“Okay, that’s great for those of us who work with coal, but?—”
“No, you’re not hearing me, Erik.” He peers at me in the gloom and his voice lowers even further. “The coal is explosive. Everyone heard what happened at the Academy. If we can safely handle the coal, we can use it to attack our enemies.”
I take a sharp breath. “Wait… Thoren… You’re talking about?—”
“I’m talking about an uprising.” He nods. “On the night of the celebration, all of the high-ranking Blacksmiths will be gathered at House Copperstream. Cohen Copperstream has been stockpiling coal. Nero knows where it is. The Blacksmiths will be gathered in an open courtyard with ramparts on every side from which we can target them. We can take out all of the high-ranking Blacksmiths at once.”
I’m cold because I’m certain Malak must know about this plan.
He wants me to take out Nero as well as Cohen. He made it sound like it was about disrupting House Copperstream’s hold on coal supply, but Nero is also the architect of this uprising.
I shake my head. “Thoren, this is dangerous. Malak has too many eyes in this city. He told you to take more apples to Petra. Why would he say that unless he knows what you’re doing?”
“Maybe he does know,” Thoren says, giving me a stubborn look. “But it’s still our best chance.”
“Certain death is not a chance?—”
Thoren’s snarl cuts me off. “Why would you care?”
I’m struck silent by his fury.
“I don’t understand your choices, Erik.” His voice lowers, but the corners of his mouth turn down as he glares at me. “No, you know what? I fuckinghateyour choices.”
I take a step back at the anger in his voice.
“Youchoseto bring a Blacksmith into our lives,” he says. “You brought death to our door. You made the choices that killed our father. And now you’re telling me not to make the choices that I know are right.”
My hands are suddenly shaking. “I can’t lose you, too.”
He scoops up the apples and heads to the door, but he pauses there. “These people need us, Erik. We have strength and skills they don’t have. We know how to fight.” He presses the heel of his hand to his heart. “I can’t turn my back on them. The only way you’ll lose me is if you refuse to fight beside me.”
The door closes behind him.
Fear threatens to crush me, but regret is the weight that drives me down where I crouch, gripping my knees.
Destiny, my father said. But fate can only be a fucking lie, a construct to hold the weight of my guilt and culpability.
I chose to save a woman I didn’t know and in doing so, I forfeited my father’s life.
I can’t be the reason my brother dies too.
Chapter 36
For the next four days, I work at the coal house during the day, report to Malak at the evening bell, and then I step out into the darkness of the city, learning its pathways and vulnerabilities, assessing the security around both House Copperstream and Silverspun.
Each day, I expect Malak to command me to act. He listens intently, tapping away at his creation, before he dismisses me.
Every night that I prowl through the city, a part of me hopes I might catch a glimpse of Asha, maybe steal some of the calm her presence brings me, but I don’t.
As soon as I have the chance, I tell Maybelle that I saw her husband. Her eyes fill with tears and she shocks me by hugging me before she hurries away.
As for my brother, I watch and listen, shadowing his footsteps, learning his plans without committing to them because I know that if it comes to it, I won’t let him risk his life.
I convince myself I’ll have time to find a way. A better way forward.
I’m surprised when, in the afternoon of the day before the students are to forge their second medallions, Nero tells me I’mto haul the coal out to the northern field for the forging the next morning.
When I question why it should be me, given what happened last time I hauled coal, he snaps at me.
