Read Online Angel of Brass by Elaine Corvidae - Free Book Online

and it’s clear who is the villain in this
case.”
    As they took the back walk to the carriage
drive, Molly said, “See? I told you. We’ll have your sister back in
no time.”
    Jin cast her a small smile. “You were right.
I can’t help but worry, though.”
    Crowley had already brought the carriage with
its clockwork horse around. “Where to, miss?” he asked.
    “The boarding house.”
    “Very good.”
    Once back on the driver’s seat, Crowley said
“Forward!” in a clear voice.
    The carriage shuddered into motion. “I didn’t
realize it responded to spoken commands!” Molly exclaimed, craning
her head out the window. “Fascinating! Do you know how it works,
Crowley?”
    Crowley gave her a grin. “Sorry, miss, but
m’lady said I wasn’t to allow you to take it apart.”
    “Hmph.” Molly sat back in her seat. “Winifred
never was any fun.”
    Jin watched her with a bemused grin. “You
really like machines, don’t you?”
    “Technology is just so interesting. I don’t
understand why everyone isn’t fascinated. And I suppose no one
really understands why I am, for the most part.”
    “Liam seemed to understand.”
    “Yes, well.” Molly shrugged. “I’m not
counting anyone from the institute, since half of them are crazier
than I am.” She hesitated. “I wouldn’t do what Dr. Malachi did,
though. Not for anything. You know that, don’t you?”
    “Yes.” His smile warmed his black eyes, and
softened the aristocratic lines of his face. “I figured that out on
my own.”
    * * *
    Jin slipped out of the carriage a few blocks
away from the boarding house. Night had fallen, so he scrambled up
the side of a row house and onto the gabled roof with minimal fear
of discovery. He’d promised Molly that he wouldn’t just take off
again, but a part of him worried just how safe she would really be
if he joined her in the boarding house.
    After all she’s done for me, I can’t break my
promise. She doesn’t treat me like a freak or an abomination. She
touches me, talks to me. She acts like I’m a real person.
    And if she knew the truth? If she knew that
I’m not real after all?
    It brought an ache to his throat. For the
first time in his life, he had a friend, but it was all built on a
series of lies: about his past, about his nature, about the part
Malachi had meant for him to play in the conspiracy. If Molly knew
any of that, she wouldn’t be so eager to be his friend.
    Memory gripped him, and he paused, clinging
to the slate roof but not seeing it. Instead, he saw the face of
the trespasser, twisted in fear and hate, his mouth wide in a
scream of fury as he swung a cudgel at Jin’s head.
    Malachi had finally made a mistake and hired
someone who had ties to the outside world. When she disappeared,
her cousin had come looking for her. “But no matter,” Malachi had said, laughing as he gave the man a cudgel. “He’ll
make good practice.”
    Practice for me.
    Jin hadn’t wanted to fight; saints above, he
hadn’t. He wouldn’t have, except that the man had already seen
enough to be half mad with terror, and so attacked Jin the second
he had a weapon in his hand.
    The memory of the tug of claws in flesh
filled Jin’s mind, along with the scent of blood. The cudgel had
struck him on the shoulder, but he hadn’t even felt it through the
haze of fear and anger that had gripped him. He’d tried to make it
quick, but the man had turned too fast, and Jin had never done
anything like that before. The shredded mess had made him sick with
horror.
    That was the day he’d known he had to escape,
or die trying.
    If Molly knew I killed a man with these
hands, would she be willing to touch them again?
    Jin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Don’t think about it now. Focus on what you’re doing, before you
slip and fall to your death like an idiot .
    Jin scuttled over the rooftops, earning
curious looks from a pair of cats. The moon hadn’t yet risen, which
meant that the only illumination