Chapter 37

Aramis's arguments were an echo lost in the wind by the time he realized what I was doing. He thought he had me cornered, that I wouldn't go straight to the steam-powered bike he had parked on the platform. He assumed Esme hadn't showed me how to work it, that I was useless just like all the other times he'd assumed my choice.

Good thing he didn't know me well enough.

I switched between gears to gain speed, not quite as seamlessly as we'd practiced, but I neared the train all the same. Thankfully, it wasn't operating at full speed—most likely because there wasn't any steam to power it further.

Harsh winter wind burned my cheeks. I blinked furiously to clear my vision of tears as I followed the guide of the engine light down the side of the tracks, nearly missing Nico when he filled the doorway.

"Milla! Back off!"

What was it with the men in my life constantly telling me to stay away? I gripped the handlebars and edged closer, and I could have sworn I saw him mouth a few choice curses.

"What's wrong?" I shouted above the wind, the whirr of the engine, the power of the train.

"The boiler is going to blow!"

Right. If that man had leaked out the water, then the boiler was probably moments away from exploding. I'd never seen or heard of it happening in my time, only that it had once before many years ago and the consequences were devastating.

"Detach!" I shouted.

"The rod is jammed!"

I was the one who cursed then. Kicking the bike into another gear, I passed the passenger car and focused on the coupler merging the tender and the car. Keeping one hand on the handlebar, power seeped my veins to burn away the glove over my right hand. Dark fire coiled in my palm, and I lashed out towards the coupler like I was snapping a whip.

As expected, Oblivion's fire slashed it right in two.

My front tire hit something slick—a patch of ice—jerking the handlebar from my grasp. The force of the swerve flung me off the seat, and I could only brace myself for impact as I flipped, landing sprawled in the snow.

The landing was jolting, but beyond the aches of the initial collision, I didn't feel anything too broken to be concerned about just yet. Thankfully, the beginnings of a snowfall now crept over the north side of the city, and the fresh snow had cushioned the impact.

The whiplash still jarred me enough to weigh down my movements. Lifting my head from the blanket of frost, the last thing I saw was the Iron Saint continuing down the tracks, a serene picture with the moonlight draping the snowy wood behind it. A runaway train spitting its last plumes.

It exploded a heartbeat later.

My eyes squeezed shut, blinded by the intensity of the blast. Heat washed over me as I lay flat against the ground, my front cased in ice while fire breathed down my back. The worst was the noise, the tumultuous grind of metal as it twisted and snapped and groaned as the engine was obliterated.

Only when the flare of heat settled and the Wilds went quiet did I allow myself to look up again. There was nothing left of the train besides the running gear, specifically the drivers and the wheels. The rest had been melted or tossed deep into the forests bordering the tracks where flames nipped at dormant pines.

Just like that, it was gone. The object of all my motivations, the source of all the discourse in my life, the reluctant responsibility I had inherited—was gone. Though the law had not recognized I was alive yet and though the company was no longer mine, the tears still fell as I watched something my family had poured their lives into be destroyed. The efforts of generations of Marcheses, all erased in a single moment.

"Camilla!" Nico shouted.

Gradually, my arms and legs pushed off the cold earth to prove to him I was fine. Banged up and winded—but fine.

He appeared in front of me with wild eyes that tamed some after running their assessment over me. "Anything broken? Can you stand?"

He helped me up, and I winced as a sharp pain shot through my knee and hip. "I'll live."

"Seven hells." He pulled me into his chest. "I thought you snapped your neck for a moment."

"It's gone, Nico." I despised how my body trembled in his arms, betraying the hurt in my heart that was far worse than anything in my bones.

"I'm so sorry, Milla. This is all my fault. I'll..."

He'll fix it, that was what he wanted to say. It's what he always said when I was upset, but trains like ours couldn't be built in a day, not even with a metal bender like Esme to assist the process. It was a complex machine, converging various specialties. I doubted even with his influence in this city he could accomplish what needed to be done to fix this.

He knew it too from the way he shut his mouth and swallowed the words he so badly wanted to assure me with.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"This isn't your fault. This was... this was sabotage."

Footsteps crunched in the snow, approaching us. The cousins split from the group that had gathered outside the passenger car I'd separated, everyone appearing accounted for and alive at first glance.

"I'm going to go put out the fires before they get out of hand," Adler said.

Nico nodded, finally releasing me from the cage of his arms. "How is everyone?" he asked.

"No worse than before," Luther answered, "but Regulus needs a haelen. Some of the men have already left to retrieve horses."

"Good," was all Nico said. He was quiet as he looked back at the isolated fires burning the trees as Adler used his remnant to cease the flames. Wordless, he walked back to the bike I'd flipped off and straddled the seat, testing the controls to make sure it was still functional.

"Gideon, I'll expect you to make sure everyone gets home and taken care of. Make sure our haelens see them, not the hospital's." He looked back at me with an expectant look. "Come on, Milla. There's someone we need to talk to."

I satbehind him on the bike, my arms wrapping his waist. It would have been more intimate had my husband not been so quiet—a kind of silence that only accompanied his most violent of tempers.

"Think of the positives, Nico. We got Regulus back. We did what we set out to do—"

His head snapped to the side to speak against the wind. "And now the train is destroyed, Milla! Do you know how many people rely on the Iron Saint? The companies I'll have to break ties with? The job I was supposed to—"

His mouth slammed shut, and he looked back at the approaching city. Saints, I had nearly forgotten about his deal with the black-market man. He was supposed to move cargo next week. How the hells would we accomplish it now? The freight train was up north and wasn't set to come back down until the parts were delivered. Parts that wouldn't be delivered now. With the Wilds being impassable on foot, we'd never get them there in time.

Yet the question remained. How would we get his shadow back without it? My throat closed with a hard swallow. "We will find a way," I told him, though I didn't even convince myself.

"Did you see something?" Nico asked. "You mentioned sabotage. Did you notice anything to make you believe that?"

The tracks curved as we entered the barren edge of the industrial zone leading to the station.

"Yes," I admitted. "I saw a watchman crawl from under the train, but..." I bit my lip. Was this my fault? Should I have not questioned him more, or at least investigated? My head fell against the curve of his back, angry at my negligence. We'd been in such a rush, I hadn't thought to check the engine.

"I'm not accusing you, Milla. I just want to know who did this." He shifted gears, slowing down the bike, so it was easier to speak. "Clearly, they were just using Regulus to get us across the river. It gave them time to destroy what gives the Row the advantage. Could have even destroyed us as well."

"We knew this was a risk, Nico. Now we have to deal with the consequences."

"I'll deal with them alright," he murmured, his gaze fixed on the Row.