A Web of Steam & Puppet Strings (Sevastyan #1)

Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER TWENTY

Her head tilted and strands of her dark hair slithered along her shoulders. "All coming together now, isn't it? I had to be extra careful when wording how you had to untie your arms, and to move in tiny increments so as not to disturb your new bed partner." The cool smile spread into an icy smirk, chilling me to the core as I stared up at her with a quiver in my fingers. "Especially difficult, considering your leg."

My gaze leveled. I stared through her. Breath would not come to my chest. Words would not come to my parted lips.

Terror.

This was terror.

She reached behind her, gloved fingers coiling around the metal cane to lift into both hands, balancing atop her palms. "Oh, don't be daft. You knew this would happen. And look at that lazy shaving job. Naughty, naughty."

My voice was barely a whisper. "Why...am I...?"

"I've finished putting together my newest endeavor behind you."

The machine.

My eyes widened and my pulse quickened and my fingernails dug into the lacquer of the armrests. "You're done."

"Well, yes, its basic functions are working. You're proof. My first test." She stroked her chin with her fingers, gaze sharpening onto the machine behind me. Attached to the chair, I couldn't turn to see it for myself.

I didn't want to.

A low hum escaped her. "I'm afraid the signals still aren't quite to the standard I need, obviously, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation."

My eyes flickered down to the papers spread across her desk. Sketches of spider webs and complex mathematic equations littered every inch of surface space, but there was a large sheet of paper that her body blocked, and I knew that was what she needed fixing to her 'standard'.

The blunt tip of the handle lifted my chin so that I had no choice but to look at her, leaning closer to me. "It's the signal, Sevastyan. The one-hundreds fall into the basic, broadest signal. You fall into a slightly more fragmented signal. Three-hundreds and beyond are my last step. But—ahh—at the very least, until I tweak with the signal, I can control you simultaneously with my one-hundreds, can't I? Because now I can have one machine running your friends, and one machine running you. You had your time, your chance, and now it's a bit too late for you. You're technically as disposable as your fellow subjects—all but one."

My lips pulled back, teeth gritted like the snarl of a canine. "But once you find the last signal...you won't be immune either."

If she didn't fall into the category of one hundred or two hundred, then she had to be a three, and running a machine that could run everyone, including the threes, meant herself as well.

She had wanted me to say that. Her free hand flashed out and I flinched, only to feel her pinch my cheek with heatless leather fingers. "That's why I need you to keep thinking, dear. You've a little of your father in there, after all."

What?

My father?

The color drained from my face, siphoning all the heat from my body as I stared at her. She studied me, whatever my expression revealed, and asked a softer, "Do you remember him? Quite the brilliant man. He and his brother helped to revolutionize steam and electrical power, respectively, and at such young ages. Every alchemist aspired to be them—although, as I see, not Savva's own son."