Page 85 of Queen of Volts

He sighed deeply, and Lola wondered if maybe, even if she hadn’t deserved to tell Enne, Levi didn’t deserve this, either. He’d gone through a lot these past few weeks, and though he and Lola had never been close, she felt guilty for not considering the position she was putting him in. She’d only wanted to escape the apartment, to stop Arabella from pretending like she reallysawher. Because she didn’t, and the idea that Lola could have anything in common with someone who’d committed such heinous crimes made her nauseous.

“So you’re sure,” Levi said, staring at her intently.

“Positive,” she answered.

“Well, I’ve never known you to be wrong.” Levi shuddered and kept walking. This time, Lola followed, surprised by his compliment. “Does Enne know?”

“No. I haven’t told her.”

“Why not?”

Lola reddened and looked away. “Because I’d rather not talk to her.”

Across the street, the bells of a church rang. Lola couldn’t remember that church ever holding services before. She couldn’t remember the city feeling so superstitious before. It made her think of Arabella’s confession last month, how she wondered if her sins had left the world a better place.

Maybe Lola had been too quick in her decision to spare Enne. When the responsibility was this great, she didn’t know if it was better to be good or to be smart.

Lola had always prided herself on being smart.

“So you’ve decidedIought to tell her?” Levi grumbled.

“Is that a problem?” asked Lola.

He grimaced. The expression reminded her of Jac. “We haven’t been talking much, lately.”

Lola smirked. “That in love with each other, are you?”

His countenance went darker, and he reached into his pocket for a deck of cards. He shuffled them as they walked, and they slid effortlessly through his fingers even with his gaze fixed elsewhere.

Levi whispered something that Lola couldn’t make out. “What?” she asked. “I can’t hear you.” Lola knew she should consider herself lucky that the bullet had only struck her ear when it could’ve struck her skull, but muck, every time she asked someone to repeat themselves, she grew a little bit angrier.

“No one can know about this,” Levi hissed louder. “Even though the warrant for Enne’s arrest was revoked, her criminal record hasn’t been...not yet. Besides, who her parents were doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” Lola retorted. “Enne’s father was the most notorious street lord in New Reynes’ history. That mucking matters.” Even if Enne hadn’t known it, the day she stepped foot in the City of Sin, she’d been coming home.

“Whatever the papers would claim, Enne isn’t like Veil.”

Lola snorted. “It’s nice that you think that. I’ve lost an ear to her. And I nearly lost a brother.”

Levi stopped walking again, this time to glare at her. “Where have youbeen, Lola?” he growled. “You’re gone for over a month, only to show up with...research? Is that all you’ve done in your absence? Dig up evidence on Enne to get her hanged?”

Lola sucked in her breath. Now that Arabella pointed it out to her, Lola couldn’t stop noticing it—the heat boiling inside of her, the anger, the hurt. She could taste the rancid steam of it on her tongue.

Maybe Arabella was right; maybe Lola was paranoid. Lola hated to think that she resented Enne for the same reasons that Justin resented her, and she wondered if such traits could be inherited. Lola already checked her tissues for blood every time she sneezed or coughed, in case she perished the same way as her father. Surely anger could be passed on the same way.

Not that she’d reveal those fears to Levi.

“I was looking for truth,” she said defensively. “I can’t help it that the truth is incriminating.”

“Enne is better since what happened with your brother. If you’d talk to her, you’d know that.”

Maybe Lola had interpreted the articles in the gossip magazines all wrong. Maybe Levi was grumpy—not because he was staging kisses with the girl who’d killed his best friend—but because they were interrupted.

Well, good for them. They got their happily-ever-after, and Lola got what? A brother she couldn’t even bring herself to speak to? A monster for a companion, who’d dumped the weight of this whole terrible mucking world on Lola’s shoulders?

Lola pursed her lips. “Well, it was hard for Enne to fall lower.”

“You don’t know what it’s been like since Jac died,” Levi snapped.