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"I read soround," he says "A lot of the city’s designs did Maybe things won’t be very different from Internment Just much more room"

"If we don’t crash and die," I reround will be like All I see is another version of Internineers have been trying to get to the ground for centuries, and they’ve all failed You know that, right? That we’ll probably all be killed?"

"I don’t know any such thing," he says

"Basil, really"

"Call me irrational if you like," he says "But I believe we’ll irl I’m betrothed to would believe it too"

"When I put aside all of the ugly thoughts, it feels poetic," I ad to see where it takes us when it wakes"

"There’s the Morgan I know"

The Morgan he knew is dead I don’t knoho’s lying beside hi "Don’t bury your sense of wonder," he says "It’s a rare thing, and one of the things I adore most about you"

"Around," I say "She thinks they’ll throw us a party"

I look up at the hanging lantern, trying to iine that this metal bird can be as an Stockhour that lived in that apartment would envy me Maybe it’s silly of me to envy her now

"Close your eyes," Basil says "Try to sleep"

I closethrown upon the wind

The bed lurches beneath asp

"It’s okay," Basil says before I’ve opened

The lantern swings over our bed, and Basil reaches up to steady it "Professor Leander is testing the claws That’s all"

"We’re rin dance in the candlelight when there’s another jolt This is the happiest he has looked in days "We’re "

The door to our bunk rooh the look in her eyes is a bit deranged "My lantern nearly fell off its hook," she says excitedly "It’s like Intern on the wind"

"Not Intern up beside her "Professor Leander was up all night fiddling with the gears He says there’s no time left Thanks in part to the two of you, and that little stunt with the prince"

Pen gives me a flat stare "You told?"

"I only told Basil!"

"Voices carry," Judas says "And you’ve put us all even nant And I know she isn’t angry with e, what that professor is doing," she says "If ere round, we’d be able to fly like birds"

"Notthe prince with a rock," Judas fires back

She opens her ine"

"We have to generate our own electricity down here," Judas says "Get the gears turning, and with luck they’ll take over for us once we take to the sky Right now it’s all brute strength"

"Can I help?" Basil asks

"How are you with heavy lifting?" Judas asks

"He’s incredible," I say Basil would be too rees "Makes Tho Not that that would take much" She folds her arms and scoffs, the way she would if Thomas had just claimed her cheek for a kiss

But of course, no kiss comes, and her expression slowly falls

"Come on, then, if you think you’d be useful," Judas tells Basil

We all follow Judas down the narrow hallway Without the clock tower or daylight, I have no concept of tiet used to the sun’s absence It makes le to breathe I am a creature of the sky I’ve always known that, but I didn’t fully appreciate it until I was forced to live in the dirt

I think of whataiant tree Thatto tell me about this place; but she stopped herself, because she thought ignorance would keep rief, and I realize how easily I’m able to force it away It will come back, to be sure, but for now I’m in control, and when Judas leads me to a ladder, I climb up after hi the rungs beneath me

"Yes, but ere side by side," I say