by Rosiee Thor
The platform held steady. Straightening, Eliza examined the mechanism. It was a pulley system—simple but effective—running along a groove in the side of the cliff, invisible to anyone who didn’t already know it was there. Eliza located the right rope and released it through controlled fingers, letting the platform descend.
When she reached the bottom, dozens of small houses stretched out along the dirt path with colorful doors and planters full of herbs. The town was as mismatched and wild as Anna.
A smile rose to Eliza’s lips, and she let it spread out across her face, unfettered, uncontrolled. No one could see here in the dark, but even so, she didn’t care. There was no reason to hide this feeling from anyone.
Stepping out onto the dirt path, Eliza surveyed the town. Where ought she to start? She didn’t know anyone here, didn’t know where Anna’s family lived. Before she could decide, Eliza heard the muffled sound of voices and saw two shadows approaching.
Acting on instinct, Eliza leapt behind a large bush near the side of the closest house, squeezing her enormous dress into the space between. Then she exhaled. This was silly. She didn’t need to hide from anyone. She was here to help, not hurt.
“Nothing on my end. You?” one of the newcomers said, voice a quiet soprano.
“Nope. Town’s as empty as we left it,” said the other. “You think this was a drill? Seems if it was a real threat we’d have seen some action by now.”
“Theo! Don’t say that!”
“Come on, Kate. Let’s head back to camp.”
Taking her cue, Eliza stepped out from behind her bush. Though mud and brambles stuck to the front of her dress, she knew she must be quite the sight, dressed in crystals under a bright moon. But that was all right by her. Eliza didn’t need to pass herself off as the scenery; she needed to stand out.
“Tonight’s your lucky night, then.” Eliza raised her hands to show she wasn’t armed—never mind the knife in her pocket, or the one in her boot, or the one in her bodice. “My name is Eliza. I’ve just come from the Settlement. You’re all in quite a lot of danger.”
Kate and Theo exchanged a quick glance before they pounced.
Eliza didn’t fight back as they pinned her to the ground, or as they tied her wrists and ankles with coarse rope and slipped a cloth over her face. But she didn’t need her eyes for this mission. She needed only her voice and a set of ears that would listen.
Anna had been nine when the runners had come back one afternoon with panic in their eyes and a warning on their tongues. She’d been ferried out of town along with everyone else, but she’d had no one to cling to. Thatcher had been too busy doing his part as de facto leader of Mechan to keep track of a child, and besides, Anna had been too willful to let him corral her. Even back then, she’d walked apart from the group, as though she’d had something to prove by standing alone.
Anna was alone now, too, but she’d nothing to prove by isolating herself. She understood now that she was stronger with Mechan, just as she’d been stronger with Nathaniel and Eliza, before Eliza had turned on her. She’d expected it to be Nathaniel—that would have been bearable, predictable—but Eliza’s betrayal hurt worse, cut deeper.
She’d misplaced her trust, or perhaps Eliza had misused it.
Anna’s eyes wandered to Ruby, watching as the other girl checked on each family, asking if they needed anything, despite the fact she’d nothing to give.
Anna had misused Ruby’s trust, too. Ruby had placed Roman under Anna’s care, and now Roman was gone. There was nothing Anna could do to make Ruby hurt less, just as there’d been nothing Nathaniel could have done to lessen Anna’s pain. She wouldn’t burden Ruby with her presence.
But Ruby didn’t seem to want to be left alone. Once she’d made the rounds, she returned to Anna’s side. “We buried him yesterday, by the sea,” she said finally, her voice a foreign, quiet thing. “I wanted to wait for you to come back, but the body … Thatcher said it wouldn’t keep.”
“I’m sorry,” Anna blurted. It was the only thing to say. It was the only thing she felt. There was nothing in that moment other than her guilt and Ruby’s pain. “I-I shouldn’t have— There are so many things I wish I could undo.” Anna shook her head. “No, I know that doesn’t help. I should have been more careful.”
“Yes, you should have,” Ruby said, rocking on her heels.
