“The pamphlets are a good way to start,” Julian said begrudgingly. “While Nikola and I present our work, you could focus on getting them into the hands of a few students. You know how they gossip.”
I couldn’t help laughing. It was true. Despite every bit of discouragement, we’d thrived on spilling secrets. But we’d never shared a secret this big. Would students have the courage to spread the word to one another? Would they have the courage to see the terrible reality of the House of Industry? The true nature of the very power within them?
“What if they think it’s all lies?” I asked in a small voice. The pamphlet rustled as I clutched it to my chest.
“Many of them won’t believe us,” Julian acknowledged.
Ezra smiled at me. “Some of them will.”
Nikola nodded in agreement with them. “I’ve had thousands of pamphlets printed. I have a team ready to distribute while we’re presenting. You can take as many as you need. The truth will spread like wild—” In the brief silence, I could taste smoke at the back of my throat again, could see the blisters on Maggie’s hands. Nikola drew in a ragged breath. “The truth will spread quickly in the general populace while you do what you can to get to students at the exposition. Hopefully Children of Industry will listen to their own kind.”
Others had already defected. Some of those who remained had to be willing to listen.
But would I have been willing, mere months ago? If someone had told me that radiance was poison, that it was killing innocent people, would I have believed them?
Or would I have struck that person down? I feared the answer. Feared the quickness of my rage and the limitations of my control. I couldn’t be the only one living as a Conductor with the abilities—and short temper—of a Transistor.
And more than anything else, I feared for the precious knowledge that Nikola and Julian held in their brilliant minds.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“You all smell like you’ve been dragged through horse shit and left out in the sun,” Nikola told us once we’d gone through her pamphlets together, gaining a better understanding of her vision for a world where no one owned Progress. “Let’s get you cleaned up and sorted out. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow to prepare for the exposition.”
“We couldn’t impose,” Julian began. I wanted to wring his neck. We absolutely needed to impose, or I was going to walk into the Sterling River.
“It’s safest here, and all three of you look half dead.” Nikola, drawn to her full height, did not invite argument. “Bathe and rest so you can think straight. You first,” she said to me.
Considering the type of establishment below Nikola’s attic laboratory, it shouldn’t have surprised me to find such a well-appointed washroom. Nevertheless, I squealed when I saw the claw-foot tub.
Nikola let out a deep chuckle. “Has Julian taught you how to heat water?”
“He didn’t need to teach me; I knew how.” Even before my first official lesson, I’d taught myself on cold winter nights at the House when I’d seen other girls soaking in steaming tubs.
“Good. Because you’ll find it quite cold otherwise.”
Remembering the hot springs Ezra had taken me to, I smiled and dipped my fingers into the water. When I closed my eyes, it was easier to feel the volume of the water, the way it pressed back at me with a chill. I eased radiance through it. “Careful not to come too close,” I cautioned in a whisper.
“Of course. Water is a conductive material.” Nikola had come closer.
I opened my eyes to see her watching, her eyes glinting with curiosity. Pale blue light shimmered through the water in pulses. I’d never considered how beautiful it was.
“I imagine if I touched the bathwater right now, your concentrated radiance would stop my heart.”
“Likely,” I said, cringing at the very notion. My eyes widened as I recalled how often we were told not to heat water for tea or boiling potatoes. “Oh. It’s only now occurring to me why we’re cautioned against cooking with radiance.”
“Incredible,” Nikola said. “At least someone considered the fact that illness from consuming radiance-laden food would be much more obvious than the slow spread of the wasting.”
Before the water became uncomfortably hot, I drew my hand and my radiance out. “Perfect,” I exclaimed, already shucking my travel-worn clothes. We’d bathed together for years at the House, and I had no shame being unclothed in front of another girl. Even if this particular girl was nearly too pretty to look at.
Nikola eyed the pile of clothes I’d left on the floor. “I’d lend you something to wear tomorrow, but I’ve got nothing that will fit you. I’ll have these washed, and Julian can dry them.”
“Thank you. The drying, I haven’t quite figured out. I’d likely end up setting my trousers on fire.”
“Keep practicing. You’re capable,” Nikola said easily, as if she had no cause for doubt.
“Why do you do that?” I asked, as I sank into the water with a hiss. It lapped at my skin as I eased myself down. Every inch of my body was far sorer than I wanted to admit. I kept my healing blisters above the water as long as I could and grimaced when the water touched the raw, sore places.
“Do what?” Nikola asked absently as she rummaged through a cabinet beside the bath.
