The man guarding Patrick’s door didn’t question Theo’s arrival. He wore the robes of a minister, after all. The Crafters who worked in the House moved about as if he weren’t there, though their eyes occasionally glanced off his chest buttons, never venturing upward. On younger, drunker evenings in the years after Nina, he’d led women from the grand ballroom to this hallway and hitched their skirts up. The maids and guards had continued on then, too, completely dialed to task. Theo had found it was easier to think of them that way—as machinery. It grew confusing when you remembered they weren’t.
Theo went back into the little laboratory. It was webbed over and caked in dust. This entire floor was filled with rooms just the same—there had once been an Alchemist per office, but they were now vacant except for Patrick.
The man was standing in anticipation of his arrival. The shadow of a beard was forming over his jaw. Moonlight washed over the acreage of his chest. His hair stuck up in the places he’d clearly pulled at it.
“How did you convince the maid to bring me a note?” Theo asked. Even to him, his voice sounded hollow.
“Bluff,” Patrick said dismissively, and Theo saw then the empty sack that had held terranium ore. Patrick sighed, looking more tired than he’d ever been. “It’s always bluff they want.”
Theo waited, but Patrick seemed thousands of miles away. “And what doyouwant?”
Patrick looked straight at Theo, and he hated the way his insides shuddered a little. The breath in his lungs clung to the sides.
“The same as you,” Patrick said in resignation. “I want to get her out of here.”
Theo’s tongue lodged in the hollow of his cheek. He tried to keep his voice plain. “Thought she was a stranger to you now,” he said. “A traitor—”
“They’ll strip her from the waist up,” Partick interjected, his voice black as pitch. “They’ll kneel her down in the dirt, and take her blouse, and then her bra, and some copper will crack a whip over her back until she’s cut from neck to waist.” He was breathing hard now.
But so was Theo. His eyes had shut tight, but the image came anyway.
“And everyone in the city will watch,” Patrick continued. “Every man and woman will see her like that. And once that picture’s in their minds, nothing’ll scrub it out. They’llgorgethemselves on it. There’ll be caricatures in the newsprint, ain’t nothin’ you or I can do—”
“Don’t,”Theo said, his fists balling, something hot cutting at the back of his throat.
“You’ll have to watch, too.”
The thought was unbearable.
“And you’ll know you helped put her there. You stood by while the pieces were put in place. Waited for ’em to fall.”
“There isn’t anotherway!” Theo shouted. He turned his back to Patrick and covered his mouth with his hand. “The pieces were set long before I arrived.”
“That doesn’t absolve you.”
“I don’t wish to be absolved.”
“Don’t you?” Patrick pushed, stepping closer. “Not even byher?”
Theo swallowed. Was that what he wanted? In truth, there was a part of him that prayed she’d stay sleeping. In sleep, she couldn’t hate him. Couldn’t know what he’d done—or hadn’t.
“She’s strong,” Theo said. “Far stronger than most.” Lord, he was a sounding of his father. A direct imitation.
Patrick laughed mirthlessly. He leaned over the desk, bracing himself, his fingers to the oak. “You ever get a beltin’, Teddy?”
Theo balked. His mouth opened and shut. “No,” he said eventually.
“No,” Patrick repeated. “Well, I have.Shehas. Every fuckin’ kid in the brink, besides. She’ll look at you like you’re the devil after tomorrow. Do you understand?” His stare bore into Theo. “Ain’t no forgiveness after that. She won’t work for you and your father.”
“She’ll see that there’s no choice,” Theo persisted. But even he didn’t believe it.
“That’s just it,” Patrick said. “You’ll have taken all the choice out of it. And the worst thing you could do to a woman like Nina Harrow is take away her choices.”
Theo’s hands rose slightly from his sides, then fell, hapless. “Choice is an illusion,” he said numbly. “There’s none of it left on either side.”
“You can stop it, Theo,” Patrick said now.
But Theo was already shaking his head. “Do you think I didn’t try?” he asked. “That I didn’t beg my father to find another way? Whatever you think of me, Colson, surely you’ve learned that I can’t rid myself of her!” He said this last in a sudden onslaught, the words crashing over themselves. It took him several moments to catch his breath. He knew he was unraveling. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip and tasted sweat. “If there was a way…” The sentence lingered.