“I’m so sorry, Ruby. I never meant for anything to happen to him. I’m sorry.”
“I believe you—I believe you’re sorry for what happened to Roman. But that isn’t why you should be sorry.” Her tone wasn’t laced with anger like it had been back in Thatcher’s kitchen when everything had been so raw. Instead, it was tight with unshed tears.
“I know. It’s more than that. Thatcher was right all along. I put you in danger. My business isn’t safe, and I didn’t think—I didn’t want to think—about how it might affect everyone else. It was one thing when it was just me in danger, but I put the entire town at risk.” Anna swallowed with difficulty. “You’re safe now. I should probably leave.”
Ruby narrowed her eyes. “Still, you don’t understand.” She sighed and settled on the ground, looking up at the stars. “Get some rest. Perhaps it’ll be clearer in the morning.”
But Anna couldn’t sleep. This was her fault. All of it. She’d tried, she’d apologized. She knew that Roman’s death was still fresh for Ruby—it was still fresh for Anna, too—but she’d thought, or perhaps just hoped, Ruby would find a way to forgive her.
Anna rolled over and met Ruby’s eyes. Ruby should have been asleep. She was grieving, and she was pregnant. She needed to take care of herself, but maybe Ruby hurt too much to think of her own needs.
With a pang, Anna realized she was the one who usually took care of Ruby. When Ruby’s mother and father died, Anna had sat by Ruby’s side while the rest of the town worried about what to do with orphan Ruby. And when Dalton died, others had let her cry on their shoulders while Anna had kept Roman occupied. Anna wasn’t any good with words or feelings, but she’d still been there, helping.
“I left.” Anna felt the words fly from her lips like a startled honeybee.
Ruby sat up. “You left.”
Anna rose, too. “But you were so angry, and you said things—I thought it was better this way. I thought it would be easier for you to grieve and heal if I wasn’t here.”
“You ran!” Ruby turned her gaze on Anna now, eyes glistening with tears. “It’s what you do. When things get too hard, you run. You did it with surgery, you did it with Thatcher. But I never thought you’d run from me.”
“I’m so sorry, Ruby.” Anna reached a hand toward her, but Ruby knocked it away.
“I thought you died!” She spoke her words like a whip. “But you only disappeared for a few days doing … whatever it is you do. Did you take one second to think about who you left behind?”
“Of course I did—I thought about you, and Roman.” But they weren’t all she’d thought about. Should she have spent her days away deep in her guilt, letting it tear her apart from the inside? It was what she deserved, more than likely, but instead she’d entertained fantasies of vengeance and justice—and fantasies of other things, private things.
Anna lowered her voice. “You said I didn’t love the people around me. I was afraid you were right, and I was angry. I was so angry.” She shook her head. “I needed to do something—I needed to blame someone else.”
Ruby stopped crying. She locked eyes with Anna, searching her face. “I shouldn’t have said that,” she whispered. “I was angry, too, but that doesn’t— I shouldn’t have said that you don’t love people. I know you loved Roman.”
“And you, too,” Anna said. “I’m just not very good at showing it. No one ever really taught me.”
“I never thought— I was so busy building my own family, I forgot to hold on to the family I already had. And now you’re all I have left.” She looked up, eyes still watery with tears. “You were my best friend, and somehow I lost yo
u. I failed you, and I didn’t see it. I’m sorry.”
Whatever composure Anna had been clinging to came undone. Tears overflowed, racing down her cheeks as though she’d been holding them back for far too long. She had so much to cry for, it seemed: Roman, who’d died in Anna’s quest—for what? Information? Revenge? She didn’t even know what she’d been searching for.
Anna had hurt Ruby in a way she couldn’t truly feel. She’d been too young when her parents died, and Roman still didn’t seem like hers to grieve over, not in the same way he was Ruby’s. And Thatcher—Anna didn’t know she meant enough to him to hurt her grandfather, but he’d left, risking his life to look for her. Maybe there was still something there worth salvaging.
Anna gathered her arms to wrap them around herself, but before she could, Ruby was holding her. They stayed like that for a long time, sitting together, crying together—just being together—before either of them spoke.
