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pair of experimental subjects.”
    “You had been injured, though, right?” Molly
asked. “That’s why he chose you? To replace what you’d lost?”
    Jin shook his head. “No. That wasn’t it at
all.”
    “Saints above and below,” Molly whispered,
sinking down unsteadily onto the bench. No wonder this Malachi
kept them prisoners on a manor in the countryside. If anyone ever
found out what he was doing...he’d go to the bell jar, if the
crowds didn’t lynch him first.
    Jin had flung an arm over his face, hiding
his eyes. Not certain what else to do, Molly reached out and took
his other hand. His fingers curled around hers convulsively, as if
afraid she would pull away. “But you escaped, right?” she
asked.
    “Eventually. I know it sounds mad, but he’s
all that Delilah and I knew. Sometimes, he was even kind to us. He
gave us anything we wanted—violin lessons, good food, nice clothes,
toys, games, anything. If he’d only been cruel to us...but he
wasn’t.”
    “So what changed?”
    He dropped his arm enough to look at her, as
if surprised she’d guessed. “People started coming to the house.
Strangers. I never knew their names, but some of them were
resurrectionists.”
    “Lovely company,” Liam said from where he
sat, seemingly absorbed in the notes. The golden gears dangling
from his ears shimmered in the light as he turned another page.
    “You don’t know the half of it,” Jin said.
“Saints, I don’t know the half of it, but from what I overheard,
they’re involved in some sort of conspiracy against the government.
Queen Rowena’s name came up more than once.”
    That got Liam’s full attention.
“What?”
    “I don’t know if they’re anarchists, or
revolutionaries, or what. I don’t care, either. Malachi threw his
lot in with them, and that’s when I knew we had to get out of
there. If things go wrong and the conspirators get caught...well,
we’re legally Malachi’s son and daughter. No one is going to
believe that we weren’t up to our necks in the plot. I’d been
thinking about running for a while already, but that made me
desperate to flee. When I saw my chance, I took it.”
    “And the smiling men are here to keep you
from telling anyone,” Molly guessed. “Have you gone to the police
yet?”
    “No. Do you really think they’d believe me?
They probably get lunatics raving about conspiracies all the
time.”
    “But you have to tell someone! You
can’t just keep this to yourself!”
    Jin’s gloved hands curled into fists. “I
don’t care about the cursed conspiracy! I just want to get Del out
before anything else goes wrong, then leave Eroe.”
    “But—”
    “If I tell anyone, if they believe me,
they’ll go in pistols blazing, and Del might get killed. I’m not
risking my sister’s life!”
    Molly glared at him. “If you don’t do
anything, innocent people might get killed, not to mention Queen
Rowena. I have a sister myself, I understand that you’re worried
about her, but—”
    Jin sat up abruptly, then was forced to grab
at the towel as it nearly slid off his narrow hips. “You don’t
understand! Del is all I have in this world. You have friends, and
a home, and a job. Del and I only have each other.”
    Molly opened her mouth to argue further, but
Liam interrupted. “Drop it, Molly. We’ll take it up again in the
morning. Right now, we’ve got to do the repairs, while we can count
on not being interrupted. I’m going to guess that Jin doesn’t want
to be inspected by the entire Advanced Automaton Studies
class.”
    “I’d rather not,” Jin said, lying back down
and putting his arm over his eyes again. “Do you think you can do
it?”
    “I’m not sure, to be honest, but the notes
help. We’ll have to see what needs fixing when we get in there.”
Liam went to one of the tool cabinets and started taking out
supplies. “Will this hurt?”
    Jin shrugged. “I’m used to it.”
    His bleak tone softened Molly’s heart and
took the edge off