Julian wasn’t watching either of us. He sat, limbs scattered like he wasn’t sure what to do with them in the face of what he’d lost. “This is their home. Their laboratory. It’s everything.”
“Maybe they’re in town,” I offered, trying to find a scrap of hope for him. “Let’s go look for them there.”
Startling, Julian scrambled up. Ezra tensed, clearly fit to tackle him if he made a move toward the fire again. We both followed his wide-eyed gaze to the sight of a hobbling figure emerging from the smoke.
“Someone made it out!” I shouted.
“Keep him back,” Ezra said quickly, shoving Julian at me as if he weren’t over a full head taller than I was. He jogged forward, his mouth set in a serious line that made my chest swell with a strange sort of pride. This was Ezra the apprentice healer.
It wasn’t difficult to hold Julian in place. I swallowed down growing panic over how thoroughly shaken he was.
Smoke poured across the ground in waves, briefly obscuring Ezra before he returned with a frail woman in his arms. Her face was burned raw on one side, her gray hair singed and bloody. Ezra met my frantic gaze and shook his head once, quickly.
My knees went watery.
The woman had small soot-stained hands. She looked to be in her seventies, her tan skin deeply lined with wrinkles and dotted with age spots. With horror, I saw the blistered ruin of her bare feet, the way her trousers had melted into her charred skin. No one could survive these kinds of burns.
“Maggie.” Julian’s hoarse voice broke through the ringing in my ears. Ezra carefully eased the woman into his arms, and he sank to the ground, cradling her. “Maggie. Can you hear me?”
She opened dark brown eyes clouded with pain and trembled a smile at him. “You’re more handsome than I imagined you’d be.”
He began to cry, and the sight of it shattered what was left of my composure. I allowed Ezra to pull me close, to tuck his arm around my back. I thought of Julian’s journal, of all the letters he’d carefully transcribed in code to remember Maggie’s words, always.
“Maggie.” Julian choked on her name. “What happened?”
“The House.” Smoke had wrecked her voice. It was barely more than a whisper. “They sent their Transistors.”
Pain crossed Julian’s face like she’d slipped a knife between his ribs. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Hush. You’re too clever a boy to think it’s your fault.”
“Your research …”
“It will live on. Listen to me. Everyone’s dead. They’re gone. But Nikola wasn’t here. She ran back to that dirty city to continue her work.”
“She’s alive,” Julian said breathily.
“Find her and keep her safe, Julian. She’s got no sense. Neither do you. Maybe together. Maybe together.”
“I will find her.” Julian clasped her sleeve, careful not to touch her burned, ruined fingers. “We’ll continue our work, Maggie. Your work.”
Maggie’s gaze wavered, slow to settle on mine. When our eyes met, it was like wrapping my hand around a conduction line. I straightened,more eager to please this woman than I’d ever been to impress my teachers at the House. She was important to Julian—dearly. I didn’t want her to find me lacking.
I didn’t know why it mattered.
“You’re Dunn’s girl?” she asked. “The little troublemaker?”
It took me a moment to understand what she meant. Professor Dunn must have corresponded with her. About me. Claimed me, in her own way, as her own. Stunned, I nodded.
“End it,” Maggie whispered to me.
My mouth fell open. I wasn’t sure if I’d heard her right. Ezra’s breath sucked in with a hiss, close to my ear.
“What?” My voice was too small. I wasn’t enough.
She narrowed her eyes, focused on me like a thread of radiance. “The poison flows from the top. End them. End it.”
“Maggie,” Julian murmured. It was the start of a protest, but he closed his mouth when she looked back at him. The resolve in her eyes was a living thing, sharper than a blade.