“I shouldn’t have run,” Anna finally managed.
“But you came back.” Ruby sniffed. “Where did you go, anyway?”
Anna sat on her heels, glancing down at her borrowed dress, the fine fabric ruined by the elements. “The Commissioner’s manor.”
Ruby’s jaw dropped. “You—you what?”
Anna tucked her chin, unsure of how much to tell Ruby. All this—everything she’d done so far—had been unbelievably reckless. Once again, Anna had thought only of herself and her own goals. But no, that wasn’t it. She had thought of Ruby, and Ruby’s unborn child. So much of what she’d done had been for them.
“I went looking for a cure—or maybe just revenge. Maybe it was foolish. It doesn’t really matter.” She swallowed back a sob, acutely aware that the pang she felt was for more than just the vaccine she’d left behind, but for the girl she’d lost. Eliza meant far less to her than all Mechan, but she didn’t mean nothing.
“Are you two awake?”
Anna nearly jumped out of her skin. She’d forgotten there was anyone but her and Ruby.
Ruby stood up, dragging Anna with her. “What is it?” she asked.
Anna turned to see a tall boy only a few years older than her—Theo, one of the runners. He looked tired, shoulders hunched, brow furrowed.
“Kate and I did a sweep of the village.”
Ruby nodded. “And?”
“We found a scout. We’ve got her detained up the river a bit, and I wasn’t sure exactly who— It’s just she’s a bit— I don’t think—”
Ruby inclined her head. “Spit it out, Theo.”
“She’s saying she knows Anna.” Theo jabbed a finger at Anna, his eyebrows knitted together like finely woven cloth. “She’s saying Anna’s in trouble, but obviously Anna’s here, so I don’t know exactly—”
Anna stepped forward. “This scout you found—is she blond? Well dressed? Annoyingly high-mannered?”
Theo nodded.
“Take me to her,” Anna said, glad the darkness hid the nervous shake of her hands.
“You’re not worried it’s some kind of deception?” Ruby murmured, grabbing Anna’s arm.
“Worried? No.” Anna shook her head. “I’m absolutely certain it is.”
Eliza looked like a diminished version of herself, hair disheveled, dress torn and muddied, her hands and feet bound with rope. She looked almost defeated, but Anna knew better. Rope and a single guard were not enough to keep Eliza subdued. The runners finding her was no accident. Eliza didn’t do anything she didn’t want to, and when she looked up at their approach, her eyes lit up, a cross between fire and release.
“Anna!” Eliza tried to step forward but wobbled, falling to her knees instead.
“Did you follow me?”
Eliza shook her head, eyes wide and clear. “The map.”
“Right.” Anna’s breaths came too shallow, too fast. Eliza wasn’t supposed to be here. Anna had put her in a convenient pocket of her mind, to be sewn up, never to emerge again. “Why are you here? I thought you’d be back on the Tower by now.”
Still, Eliza’s gaze didn’t waver. “And I thought you were in danger.” Her hands strained at her ropes as if she meant to reach for Anna.
Anna recoiled. It didn’t matter that every cell in her body wanted to lean into Eliza’s touch. She couldn’t let whatever attraction she had to Eliza get in the way of protecting Mechan.
Ruby stepped between them. “Who is this, Anna? Do you know her?”
“I thought I did.” Anna narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t explain the depth of Eliza’s betrayal, the sharp ache between her ribs that pulsed with every breath. She didn’t want Ruby or the runners to know—and she didn’t want Eliza to know. Finally, she said, “She’s the Commissioner’s future daughter-in-law.”
Something like pain flickered across Eliza’s eyes—or perhaps it was only a reflection of the lightening sky.
“What do we do with her?” Ruby bent toward Anna, speaking quietly. “We can’t let her go back, but I don’t know if I have it in me to—”
“You’re not going to kill me,” Eliza said, her voice carrying over the sound of the river splashing against the rocks.
“How can you be so sure?” Anna growled, but even she knew it sounded unconvincing.
