Page 71

I excused myself, muttering about fresh air, though the excuse wasn’t necessary—Scottie and Otto had taken their leave, and Briggs was, by that hour, sagging over the table.

The moment I stood, so did Polly and Theo. I warned them away with a glare. How would it look for all three of us to exit at the same time, with no chaperone?

They let me slip through the doors first. A few smokers and liquor-numbed gawkers said my name as I passed over the stoop, and I smiled politely. They paid me no mind as I crossed my arms over my chest, started down Main Street, then took a sharp turn down the alleyway that bordered Colson’s.

There were no floating lights here. Nothing but rats and a vicious chill. I hadn’t thought to bring a coat.

I heard their footfalls before they came into view. Polly and Theo stuck close to the walls, tucking their hands away from the cold as I did.

Polly’s face seemed stricken. Theo’s roiled with something I tried not to notice.

“We should make this short,” I suggested, my voice low and careful.

Theo rolled his eyes. “We’ve been here longer than you, Nina. Trust me, at this hour, there isn’t a single one of them that will manage standing on two legs, much less notice our absence.” His voice was clipped.

I sighed. “Whatever it is you wish to say, Theo, say it.”

Theo’s eyes flashed, and I immediately regretted my tone.

“Congratulations,” he said, and it might as well have been a slap to the face. “You made quick work of it.”

I frowned. “Quick work of what?”

“Of making Colson fall in love with you. Even if it took a landslide to get the job done.”

I blinked once, twice. “You think I caused that landslide?”

Polly fretted at Theo’s side. “Stop it, Theodore.”

“I was in Dumley’s lessons with you, Clarke. I know better than anyone what you’re capable of. It was effective, I’ll admit, having him watch you save his people like that. But it was also stupid. If you lost control, you could have buried the Alchemist, for all you knew.”

“It’s Harrow ,” I said. “Not Clarke. And I didn’t charm that landslide.”

“Then stopping it was an utter waste of your talent—in fact, you’ve sabotaged half your mission from happening at nature’s own hand.” The way he said it made me think he didn’t believe me, that he easily thought me capable of such a thing.

“ Enough ,” Polly pleaded, her voice a whisper. “I do not wish to be shot in this alley for conspiring.”

Theo shook his head, scrubbed his face in frustration. “Right, then. Where is the Alchemist, Nina?” He was barely in control of the volume of his voice. “All that time you’re spending with him, surely you’ve figured it out?”

My stomach turned. “I don’t know,” I said, working hard to keep my voice even. I’d been too distracted to come up with a stall tactic. I still had no idea what to say to Theo in order to protect him and persuade him at the same time.

Theo shook his head, laughed in disbelief. “And why exactly is that?”

“He isn’t stupid, Theo. He’d suspect something if I pushed too hard right away. It would put us in danger.”

“I’m in that hole every fucking day, Nina. You don’t need to tell me about danger.”

“And I have the House threatening my execution if I don’t give them what they want,” I spat, my temper getting the better of me. “You came here voluntarily, Theo. And you’ll return to your esteemed position when this is all done.”

Theo paled, taking obvious efforts to temper himself, and when he next spoke, it was in the same tone he’d had when we were teenagers and he was trying to placate whatever silly concern plagued me.

“Nina, listen to me. I know the pressure must be insurmountable. But if we give Tanner the Alchemist, then we all go back to Belavere City. They’ll forgive everything that came before this, Nina.

Everything. You will be safe. You can finally start over. ”

I wondered if he meant that he and I could start over, that we could go back to the way we were.

“And all I have to do is murder a town full of people,” I said. “You’re willing for me to do that for you, aren’t you?”

He stepped back like I’d struck him. “This isn’t for me,” he said. “Nina, it’s for all of Belavere’s Artisans. We can stop the war.”

“By burying the other side.”

“This isn’t about Crafters at all, is it?” he said, voice rising. “This is about Colson.”

My face heated. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“You’ll get us all killed. You do realize that?”

“Step back, Theo,” Polly said suddenly, her hand on his chest, for the space between he and me had closed, and his hands still shook, and my throat felt riddled and blistered. “Enough of this. We have no time, Nina. There’s news from the House of Lords.”

I turned my eyes to her, my ire dissipating into dread. “News?”

She nodded. I heard Theo laugh bitterly, watched him turn his back on me and pace away. “You would have known sooner, but you were providing entertainment to the rebel leader of the Miners Union.”

