Chapter 52

It took some time to find the railway tracks.

Fog collected over the greenspaces, hiding the car as it moved silently through the city without a single tremor through the rails to betray its location. Lights from the street lamps glowed through the mist, partially illuminating the way with the help of a full moon.

My borrowed horse ran hard, following the slanting earth scarring through the Districts. I was numb to the sting of the wind, the frozen fog, the open wound in my side. Feeling nothing but anxious, I was tempted to use my remnant to pause the time, to give me more to find them, but for my plan to work until the very end, I'd need every scrap of power left available in my bones.

The last car finally broke through the hazy morning.

"Stop!" I shouted. The benders pushing the car only used their remnants to push it faster, speeding further away.

"Fuck," I muttered, forced to bend the time to catch up.

Pulling the steed to the side of the tracks, I stopped it when we came beside the car and climbed the backend where two benders were working.

They nearly fell off when I let go of the second.

"We've been caught," I told them. "I need you to stop the car and get the hells off."

"But sir—"

"That's an order," I barked, the word echoed over the city. They changed the direction of their wind to slow the car to a rolling stop, and I sighed a breath of relief. The bender on the front acting as a lookout climbed down to meet us, and I waited until he joined us before explaining.

"Up ahead," I said, "is a legion of watchmen waiting for this car. It's all a trap. If they catch you, they'll arrest every single one of you and saints know what else. Take yourselves back to the Row and wait for further word. And stay out of sight on the way."

My men—who'd been more than just hired hands on a payroll—almost looked as if they'd defy an order for the first time. Men I trusted in a world where that word held more power than any monetary amount. Each of them was just a year or so younger than myself. A life ahead of them I did not have. It was better this way, for me to handle things from here.

"You take orders from Camilla Attano from now on. Do you understand?"

They didn't. Not fully, but they nodded anyway.

My hands fisted the edge of the guardrail, staring down at the empty tracks. Without looking at either of them, I dismissed them. "Good. Now get the fuck out of here."

They left without further inquiry, and I was alone with nothing but a car full of my rival's biggest profit and a freshly rolled cigarillo in my pocket. A year ago, I would have reveled being in this position, but the circumstances soured the sweetness from the moment.

I reached into my pocket to retrieve the cigarillo to have one last smoke and a picture. The same one Sabina had gifted me months ago that I'd kept close for no reason at all other than to peek at it when Camilla wasn't at my side. It felt so unfair, the entire situation. Out of all the time I'd loved her, had gone through hell for each other, we'd never get our ending like the stories promised.

I kissed her picture for good luck and took a moment to accept the end for what it was—ours.

The last plumes of my father's favorite blend burned and replaced the bitterness in my heart with an impossible kind of peace. But something disturbed the frost covering the ground beyond the reach of the light, footsteps padding quietly as if to hide their steps. Sparks exploded near my face as a bullet hit the wall of the car behind me.

Without another choice, I bent the time, slowing it to a stop.

"Fuck."

We weren't far from the station, but I had no idea how long my remnant could hold the time. Had never been eager to challenge the depths of my power out of fear of reaching the bottom. Tonight, however, that was no longer an issue.

I slipped off the back of the car to steer it from the front, to make sure the tracks were clear on the way back to the Row. Milla was right, once I got the car moving—with an assisting shove from the wind to nudge it along—it was easy to pull, even alone.

A light pulse fluttered through my bones, reminding me how much bending the time stole from the well, but I ignored the warning. Became as numb to it as I did rest of me and pulled the car away from the residential areas of the Steam District.

The marshaling yard. That's where this would end. I just had to make it that far, and then it would be done.