Page 56 of Queen of Volts

“I’ll take you to him,” Grace told her. “Tock is with him. He likes her—won’t shut up about her, actually. I tried to get Roy to take the last watch, in the lucky case the Dove managed to kill him, but he kept insisting on her.”

Lola nodded disinterestedly, not sure who Grace was talking about. She didn’t bother asking. She only wanted to leave before Enne returned.

Grace opened the spare bedroom in the dormitory hallway. Justin looked no cleaner than yesterday, his freckled skin splotched with dirt and his hair matted from grease. His hands were handcuffed behind his back, but he didn’t seem to mind, lounging on the bed and in the midst of a conversation with a heavy girl at the other side of the room, with light brown skin, short-cropped hair, and combat boots that laced up to her knees. She was pretty, but she had a crooked sort of smile that matched the Iron tattoos on her arms.

To Lola’s shock, the girl jolted up and threw her arms around her. She might as well have been hugging a steel rod for the way Lola froze. “Where themuckhave you been?” the girl growled, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed Lola on the lips.

Lola peeled herself out of the girl’s embrace, face burning. She’d never kissed anyone before, and of all the things she’d braced herself for today, kissing had not been one of them.

“Your girlfriend is awesome,” Justin said. “She can blow things up!”

Lola didn’t respond, on the off chance she’d misheard or misunderstood everything that was happening in the room. Instead, she turned to Grace. “Where is the key to his cuffs?”

The girl—Tock, Lola figured her name was—grabbed Lola by the wrist and spun her around. “I came right here when I heard what happened. You can leave with me—Levi will let you stay with the Irons. Both of you...” She shot a glance at Justin. “Well, I’ll make him, anyway.”

Lola let out a delirious laugh. “Why would I stay with Pup?”

“Well, wherearewe going, then?” Justin asked impatiently.

“I...” Lola suddenly trusted everyone in this room a lot less. It might be better if Enne didn’t know where they were staying, and Grace would undoubtedly report everything back to her. “It doesn’t matter. Justin, will the Doves—”

“My name is Silence,” he said seriously.

Grace groaned. “No one cares about your cult name. That’s not even a weapon. Aren’t all Doves named after weapons?”

“Tock said you were an assassin, but I don’t believe it.” Justin scoffed. “You’re a counter. You’re not—”

“You’re lucky you’re leaving today,” Grace growled, “otherwise you could’ve counted yourself dead.”

Lola rubbed her temples. There was a lot to process in the last twenty-four hours, and her head felt foggy. “How about we leave the handcuffs on? Then we’ll—”

“Let me come with you,” Tock told her, more urgently.

“Yes!” Justin said. “Let her come with us.”

Lola cursed and yanked Justin up by his arm. He reeked of body odor. “Stop trying to help us—you’ve all helped meso muchsince the other day.” Lola glared at Grace. Then to Tock: “And I don’t even know you. You’re...you’re obviously very confused.”

Something dark crossed Tock’s face, and she exchanged a look with Grace that Lola knew well. It was the same look Lola had once given Justin when their older brother started spinning lies that stopped making sense. The same look that all the Spirits and Scarhands had when they’d dragged Justin, thrashing, across the floor. Like Lola was shatz.

She didn’t want to believe in bad blood.

“We’re leaving,” Lola muttered, then she pulled her brother out of the room.

The girls shouted after her, but she kept moving, focusing on Arabella’s final clue to drown out everything else that didn’t make sense. Lola didn’t stop until she’d hauled Justin all the way to the edge of the grounds, where Arabella stood waiting for them.

“Enne’s father is Veil, isn’t he?” Lola panted. “That’s why you said bad blood—because he was the most notorious street lord in history. And you wouldn’t have seen his face because he kept it covered. Probably to hide his purple eyes.”

Arabella grinned. “Well done.”

Something icy and wet touched Lola’s nose, and she stared up at the bleak sky of the Ruins District—it had begun to snow again. She let go of her brother and fought to catch her breath, taking in the cold truth of it all, and decided whatever price she had paid for this knowledge had been worth it. Because Enne’s father had nearly burned New Reynes to the ground, and Lola wouldn’t let herself or her brother get caught in the flames when her friend did so a second time.

ENNE

Enne stood at the center of a hallway stretching endlessly in either direction, the alternating doors and floor tiles a dizzying checkerboard of black and white. She knew this place enough to know it was a dream—a repeated dream, one she and Levi somehow shared. She knew this feeling, too. The tug in her stomach, urging her forward. The need to find a particular door.

When she entered the closest black one, she stood on the grounds of Madame Fausting’s Finishing School, only it was not the school she recognized. Its white stone walls and bay windows were polished. Tulips sprouted in the neatly manicured gardens, with lawn statues of ducks and rabbits in the flower beds. Girls passed on the sidewalks—girls who, in many ways, reminded Enne of herself, even if their hoops skirts and ornately decorated hats were old-fashioned. They looked nothing like the girls who lived there now.

I’m in the Royal District,Enne realized, the name of this neighborhood before it had fallen into ruin. Enne grimaced as she strode across the cobbled roads, remembering stories of how they’d once flooded with blood.