Page 127 of Queen of Volts

“I’m going downstairs, too,” Sophia said, only because she wanted to be anywhere but here, alone with Harrison during his impromptu confession hour. Unfortunately, as soon as she charged toward the stairs, Harrison followed.

“Leah went into hiding,” Harrison told her, huffing as they ran. “I thought it was because of my mother, but maybe—”

“Please stop,” she told him.

“You remind me of her.”

“Gross.”

He cursed as they reached the ground floor. Harvey and Narinder sat at the bottom of the steps, and they jolted up as Roy barreled past them.

“What the—” Narinder muttered.

“Where are yougoing?” Grace asked Roy, breathlessly stumbling down the final steps onto the checkered floor.

“I’m going to confront him.”

“Why the muck would you do that?”

“He tried to have me killed,” Roy said. “Now I can finally face him. I can ask him—”

“You want toduelhim?” Grace lurched forward and grabbed at his tuxedo sleeves, but he wrenched her off. “Letmeduel him, then. At least I’ll win—”

“Let me go—”

But before either of them could march out the entrance, the doors swung open. A team of at least a dozen whiteboots entered, guns raised. As if summoned by the couple’s bickering, Captain Hector stood at the front.

Roy and Grace lurched back, their arms raised. The other guests in the lobby froze, while Harrison strode confidently forward, his expression grim.

“You’re making a scene,” Harrison told him gruffly. “That isn’t what we agreed—”

Bang!

Hector fired.

Harrison staggered back, his hand clutching his abdomen as blood bloomed across his white shirt. In his other hand, he dropped his pistol to the floor.

“No!” Sophia shouted, lunging toward him. But she didn’t reach him in time.

His body dropped next.

XV

JUSTICE

“The driving force of New Reynes’ history

arrived in a hearse.”

Nostalgia. “The Busy Schedule of Liberty Square.”

The Antiquist

10 May YOR 8

LEVI

After the sound of a gunshot, Levi’s cardroom descended into chaos. Immediately, a patron collided with Levi’s shoulder as they barreled past, sending Levi knocking into the Tropps table. He grabbed it, nails digging into the black felt, trying to steady himself as guests hurdled past toward the room’s emergency exit. His heart had accelerated so fast that he thought he might be sick. Enne was gone, and from where he stood, he had no vantage point into the lobby.