PROLOGUE

Orange and yellow light flickered across the puddle, dancing across an otherwise dark canvas. The surface was still, a far cry from the scene unfolding above it.

Flames roared through shattered windows, seeming to strain against their confines of a fuel source. Thick, black smoke rose into an already dark sky, filling the air with an acrid tang.

The clear surface of the puddle rippled as a buggy with a copper mounted tank sped down the street, its alarm bell ringing desperately. Two young men leapt out of it and unraveled a hose, starting to spray at the hungry flames, but they both knew they were too late. Even as they started to soak the base, the thick crack of aching wood sounded and a plume of dust puffed out of the upper story windows.

The floor was gone.

One of the young men shouted something to the other and his companion nodded reluctantly. With one last look at the doomed apartment, they turned their attention to the surrounding buildings, beginning to soak them instead and leaving the apartment to its fate.

By the time the first rays of dawn touched the earth, the fire had been reduced to smoldering embers and the small apartment to rubble, flakes of ash still falling around it.

Across the town a young boy sat shivering, staring resolutely out the window of the train he was on. His brown hair was unruly and speckled with dark soot and his face stained in dirt and tears.

A crowd of people gathered on the platform below, but none were there for him. Instead, they sought out loved ones while waving off the flock of opportunistic pigeons that roosted in the soot-blackened bricks of the station.

One of the birds emerged from the darkened bricks, ruffling its feathers in some effort to remove the ash that coated its plumage. Behind it more followed, all flying to the ground below to pick out the scraps from the trash and the remnants of peoples’ lunch. As he watched, one got a hold of a sandwich that was a little too big for it, weighing the bird down as it tried to fly back up to the roost with its prize. Were there nestlings up there? Was it returning to a family?

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There was no turning back now. He knew that. He knew he couldn’t go back. He didn’t want to go back. There was nothing to go back to, so why did so much of him want to crawl through his window and back to the waiting crowd below?

The whistle blew again, and the train began to pull forward, leaving family and friends to chase after the windows of loved ones. No one ran by his window, and for a moment the images of bright flames lighting the air with dark ash falling to the ground like soot-corrupted snow filled his mind, but he swallowed them back.

No one was coming to see him off.

Not after what he had done.

From across the train a man in a long jacket watched the boy, saw the red swollen eyes, the way he seemed deaf to everything around him, but would edge away if anyone got too close. He wouldn’t survive on his own.

He hesitated for just a moment before settling down next to the boy, carefully tucking the copper chain of his pocket watch back in his coat. The boy jumped, and pressed against the side of the car, putting as much room as possible between them.

“Tough day, son?” the man asked.

The boy just stared with those red-rimmed eyes and the man continued.

“Listen, it gets better, but not if you’re out here trying to survive on your own. Why don’t you come with me, aye? The boys and I will fix you up proper and you won’t be worrying about where your next meal comes from.”

The boy still said nothing, but a new sheen had entered that tired, hungry gaze. Digging through his coat pockets, the man found a tin of biscuits that the boy watched warily, but with a glint that showed his barely disguised hunger.

“Ya want some? They’re good. Got them fresh from one of the shops.” He plucked one out of its tin, the buttery oil slicking his fingers, and popped it in his mouth.

“I won’t ask ya no questions either. Not until you’re ready.”

Those were the magic words. The boy nodded, cautiously, but starting to warm to him. He took a hesitant bite out of one of the biscuits before his deep brown eyes widened and he began to wolf them down.

The man smiled. He would have to explain to the captain why he had picked up a stray, but that was a problem for later.