***
I’ve just barely closed my eyes and settled in to rest when the gas lamps on the wall flare bright red. The sound of boots stomping past my door makes me jolt upright. I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep, but someone has covered me with a scratchy wool blanket, which I immediately toss aside. When I stand, it takes me a full minute to get my bearings. Just as I step forward, the door flies open and Lex pokes his head in.
“Um, Ember? I think you have a guest. Better go claim him before Bruce shoots him with the cannon.”
I practically fly down the hall and into the main room, where Ethan is handcuffed to the support rail beside the half-pipe.
“Two intruders in two days,” Bruce grumbles. “Did someone put out the welcome mat?”
Beside him, two young boys I don’t recognize chuckle. Lex shoots them a stern glare.
“Is he yours?” Lex leans over and whispers.
But I’m already moving. How could I possibly miss someone so much in such a short span of time? I rush him, wrapping my arms around him and squeezing him until he has to tap out.
“Can’t. Breathe,” he chokes.
His non-cuffed arm wraps around my waist and pulls me tight to his body. Now I’m the one who can’t breathe. Pulling back just enough that our foreheads are still pressed together, I inhale the familiar scent of him.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, not really caring. I’m just so glad he is.
“I told you I’d come for you,” he answers, raking his fingers through my hair and sending tingles down my back.
“It’s only been a day,” I whisper in a weak excuse for protest.
He straightens, adjusting his vest. “As soon as I saw you vanish, I knew I couldn’t let you go alone. I left almost right after you did.” Grinning guiltily, he adds, “I know I said I’d wait, but I just couldn’t.”
I should be upset that he didn’t do as I asked, but it’s really hard to be angry with him looking at me like that.
“Who is he?” one of the Hollows interrupts.
“What does he want?” a girl with frizzy ginger curls asks.
From the hall behind me, Sisson enters the room. “Who’s the new guy?”
“Yes, who are you and why are you groping my sister?” Lex calls from the corner of the room, where he’s picked up a mean-looking katana.
I roll my eyes, and Ethan clears his throat.
“His name is Ethan,” I answer loud enough for the room full of onlookers to hear. “And he’s my… he’s mine. He’s mine.” I say the last words with my eyes locked on his, and when they glint in delight, I know I’m right. He’s mine.
“Ember, take a step back, please,” Lex says, his voice tight as he moves toward us, sword still in hand.
“Relax, Lex. He’s with me. He’s not a bad guy.”
“He’s the guy from the pier,” Lex says, pointing the katana at Ethan. “The one who nearly killed me. You want what? Us to kiss and make up? I don’t think so.”
“You mean like how your girlfriend tried to light me on fire at the World’s Fair?”
“Besides, you aren’t really my type. No offense,” Ethan chimes in.
“Not helping,” I mumble out the corner of my mouth.
Lex mumbles, “She didn’t know who you were. To me. She just… I mean, come on. Really not the point.”
“But you, knowing who Ethan is to me, would still threaten him?” I glare, folding my arms across my chest. Lex frowns.
“I say we take him downstairs and let some of Nobel’s machines have their way with him,” Bruce says with a big grin.
I point at him. “I’d like to see you try.”
At this point, things get a little out of hand. Some scrawny dude grabs me by the arm and pulls me into the crowd, yelling, “Get him, Lex.”
I dart to the side, punch him in the throat, and sweep his legs out from under him. The burly one moves toward me, but before he can take two steps, Ethan leaps onto his back, putting him in a choke hold. His brass cuffs are still dangling from the pipe. I laugh. He’s like Houdini but with better hair.
No one moves to the burly one’s defense, but Lex throws the sword. It narrowly misses both of them and impales the far wall with a twang. “Get off him,” Lex orders, his voice calm but stern. Ethan glances over to me. Then, seeing my nod, he lets go. The burly one drops to his knees, and Ethan kicks him forward.
Ethan glares at Lex with fire in his eyes. “If your friend ever touches Ember like that again, I’ll rip his arms off. How’s that?”
Lex swings his gaze to the one who grabbed me. “You won’t have to.”
Ethan tries to step around Lex, moving toward me, but Lex stops him with a backhand to the chest. “I still don’t trust you.”
At this point, I erupt into Russian. “Lex, leave him alone.”
He just stares at me, a tic working in his jaw. Finally, he steps aside. Ethan reaches me in an instant. He takes my hand and pulls it to his mouth, kissing my fingers.
Lex looks like he might vomit but turns away.
“How did you get here, anyway?” I ask.
Ethan reaches into his pocket and pulls out a Peacekeeper. It’s wearing a tiny steel collar, and most of its limbs have been removed. Only one little leg is still twitching.
A man in a train-shaped wheelchair rolls into the room. I vaguely remember him from my own arrival. Gloves, I think his name is. Personally, I’d have gone with Wheels.
“I’ll take that,” he says, holding out his hand. Ethan glances at me, and I nod. He hands it over, and then rakes his hand through his blond hair.
