Bones listened to her story, face unreadable. She wasn’t completely certain why she was telling him, but it felt right. The more cautious part of her mind still complained that nobody was nice, on the streets, if they didn’t have to be, and that the version of him she saw wasn’t real. Already trapped and in peril, though, she found that part of herself difficult to heed. She liked Bones, and she was going to let herself have that connection, for once. So what if he was dangerous? What was an extra bucket of water if you’d already drowned?

  When she finished speaking, she felt better. Bones drew her hesitantly into a chaste hug. She leaned against his chest.

  “Tynan Amaya,” he said softly, “I’m not really surprised you’re someone special.”

  She hiccoughed and it turned into a sob. Moving slowly, as though he were trying not to scare her, Bones drew her closer, and patted her back.

  “You’re not real,” she said, “You can’t actually be nice.”

  “I’m not,” he said with a chuckle, “But I like you.”

  On an impulse, she kissed him. She looked at him, when she drew away. He smiled his easy smile. She found that a lot of the panic and the despair from earlier had dulled. Did she feel… safe? A warmth started in the pit of her stomach that she hadn’t felt before and she found herself smiling back.

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  “Look at us, grinning like idiots when we have a problem to fix,” he said.

  “Yeah,” she said, “Silly us.”

  “What about Glass?” he asked.

  “You aren’t meant to know about that.”

  “Uh huh. What about him, though?”

  “I don’t like the way he treats me, like I’m something expensive that he has to stop other men from stealing. It’s like… like I don’t matter, just how the idea of me makes him feel.”

  Bones nodded sagely.

  “Okay. Back to the important stuff, then. I think you’re missing big pieces of this thing.”

  “Yeah,” she said, leaning back into him for comfort, “I can’t believe Celia told them about me.”

  “She’s got to have a better reason than you not wanting to work for Gretta, right?”

  “I dunno…”

  Vision chewed her lip as she considered. Their arguments about her profession were so forefront in her mind that it had seemed an easy answer; but Celia wasn’t stupid, or spiteful. It was shocking to think that their disagreement about her lifestyle would drive her to contacting the rebels.

  “She might have a better reason. I hope she does.”

  “If I were a betting man, I’d say she knows why they want you. The way you talk about her, I don’t think she’d have given you to them otherwise.”

  “Maybe,” Vision said, unenthusiastically.

  “So, let’s go and ask her,” Bones said.

  Vision shook her head.

  “We didn’t part on good terms. Plus, I’m still angry. I don’t want to talk to her.”

  “Vis,” Bones said, “She knows you’re angry. She’ll still talk to you. You need to find out if she knows more than she told.”

  “You’ll come?”

  “I will,”

  She bit her lip, then nodded, standing and pulling him after her.

  “Oh,” Bones said, “By the way. It’s nice to meet you, Tynan. I’m Liam.”