Epilogue
It was exhausting working with the Ministry of Progress to structure a Magic Guild.
But each day I spent collaborating with scientists and former Conductors made my bones feel steadier.
Doing something tangibly helpful, like Julian and Nikola’s work, made me feel rooted in the future we were building.
Made me feel like I’d have a place in it.
The people were taking to electricity with far more enthusiasm than we could have imagined.
Already, the Continental Exposition had been rescheduled to take place in the fall, and the former Hall of Radiance was being retrofitted as the Hall of Electricity.
It would be powered by wind and the current of the Sterling River.
We’d moved out of the gambling hall and into the renovated rooms above the warehouse that Nikola had expanded into an electrical workshop.
Nearby, several buildings were being remodeled to function as foundling home and school for children with magic.
I looked forward to being able to easily visit Isla and Harriet.
With Julian and Nikola toiling nearly around the clock, I was often alone, and found that I appreciated the time to reflect.
Ezra had joined the Healer’s Guild in Sterling City, telling us he might as well find something to do while we were here.
He left early in the morning and came home exhausted and happy.
Once he was a proper healer, he’d be able to travel anywhere.
He’d be able to search for more of his kind.
Until then, he could devote his skills to helping people recover from the wasting.
In the bath, where I often went to think, I sank my head under the hot water and held my breath. In that silence, I considered the radiance—the magic—within me. In reawakening Julian, I’d learned that, used gently, guided carefully, it could heal. Could repair a body instead of wasting it away.
I surfaced, sputtering and catching my breath, my mind clearer.
Children of Industry weren’t destined to destroy.
Just as Julian was drawn to electricity and all its potential, I felt called to learn more about what had happened when Ezra and I had combined our magic to save Julian and the Generators.
Perhaps, once the Magic Guild was well established, I would join the Healer’s Guild as well.
I wanted to learn about the herbs and plants that held a magic not unlike our own, and the miraculous inner workings of every living body—whether it contained magic or not.
I wanted to know I was helping and not hurting. I wanted to feel it.
Maybe … maybe someday I’d make up for using my magic to kill.
Ezra was waiting outside the door when I left the washroom with a towel around my hair and a nightgown sticking to my damp skin.
“Jo,” he said on an exhale, a little like I’d punched him.
Heat rose in me like the steam from the bath. I let him crowd me gently against the door as it closed. He took my face in his hands and kissed me, craning his neck because he was so absurdly tall.
“Enough,” I said with a soft laugh, ducking away from him easily—and catching his hand to tug him to the room the three of us shared now that it was clear that none wanted to sleep alone.
Light danced in the stairwell that led to the workshop. Not blueish white like lightning, but soft yellow like spun gold. We paused there, listening to approaching footsteps.
Looking preoccupied as he often did these days, Julian picked his way up the rickety staircase. He drew up short seeing me in my nightclothes and quickly looked away. “Am I interrupting?”
“Not at all,” I said, quite certain.
Ezra reached his hand out.
When he pulled Julian close, I found that I could take a full breath without it hitching—without choking on fear of what the future might bring.
“It’s going to be all right,” I realized aloud, watching Ezra steady Julian with a gentle kiss, watching Julian return it eagerly, his fingers winding into Ezra’s hair.
For the first time in my life, I felt truly safe. We fit together, perfectly in place, filling the space around us with possibilities.