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FOUR

STEPPING CLOSER TO THE STRANGER, I REALIZE it’s the same Sunrunner I saw examining the solar lamp before Valery appeared. He’s young, not much older than I am. Even though I know he can’t be Guild—not here in the Icebox—his presence, the dominant way he stands, blocking our path, makes me anxious. There’s something familiar in his stance—maybe his self-assuredness reminds me of Erik—but it feels like more than that. His hair is cropped close to his head, and even though I can’t see them in the dark, I know his eyes are brown.

I’m not sure how I know that.

Greta continues her hysterical ravings behind us, and Jost attempts to step around the Sunrunner, but he holds up his hand.

“What’s this about, Greta?” the Sunrunner calls out to her.

Jost could probably take him, but he doesn’t move. I could use my own considerable skills to get away, but I’m rooted to the spot by the familiarity I feel. The Sunrunners patrol the nicer blocks of the Icebox during the designated commerce hours, but even they’re indoors once darkness arrives.

“They’re thieves and hooligans,” she rants.

“Is this true?” he asks us.

Jost squares his shoulders and takes a step closer to him. “No, we paid her more than what an old book is worth.”

Greta hobbles closer to us, and when she hears this, she shakes her cane again. “No amount is enough when dealing with your type.”

“Hey now.” The stranger stops her. “I’ve never seen these two before, so I know they can’t be too much trouble.”

The only reason he thinks this is because he hasn’t seen us before. I know differently.

Greta screws up her face and gives a large huff. “I didn’t ask for your help, Sunrunner. You’re as bad as they are, so maybe you don’t mind keeping company with thieves.”

“Some of my best friends are thieves,” he says, his lip tugging up. The movement, though slight, flashes through my mind. One side curves more than the other, but his lips never give way to a smile. I’ve never seen him before but something about him is so familiar. “You should get inside. It’s after hours, and there are scarier things than an old crippled woman creeping about.”

I dislike how he speaks to Greta. But there’s no time to call him out on it. Lockdown is imminent, which means the makeshift lighting system will power down for the evening, extinguishing the solar street lamps completely and casting the whole crumbling metro into blackness. The rumors of snatchers and cannibals replay in my mind. We have to get out of here.

“We need to go,” I say to Jost.

“Good riddance,” Greta calls from her shop’s door frame. “Remember, thief, you reap what you sow!”

“Thank you for your assistance,” I tell the Sunrunner. Despite the necessity of moving on, I’m reluctant to see him go. I wish I could unravel his mystery, or, at least, the tangle of knots he’s made of my nerves. “We have a friend to find so we can take shelter.”

“Better to let your friend find you at this hour,” he advises, but I shake my head.

“Not how it works.”

“Ad, he’s probably already back at the hotel. We can’t waste time looking for him when we have ten blocks to travel to get there ourselves,” Jost reminds me. His tone is practical, and it almost convinces me, but I’m skeptical enough of his motives to insist once more that we look for Erik.

“I’m headed back west,” the stranger says. “If you don’t mind falling in with a Sunrunner, we can check for your friend along the way and then you’re welcome to come inside our safe house near the grey market. Ten blocks is too far to safely travel at this point. The Rems will be out soon.”

“Thanks, but—”

“Sounds like a plan,” I interrupt Jost, whose jaw tenses at my rudeness. He doesn’t disagree with me though.

“Excellent. Now I know you’re thieves, but I don’t know your names,” the stranger remarks as we head back toward the narrowing alleys where we left Erik.

“I’m Adelice, and this is Jost.” It occurs to me too late that I should have lied. If the Guild is looking for us, they’ll advertise our names. Even if they’re anti-Guild, the Sunrunners might see us as something of value.

“Dante.” He holds out a hand, which Jost shakes awkwardly as we hustle toward safety. Dante takes mine next, raising it to his lips. It’s possibly even more awkward than his handshake with Jost.

“Thank you again,” I say, trying to sound sincere, “for stepping in back there, and for helping us now.”

Dante’s helpful demeanor seems out of place in the Icebox. Normally I’d wonder if we were walking into a trap, but I feel inexplicable trust in Dante. I try to shake the warm tendrils of it from my head and heart, but they refuse to budge. It is this more than anything else that pushes me into following him.

“My motives aren’t entirely pure,” Dante says. “Greta’s a cynical old crone, but something about you spooked her, and I’m eager to find out what.”

“I have no idea,” I lie. “We were looking at books, talking with her, and she lost it. I didn’t understand half of what she was saying. I thought she must be crazy.”

“Greta’s angry, but she’s still firing on all cylinders. One of the few left who remembers the Exodus,” Dante says. “She said something about your type. You have no idea why?”

“No.” I keep my eyes on the shops and sidewalks, searching for Erik. I wonder what Dante means by her remembering the Exodus.

“No matter,” he says. “I’ll sort you out yet.”

The statement leaves me uneasy. We might not be walking into a trap, but we aren’t going home with a friend either. The street lamps have faded completely, and only the faintest afterglow remains. The roads are empty, but every now and then I glimpse a moving shadow.

“We won’t find your friend this late,” Dante says, a note of apology in his voice. He flips on a handlight, which is only bright enough for us to see one another.