“Because if you kill me, you’ll never know how sorry I am.” Eliza’s words sounded strained, as though she’d never apologized before and meant it. “I cannot begin to apologize for what I did—it was unconscionable.”
“Yeah. It wasn’t great.” But as Anna’s eyes met Eliza’s, the sting of her betrayal lessened. She clenched her jaw. This was a trick of biology, a manipulation Eliza planned to use against her. Anna couldn’t trust anything she said.
“I want to give this back,” Eliza said, indicating her pocket with her bound hands. “It should be yours. I never should have taken it—I never should have equated my ambition with your village’s future.”
Anna eyed her skeptically but motioned for the runners to untie her.
“Are you sure?” Ruby asked
“Just her hands,” Anna said. “Don’t want her getting any ideas.”
Once freed, Eliza stretched her fingers, then withdrew the small vile of golden liquid from her pocket. “This is yours.”
Anna took it, trying not to react to the shock of Eliza’s fingers brushing against her own.
Silence settled, taking the shape of the space between them. A small part of her wanted to step forward, demolish it with her body, and take back the ground they’d lost. But there was no returning to the time before Eliza had taken away her hope. Even though she’d given it back now, it didn’t undo the hollow feeling in her chest when she thought about Eliza’s hands on her waist, on her spine, on the place above her heart where skin met steel.
“What is it?” Ruby asked.
Anna raised the vial for Ruby to see. This was what she’d been fighting for. Golden liquid swirled against the glass, a shining promise for the future of Mechan, for Ruby’s unborn child.
“It’s the vaccine,” Anna murmured.
“The Queen wanted me to retrieve it for her, but you need it far more than she does.” Eliza sighed. “Power makes fools of us all. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you,” Ruby said, turning to Eliza. “You don’t know what this will mean for us, how this will change our lives.”
Anna’s chest tightened. What thanks was needed? Eliza had done nothing more than the decent thing to do, giving back what she’d stolen. But it had been so long since an outsider had treated Mechan with decency.
Anna opened her mouth to echo Ruby, but instead she said, “So you took this from me because the Queen told you to?” Her words came out more accusatory than she’d meant them.
“I didn’t truly realize until the moment you showed me the vial that we were looking for the same thing, just calling it by different names.” Eliza shook her head, blond curls falling from their pins.
“So why didn’t you just let me have it?”
Eliza squeezed her eyes shut. “I
thought I was doing the right thing. I thought the Queen wanted what was best for the planet—and she does—but she wants it on her own terms. Waiting for it to be convenient for her would only lose more lives, and I’ve already lost too many people because I was waiting for things to change. I wasn’t about to let you be one of them.”
Anna felt cracks forming in the shell she’d built around herself, but she couldn’t let it shatter.
“How do I know I can trust you?” Anna asked, the answer forming on her tongue as quickly as the question. “I don’t.”
“You don’t.” Eliza nodded. “But you should anyway.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’m not lying.” Eliza let out a heavy breath. “I made the wrong choice. It may have taken you being captured to turn me around, but now I’m trying to make the right choice—”
“Wait.” Ruby stepped forward, eyes skipping from Eliza to Anna. “She’d been captured?”
“I thought so, at least. The Commissioner announced it this evening. He said he caught the Technician, but if Anna’s safe, then—”
“Then who did the Commissioner arrest?” Anna asked, but the answer burned a hole through her stomach. The Commissioner had as much as told her who he thought the Technician was. Old man, he’d said.
If the Commissioner thought he had the Technician, there was only one person it could be. Thatcher, who had scolded and schooled her, had now surrendered himself to save her. But Anna would not stand by and watch the Commissioner destroy Thatcher for what she’d done.
Crossing the space, Anna took Theo’s knife and split the rope at Eliza’s feet.
“Thank you,” Eliza breathed.
“Are you sure?” Ruby asked.
Anna nodded and fixed Eliza with what she hoped was an intimidating stare.
“What do you want me to do?” Eliza asked, their faces so close together, Anna could feel Eliza’s breath against her jaw.
