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okay. Just forgot how to breathe for a second. What can I say? You have that effect on me.”
    I notice that her shirt has crept up enough to reveal the small, sun-shaped birthmark around her belly button. I trace it with my finger. It’s perfectly symmetrical, and it’s only a few shades pinker than her skin. I know how she wonders about that mark—where it came from, what it means. We’re both only half of a timeline, our pasts missing.
    “You know you can tell me anything,” I say gently, looking her in the eye as I tug the lace of her shirt back down over the mark.
    Sitting up the rest of the way, she looks away from me. I reach out and take hold of her chin, turning her face back to mine.
    “I mean it, Stein.”
    At first I think she’s going to say something, but the mask of fierceness returns, and she throws me off instead. For a second, I’m lying on my back, stunned. Then I look up and see faces watching us from the doorway.
    “Looks like my adoring fans have found us.” I snicker and roll to my feet.
    I look back at Stein. She pulls her hair into a ponytail using some surgical tubing she found on a lab bench, and her expression is sour. I can’t blame her. We get so little time to ourselves here. But that’s what happens when the two strongest Rifters get together. We tend to draw a crowd. Normally, it’s fun. But I would have liked a few more minutes alone with her.
    Stein drops her hands to her sides and takes a step toward me. “Yeah, well, your adoring fans can kiss my—”
    She kicks me, and I fly out the door into the short hallway. My face stings from hitting the ground and my fingers come away bloody.
    A mix of cheers and taunts ring out above me as I roll over and look up at the water-stained ceiling. Nobel leans over me, the goggles over his eyes making him look even more manic and bug-like than usual.
    “Thanks for keeping the damage to a minimum this time,” he says. He offers me a hand up, which I gratefully accept. “Oh, by the way, Gloves wants to see you.”
    I look around as the crowd disperses, but Stein is nowhere to be seen. “Where’d Stein go?”
    Nobel points into the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. “I think she went that way.”
    The crowd parts, and she looks over her shoulder.
    “So I guess we’ll finish this later?” I say as I walk up to her.
    She smiles, and it’s satisfied, but not happy. “First blood wins, Lex.” She takes her free hand and rubs her thumb over my top lip, holding it up so I can see the blood.
    I can’t help grinning. “Can you keep a secret?”
    Stein frowns and slips a finger into my belt loop. “I suppose.”
    “I like it when you win.”
    * * *
    The hallway to Gloves’s office always smells like beef stew or some other thick, spicy meal. The kitchen is just at the other end of the hall, and I’m sorely tempted to keep walking. An ache in my stomach reminds me I haven’t eaten yet today. I take a deep whiff of it and instantly I’m almost drooling.
    Only Stein pulling me to a stop outside the gloomy office keeps me from walking past.
    “Come in,” Gloves says after Stein’s knock. A rush of hot steam and smoke billows out the door into the hall, overtaking the other, more pleasant smells.
    “I always feel like we’re walking around in a smoker’s lung,” Stein says, motioning for me to go in first.
    Gloves’s office is filled floor to ceiling with toy trains that run off of coal. There are stacks of black rock scattered around, and it just happens to be Gloves’s favorite interior design element.
    “Sir?” I call out to get his attention. It’s almost impossible to see anything other than the smoke. Beside me, Stein coughs and pulls her shirt over her nose and mouth.
    “I’m here,” Gloves says. “Follow the red locomotive.”
    Taking Stein’s hand, I lead her through the maze of coal piles behind the red toy train. When we complete our journey through the “Land of the Locomotives,” Gloves is in the back of