“He was near here when we left him,” I say, squinting to no avail. We’d have to walk right into Erik to find him now that the lamps are powered off for lockdown.

“We’re close to the house.” Dante directs us a few doors down. His hand skims my back to guide me in the right direction and he removes it quickly, but not before my body reacts to its presence. For a fleeting second, I feel calm. Safe.

Jost leans in to me and whispers, “He’s probably at the hotel. It’s what we agreed on if we got separated, remember? Besides he wouldn’t want you out on the street after dark.”

He’s right, but the decision to abandon Erik doesn’t sit well with me. I trust Erik in ways that his brother can’t, but I don’t trust him to follow a plan, especially while he’s still feeling so bad about not being there for Jost before. Sooner or later, he’ll do something stupid and heroic to prove himself to his brother. I only hope it’s not tonight.

Dante stops at a thick, dark door illuminated on either side by thin spiral bulbs that glow red. He enters a code and waits until there’s an audible click before he ushers us inside. The entry deposits us into a holding area, the concrete walls surrounding us broken only by two parallel doors.

“Sally port,” he explains. “It holds us while the laser scanners approve us to enter.”

“Approve us?” I ask. My eyes sweep the small space, looking for the technology that is analyzing us as a green beam of light sweeps down my body.

“Don’t worry,” he assures us, before adding, “unless you’re on a Sunrunner ‘Wanted’ list.”

I bite my lip, not wanting to say that being on a wanted list is a definite possibility. Concrete walls. Laser scanners. This is a place built to keep attackers out. It’s a lot of security clearance, but I guess when you’re running a dangerous operation like solar trafficking, it’s necessary, especially if there are creatures roaming the streets after hours.

The hall on the other side of the holding area is surprisingly warm. Long solar torches hang overhead, and the walls are lacquered in a deep gray. A few broad leather chairs rest in an alcove, but Dante passes them and we follow quickly behind. We enter a lounge area with overstuffed sofas and gleaming walnut tables. On the far wall, a carved mantel arches elegantly toward the ceiling and a fire licks in a cavernous hearth. Small solar lamps with green glass shades light the windowless room.

“I’m famished,” Dante announces. “I’ll have the cook scrounge something together. No promises that it will be edible though.” He gives a sweeping bow followed by a wink as he exits the room. I still don’t know what to make of him.

Considering the canned goods we’ve survived on during the last week, I’m guessing the Sunrunners’ cuisine will be an improvement. One of the perks of controlling the Icebox’s light supply is bound to be better food. Jost and I wander to the fire and settle on the brick hearth to warm ourselves. I’m getting used to the daily chill of Earth, but it’s nice to feel heat on my skin.

Jost doesn’t break the silence; instead he pulls me into his arms and I dissolve against him. In the heat of the fire, I don’t need his warmth, but I long for it. I bury my face under his chin and inhale his scent. He pulls back ever so slightly, but only to bring his lips to mine. I don’t expect it, but I welcome it after the awkwardness between us.

The kiss is slow. On Earth there’s no need to rush. No risk of being caught by the Guild. Realizing that pushes everything else out of my mind, and I focus on the crush of his lips, parting my own to deepen the kiss. He responds by drawing me closer, his hands firmly on my waist.

I push into him and let my own hands drop slowly down his shoulders across his chest, trailing along the waistband of his pants until I bring them to rest on his back. My fingertips are numb as usual but touching Jost sends shivers up my arms. They come to rest deep in my core until every part of me aches. He ends the kiss first, but neither of us breaks from the embrace. Instead his lips linger at my ear.

I want to lock the moment in place and erase the outside world.

Forget my past.

Ignore my future.

Lose myself in him.

But even I don’t have that much time.

When Dante reenters the room, we break apart as he hesitates. I can see him questioning if he should leave us alone, so I motion for him to join us.

“Cook’s on it,” he says. “Now back to Greta.”

He’s not giving up on what happened at the shop, and I don’t blame him. Her frantic accusations have been bouncing around in my head since we left there. They didn’t mean anything to me, but it’s possible they’ll mean something to Dante. There was a time when I would have guarded the hourglass techprint my father placed on me the night the Guild came to retrieve me because I thought it was a secret code between him and me. A simple reminder to me of who I was. But Greta’s reaction to it rattled me even more than the girl’s recognition of it on the night we arrived here. Do I know who I am? My parents’ actions that night had raised more and more questions in my time at the Coventry. How much had they known? Where were we going? I’d learned nothing is as it seems in Arras. Not even a simple techprint, it turns out.

So I hold out my wrist and show it to Dante. He takes a step forward to examine my offering and shock flits across his face, quickly replaced by a mask of calm. If I hadn’t been watching him, I would have missed it entirely.

“That explains it,” he says, his voice so low it sends goose bumps popping across my flesh.

“It means something to you then?” Jost asks.

“You don’t know what this is?” Dante asks.

“No,” I admit. Part of me wants to tell him the whole story. That we’re refugees from Arras, about my parents and the tunnels under our house, that we’re running from the Guild. But I keep quiet, waiting to see how he responds, wondering exactly what I’ve revealed to him about myself.

“It’s the sign of Kairos,” he tells us. “It seems I haven’t been very polite. Welcome to Earth.”