“ Enough , Theo,” Polly gritted out. She grabbed my shoulder and turned me toward her, until I looked at her and nothing else. “Tanner sent a scribble.”

Fear like icy fingers gripped my spine. “What does it say?”

“Our time’s up,” Polly said, her eyes urgent. They shook in their sockets. She held out her hand, a piece of parchment tucked into her palm.

I took it warily, unfolded it.

The House moves to strike.

Provide safest routes to the heart for imminent attack.

Flee enemy territory.

I read it once, twice, the letters distorting and shifting. Polly had to grip my hand to retrieve my attention. “They’re coming, Nina,” she said. “The Lords’ infantry. They’ll invade the town. Take it all apart.”

I shook my head. “The Alchemist,” I uttered, looking to Theo for confirmation. “They wouldn’t risk an attack without first securing the Alchemist.”

“Evidently,” Theo said darkly. “They’re willing to take that chance.”

My mind reeled. I read the words over and over, desperately searching for a way around them. “No. No, he wouldn’t. There is nothing that matters more to Tanner than idium. Domelius Becker is too valuable.”

“Which is exactly why he will now invade, Nina!” Theo nearly yelled.

“Two years they’ve gone without an Alchemist. How long did you trust Tanner to wait?

He’s grown desperate. You were his last bid to find Becker, but even the prodigal earth Charmer has failed to turn out a single clue as to the man’s whereabouts.

He has no choice but to invade. To not do so would be to admit defeat to the Crafters.

” Theo’s neck had become mottled in red; he heaved each breath, pulling it between his teeth.

“And as we know, he will never concede defeat.”

I shook my head, refuting his words beyond sense. “No.”

“Nina—”

“I can find the Alchemist,” I promised—whether to them or to myself, I wasn’t sure.

“We’ve been trying to figure out his whereabouts for two years,” Polly said weakly, strain written clearly across her face. “Patrick will never give him up.”

“We’ve been given our new orders,” Theo said.

“No!” This time, my voice rebounded dangerously off the bricks. It rattled up the pipes that snaked the building to the rooftops. It cracked open my chest and spilled out all the hope I’d precariously garnered.

I couldn’t see this town razed. I couldn’t forsake Rose Harrow and John Colson.

And I couldn’t lose Patrick, whose heart I’d threaded mine with. Not after choosing him. Choosing here.

“Nina,” Polly said gently. “We—”

“I’ll find the Alchemist,” I insisted.

“We can’t.” Polly shook her head. “There’s no more time.”

“We can go back to the city, Nina,” Theo said, placating again. “My father will help you, I know he will. He’ll pull strings for clemency.”

“They won’t come if there’s no safe passage,” I blurted out, clutching at final straws under duress. “They won’t come unless you give them the route, Polly. You can hold them off.”

“I can’t,” she said. “Not for long.”

“They won’t come unless they can find a way in,” I said again, my voice surer this time, more confident. “There are no tracks, no roads, no canals. The surrounding hills are laden with land mines.”

“There is a way in, Nina,” she said quietly. “Right into the center. You created it yourself.” There was no malevolence, no threat in her tone. Only sorrow. Resignation.

I cinched my eyes closed. Shook my head. What I thought was They’ll come here and shoot everyone, burn everything . But what I said was, “If I can’t give them the Alchemist, Tanner will have my mother killed.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Theo said, eyes fervent. “You’ve built a tunnel for the Lords’ infantry and it’s their only way in. Tanner will see it as service enough—”

“ I’ll find the Alchemist ,” I blustered. “If I find him, they needn’t come, and thousands of innocent people won’t need to die.”

“Listen to yourself,” Theo growled, pulling at his own hair. “These are the same people who would shoot you if they knew what you were. You can’t do this.”

“I can,” I said, my voice shaking in unspent rage. “I will find him, and I’m not asking for your help, Theo. I’m only asking that you not stand in my way. If you have any lingering affection for me at all, then let me do this. Please. ”

Perhaps it was cruel to press on that history, to use it against him.

But I was desperate.

Theo stared at me for a long time, tormented, it seemed, by whatever he saw in me. “A week,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose like he couldn’t quite believe he was saying it. “We can hold them off for a week, and no longer.”

Relief coursed through me. “Thank you,” I breathed.

Theo shook his head slowly, watching the tremor in my fingers.

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… attachment you 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 sobs that 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.