“Might as well put up a sign,” Lex mumbles, spreading his hands through the air. “Secret lair—this way.” He turns back to me. “You expecting anyone else we should know about?”
Looking at Ethan, I mouth, “Kara?” He frowns but shrugs.
I bite my bottom lip, and Lex throws his hands in the air. Pointing at Ethan and me, he growls. “Great. You two, with me.”
Stuffing his hat over his unruly hair, he leads us up to the roof. We spill out into the midday sun.
A feeling of peace washes over me as the light warms my face. At least until Lex spins, his finger inches from Ethan’s face.
“Why are you here?”
Ethan frowns, and I can almost read his mind. Lex is gimpy thanks to the fake leg. He’s alone. No one can hear us up here. If this were a tactical situation, he’d be toast by now. But Ethan takes a deep breath and points to me.
“I’m here for her. So back off.”
Lex snorts and steps back. He pushes his hand into his pocket and pulls out a handful of bottle caps. He rubs them between his fingers and squeezes his eyes shut. I reach into my own pocket, and then walk over to him.
“Here.” I hold out my hand. “Ethan found it in the vault. He gave it to me after you left. I’ve been holding onto it for you.”
He laughs dryly, taking the metal disc. “I remember when you gave me these,” he says to me. He looks away, over the ledge and toward the woods.
Reaching back in my mind, I try to bring the memory out, but it’s blank. I shake my head. “I don’t remember. I’m sorry. I wish I did.”
He doesn’t look at me. “No, you don’t. It was the day our family died.”
I swallow hard. And here I thought all my memories had been restored. The realization that there are still gaps hits me like a punch in the stomach. “Tesla did something to me. Made me forget.”
He looks at me now. “No. It’s the stream. None of us remember back beyond our first rift.”
I sigh. “No. I started having these dreams. Memories. They took them away. And I…” I pause, unable to swallow past the lump in my throat, “I let them. Lex, I’m so sorry.” I reach out to touch his arm, but he flinches away.
“It’s not your fault,” he mumbles, climbing down. “Tesla did this.” He looks at me, rage cutting canyons between his eyes. “He has to pay.”
“Are you kidding me? How is Tesla not the bad guy? He took you away from me.”
I snap back, “Actually, if he’d had his way, we’d both have ended up in the same place, at the Institute. It was your friends down there that separated us. You wanna blame someone for that, blame them.”
He stomps off before turning back to me, pointing to the building under our feet. “Those people are my friends. They have my back.”
I take a step toward him, but he cocks his head, glaring at me.
“Lex, they may be your friends, but they aren’t the good guys here. Tesla taught us to protect the time stream. All he wants is to keep your friends from doing too much damage. He wants to help people.”
The look on his face is stunned disbelief. “Help people? Are you kidding me? The only person Tesla wants to help is himself. You know why there’s so many of us and so few of you?”
I don’t say anything because I’m not sure where he’s going.
He continues. “Because Tesla dumps his cast-offs in the stream. Alone and scared. He just leaves them to fend for themselves. We are the ones who pick them up. We take them in and give them a home. A safe place.”
“All you do is steal things and screw with history.”
“Yes, we steal. We steal things no one will miss to keep food on the table and coal in the furnace. And as for screwing with time, yeah, we do. So what? Who says time is better off without being tweaked here and there?”
“Tesla says. He can predict how your actions will affect people and—”
He cuts me off again. “And you trust him why?”
I open my mouth to say something, but I’m honestly not sure how to respond to that. We trust him because we are taught to. Because he tells us he’s right. I look to Ethan, who is standing behind me, looking much calmer than I feel.
“What did you do with the plans?”
Lex shakes his head. “What plans?”
“The plans you stole from VonWeitter?”
I look back to Lex. Ethan’s calm seems to be rubbing off on him. He pops his neck and waves us over to the back of the building. We look over the edge to see three Hollows in the backyard, assembling something.
“We used them. We needed to build a solar collector that could function inside the time bubble to supplement the coal. It’s getting harder and harder to bring enough into the Tower to keep all the rooms warm.”
Scooting closer to me, he adds, “Plus, this device was never supposed to be invented.”
Now I’m confused. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, this device never existed. However VonWeitter came up with the plans, it wasn’t ever supposed to happen. We didn’t change anything. Not this time.”
“He lied to us,” Ethan says softly. He looks at me, his mouth set in a line. “You see, don’t you, Ember? It’s been a lie. All of it. Tesla’s noble mission, our training. All of it was a lie.” His face is so sad, so full of regret and disappointment, that I want to close my eyes so I don’t have to see it.
Shaking my head, I look back to Lex. “And how do you know what’s true? How do you know Gloves isn’t the one lying?”
“I trust him,” he says hesitantly.
“Well, I trust Tesla,” I say just as hesitantly.
With a frustrated groan, he sits on the ledge and chucks the caps into the air.
Ethan steps back from the wall. “Maybe the truth is somewhere in between. I say we get to the bottom of it once and for all.”
“After we get Stein.” Lex nods.
“After we go get Stein,” I agree.
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