this. She would not allow herself to die. Fighting with all her might, she heaved through the water, crawling towards Emmeline.

Their hands met, grasped, slipped.

Fern was dragged under with a helpless scream. She kicked and beat the water with her arms, shoving herself back up with a desperate push. She thought of letting go of Oscar’s dagger, but she could not bring herself to. She threw out her free arm.

It found Emmeline’s, her fingers wrapped around clammy skin.

Emmeline pulled with a yell, and Fern slammed against the pipe chest-first. She held on tight, heaving herself up so that she was resting on the metal. She squeezed her eyes closed and took deep, shaky breaths.

The shock receded, and in its place the cold and the pain hit Fern like a battering ram to the gut.

She hissed air in through chattering teeth, forcing herself to be calm. Panic would kill her faster than the water or the pain would. She breathed into the fear and through it, forcing it back. Fear was a luxury she could not afford right now.

She wiped her face with shaky movements, sniffing away the water in her nose. She opened her eyes and turned towards Emmeline, shakily slipping her dagger back into its sheath at her waist.

The young woman was staring at her with huge, terrified eyes. Her skin was marbled, her lips bluish. Her hairclung to her head and body like red seaweed. She was shaking violently, her teeth chattering.

Fern wrapped her arm around Emmeline’s trembling shoulders, pulling her closer. She had little body heat to share, but she could offer comfort if nothing else. A desperate need clawed at Fern to comfort Emmeline, to help her, tosaveher. How much did this urge come from the alchemist’s fear-drowned eyes and shaking shoulders, and how much came from shivering orphans and a frightened historian?

“Are you alright?” Fern asked. A useless question—of course she wasn’t.

Emmeline nodded, but her eyes were brimming with tears.

“My brother, my brother,” she said. “Is he coming?”

“I came alone,” said Fern, wondering ifthathad been her greatest mistake yet. “How long have you been here, Emmeline?”

“I don’t know anymore,” she said weakly. “It’s so dark in here.”

Fern rubbed Emmeline’s arm through the sodden silk of her sleeve. She had probably been here for days, clinging to that pipe. It was a wonder she had lasted this long.

“Do you know how you got here?”

Emmeline shook her head. “N-no. I-my key wasn’t working, I couldn’t get into my apartment. I left my brother’s side only for a moment, but I-I couldn’t get in.”

Fern’s heart sank; the same thing that had happened to Josefa.

“I was on my way back to Teddy to ask him for help.” Emmeline’s eyes were wild and full of tears. “Then thelights went out. Something hit me hard. I fell. I don’t remember anything else. My brother, my brother, he must be—”

“Do you think you know who hit you?” Fern asked.