“Sure about that?” she asked, easing him to his feet.
His legs wobbled, but he managed to sink into an unsteady crouch. Grimacing, he swiped his palm through the liquid on the floor and darted his tongue at it. The taste was unmistakable, even cut with filth. Humiliation curdled in his belly as he dropped to his knees and scooped more up as best he could, cupping the liquid to his mouth and sucking it off his fingers.
“Nate,” Reed said softly.
Nate didn’t know how much time he was buying. Days? Weeks? The units of measurement in Alden’s manual hadn’t covered drinking spilled Remedy off of polished concrete. He choked on a quiet sob and used his sleeve to soak more up and wring it out onto his tongue.
“Will you quit watching me?” he snarled out, hating Brick and Reed seeing him like this, scrabbling for a little more time. He’d known what he was doing when he shattered the Diffuser, but he wasn’t in a hurry to go to the stillness.
Reed handed Juniper to Brick and crouched beside Nate. He picked up pieces of glass and set them aside, clearing another pool of spilled Remedy. “There’s a lot here.”
Nate hunched over himself, overcome. His shoulders shook from weeping. Reed rubbed careful circles at his spine.
“You did the right thing.”
“When Pixel’s older. . .”
“We’ll figure it out.” Reed took Nate’s hand and guided it back to the Remedy on the floor.
With Reed beside him, Nate didn’t feel as wretched. The last of his pride eroded, and he pressed his lips to the floor, drawing as much as he could into his mouth.
It spread through him, cool and soothing. Despite the pain, despite his tears, his body grew stronger. The fog in his mind faded. His legs stopped trembling.
“We need to go, Nate. She could be back anytime.” Reed helped Nate sop up as much as he could. It was more than he’d ever had at a time—more than Alden had ever given him.
Nate shivered at a sudden hollow feeling. The thought of Agatha returning frightened him, but there was something else. Something he was missing. He reached for Reed’s hand, and they stood together.
“I can feel it working,” Nate said, shocked to find that he could stand easily. “I wish Juniper would wake up so she could have some too.”
Brick tapped Juniper’s pale cheek. “She’s not waking up anytime soon. Shouldn’t I leave her here?”
“One of the fiends tried toeather.” Nate struggled to form the words. He wiped his eyes with his good arm. “We can’t leave her. They might come back before Agatha does.”
He knew he shouldn’t feel protective of Juniper, but the need snagged at him anyway. The way her face had gone blank, as if she’d reached the limit of what she could endure.
What happened to her in Gathos City?
Reed sighed. “All right.”
They made their way up the stairs, stepping over another body. Nate couldn’t tell if the person was dead or knocked out.
Light rain bled down brick walls and darkened the streets. Low clouds glowed like lamps in the dying yellow light.
Nate breathed in the scent of wet char and tangy water, clearing away the tickle of smoke in his throat. “They’re opening the gates,” he murmured.
“For sure?” Brick’s hands twitched. “How do you know?”
“Agatha knows. She said so. I don’t think she was lying. Everything she’s doing is to get set up here before folks from Gathos City start coming over.”
“Won’t make a difference,” Brick said. “They’ll comehere, but they won’t want usthere.”
Nate nodded, pretending not to hear the hope laced through her words. He walked like he was in a dream, staring down at his wet boots and the pockmarked pavement below them.
He couldn’t get his head around everything that had happened—the fiends, Juniper bleeding, the bodies, and the Diffuser smashed up. It felt like minutes since he’d been carried away from Alden’s, but years and years too. A lifetime. He wondered if this was what it was like to get old, full to the brim with memories like Fran and Bernice.
They approached a gnarled fire escape. Reed set Juniper down gently between two plastic bins. She didn’t move. A thick knot bruised her forehead, and blood soaked her clothes from the bite on her arm.
Nate startled at the sound of creaking and looked up, expecting one of the Breakers to be crawling down at them. Relief chased away the dizzying spike of fear. Sparks picked her way down the fire escape, with Pixel trailing behind her. Pixel’s skin and clothes were covered with a fine layer of plaster dust. She’d wiped her fingers through the chalky residue to draw whiskers on her face.
