“But you’d like to, wouldn’t you? You think you can know what I know? What I’ve spent a lifetime learning?” Her breath whistled like the steam in the still.
“No, I’d never—”
She slapped him once. The sound of it struck him before the sting and the heat. “You’ll never know a fraction of what I know. What I’ve seen.”
Nate touched his sore cheek, shocked at how quickly her anger had risen and how quickly she composed herself. He couldn’t remember her from his childhood in the city, but there was still something familiar about the way she watched him, as if she’d always been there, hovering over him in his sleep.
He shivered. “I understand.”
He didn’t understand anything.
Agatha’s lips curled into a faint, thoughtful smile. “Were you one of the Tinkerers at the train wreck?”
Wary of her flaring anger, Nate lowered his gaze. “Yes.”
“I sent trappers after you. After all three of you.”
“Why would you do that?” He thought about Dresden and his daughter—wondered if they were dead—or worse, separated and sold off by trappers.
She came closer again, satisfaction gleaming in her eyes. “Because it’s up to me who looks like a hero and who looks like a villain. I couldn’t have unknown players out there rescuing the enemies of the Withers.” Her laugh was quick and unamused. “I nearly had you killed, but lucky for both of us, I ended up with a trapper with his neck snapped instead. Where have you found so many vicious associates?”
Nate’s mouth went dry. Brick had done that. She’d protected Reed—protected all of them. “I don’t know.”
Calm again, as if nothing had happened, Agatha patted Juniper’s sweaty face. “If I catch you hiding something from me again, I’ll bleed your friends dry and make Remedy with every last drop. You can survive another week knowing they died because of you.”
Juniper’s mouth hung open, slack and silent.
A hairline crack formed in Agatha’s calm exterior, and her eyes went dark. “Look what you’ve done, distracting me with your lies.”
Nate’s pulse hammered, a relentless flutter below his ribs. All he could see was Reed in the chair instead of Juniper—Reed gray and still like he’d been with his gut torn open. He swallowed, throat sticky. “I’m sorry. I don’t have anything left to hide.”
Agatha’s mouth became a distorted twist of amusement. “I believe that. It’s freeing, isn’t it? Stripping down bare. Nothing left but the hard truths of your life. I hope the path is clearer to you now, Nathan. You can’t run from what you are, but you can fight with it.”
Nate gave a faint nod, staring at his knees. His pants had holes in them. His skin, usually filthy, was clean from being hosed off. His feet were bare—long-toed and thin. Big for his size.
Fight. We can fight.
He could get Pixel out of here. She’d spent hours getting familiar with Agatha’s machine. Familiar enough to show him how to climb it safely without releasing steam or toppling it. He’d climb up with her and lift her to the grating on the ceiling. Sparks would be close by. She’d never go far knowing Pixel was trapped underground. They’d find each other.
The prongs made a soft sucking sound as Agatha pulled them from Juniper’s limp body. She bandaged Juniper and left her in the chair, her arms splayed out to each side.
“You’re not the first GEM to resist us, Nathan.” Agatha wiped the prongs clean and unscrewed the tube. She dropped it into a metal bin and tucked the prongs into a cabinet attached to the machine. “You’d be the first I’d have to kill, but I’d do it in an instant if it meant protecting the rest of my flock. I don’t care who your mother is.”
Is?
Before Nate could ask what Agatha meant, she left the room. The door slammed shut behind her.
Pixel leaned over the edge of the top bunk. “Now?”
“Not yet.” Nate’s heartbeat kicked up. His thoughts scattered. Too much to consider at once. “Maybe.”
This is our chance.
The door opened, heavy hinges creaking, and Agatha came back in with a handful of plastic ties. Dread washed over Nate, and he scrambled to his feet. “You don’t have to—”
She took him by the wrist with an iron grip, yanked his hands to the edge of the bunk, and fastened him to the metal.
“Agatha—”
