“I see. Did it not occur to you that perhaps the Transistors followed you here?” Nikola’s voice was deep and breathy, with a musical quality. It made it impossible not to listen to her.
Ezra swore under his breath. Julian looked appalled.
“If they followed us here, I’ll fight them,” I said. “I’ll kill them for what they did.”
“In good time. No one’s killing anyone tonight.” She turned to me, eyes narrowing in appraisal. “What is your name?”
“Josephine Haven.”
“You’re a Transistor?” The disbelief in her voice didn’t surprise me. Most Transistors were chosen for physical prowess as much as talent for using radiance offensively. No one sizing me up was going to fear for their life.
“She’s not,” Julian answered before I could. “But she may as well be.”
A small smile twitched at Nikola’s lips as she discreetly wiped at her lashes. “A little killer, are you?”
Julian’s faith in me felt like sunlight on my shoulders, despite the fact that what he had faith in was my ability to hurt and kill.
“I don’t relish it.” It was true—though I’d enjoyed what I’d done downstairs, and I felt no shame for that. Not the way I’d felt ashamed when I’d killed Ainsley’s men so gruesomely. Would I feel different if I’dkilledthe leering man in the gambling den?
“But you’ll get the job done if you have to,” she finished, her smile growing.
I could not tell if she was teasing or pleased, and I found that I didn’t care so long as she had an opinion about me at all.
“We shouldn’t have come directly here. I wasn’t thinking clearly,” Julian muttered. He didn’t seem as disarmed by Nikola as I was. “You’ll have to go into hiding for a while, until everything settles down.”
“Go into hiding? But I’ve got this murderous Conductor on my side now,” Nikola said, sounding more amused than concerned.
With a start, I realized she meant me. And I liked it.
“I’m not leaving my laboratory over a couple of arsonists,” Nikola went on. “And I’m not going to hide. I’m going to do precisely the opposite.”
“What do you mean?” Julian asked warily.
“I’ve decided not to debut at next year’s Continental Exposition,” Nikola said.
My heart sank. “But there’s no better way to share your work,” I insisted.
Her eyes glittered with mischief. “We’re going to debut atthisyear’s Continental Exposition.”
Julian looked at her with plain horror. “But that’s in two days …” When he saw her cross her arms with determination, he exhaled sharply. “How could we possibly be ready in two days? We can’t risk mistakes. This isn’t a handful of journalists—it’s hundreds of thousands of people.”
My heart pounded with excitement. “Exactly. Far more people than the House could ever disappear.”
Julian whirled on me, looking exasperated. “Are youencouragingher?”
Nikola made a sound of amusement that resonated low in my belly.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if I encourage her or not. It sounds like she’s already planning to do it.”
Sobering, Nikola said, “Every day that we delay gives the House more time to find us and end us. I’m even more certain of that now.”
“This is madness,” Julian said, sighing.
“I don’t disagree,” Nikola said. “But this would have been much harder on my own. Now I have you at my side and Josephine here to protect us. As well as …” Her gaze shifted to Ezra.
He’d been lingering by the door, not quite able to adopt his usual casual stance with the ceiling pitched at an angle and his head pressed against it. “Ezra. Let’s get this over with. I’m an Animator. And no, I’m not enjoying Sterling City.”
“I would imagine not.” Her expression softened to something curious and eager, and for the first time, I accepted that she was no more than a handful of years older than Julian. “Do you manipulate water or plant life?”
