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

Chapter Twenty-Seven

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Lazar and Aris started the process of gutting the grandfather clock. My gaze returned to the windows to mark our hour of daylight when I noticed someone standing in front of the fence, unmoving. I recognized him by his hulking shape.

My lips pressed together.

I turned first to Katya. "Go tell the others at the wall and Doors to get in here and start making helmets, and to take smaller pieces and attach them to the helmet to cover the face. If they start looking grotesque, good."

I wanted us to look like walking nightmares.

I wanted us to look like the metallic intestines of Isidora's machine had come back to drag her into the grave where her monster rested.

Katya nodded, a deadliness in her eyes that I connected with. Both of us shared similar dangerous intentions. "I'll have the others who can't mold metal sort out the pieces and start dressing in their armor, then."

"Very good."

She took off like a soldier, so I turned then to Anastasya and Aris, collaborating as he stripped down the molding in an attempt to preserve the textures two-zero-zero had left behind, and she picked apart the gears with her careful fingers. "I'll be right back in," I said.

Lazar, on his knees and pulling apart the inner chains of the bells, only had to glance at my face before he cleared his throat and climbed to his feet. "Here I come."

I hobbled for the door with Lazar trailing behind me, and I tossed him a look. "I'll be fine for five minutes, Lazar."

"I've no doubt." He watched me swing open the door and continued following. "But every captain needs his lieutenant, am I wrong?"

The excuse was a terrible one.

Yet I couldn't help matching his mischievous grin with my own. I didn't mind having him with me, after all. But I did mind having him with me if it was only because I needed 'help' or that I couldn't 'manage on my own.' I didn't want that. I wanted him to join me because he wanted to join me, not protect me.

He remained in stride with me, and when I took my first step into the Playground, the sun stung my eyes again. I wasn't getting enough of it these days, it seemed.

The wind rustled the swell of grass as we made slow progress. The barren branches of the sickly tree twitched and quivered.

I wouldn't miss this place.

"What's this for, then?" Lazar asked as we moved closer to the single man. "He wasn't the nicest fellow to you."

"No, he wasn't. You knew about that?"

"Of course I did. He told me everything."

"Isn't he your mate, then?"

Lazar snorted, pocketing his hands as he kept at my slow speed. "No. And he knows that. He knows he has a rocky temperament, and I helped him channel that."

"Not very well, I'd say." Although, I suppose it wasn't my place to critique effectively channeling one's temperament.

A smirk pinched his eyes as he said, "I never said I was a doctor."

My eyes locked with his an extra heartbeat longer. I could have been doubled over by now in fear of losing Eliza, but I wasn't. My body was damaged, but the rivers of oil in my veins had caught fire, and for the first time, I felt a bit Intangible. I felt wild. All I wanted to do was spread the flames and leave a forest of black char behind.