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FRAGILE REMEDY

and black whooshed overhead, too fast to focus on. Too fast to
comprehend. “You’ll be nothing but a stain if you keep courting
trains like that!”
Hot embers stung Nate’s knuckles.
The train was gone. He could feel his heartbeat in the
thick silence.
He pressed his forehead against a cool rung and willed his
body to stop trembling. He’d never come that close to getting
struck before. If Val hadn’t been there, the train would have
eaten him up.
I should have gone straight to Alden’s.
He wouldn’t do Reed and the gang any good smeared
across the concrete.
Val flicked his ear and offered her bruised hand. “Come
on. Where you headed?”
“The port.” He let her drag him to his feet.
She shook dust out of her short, choppy hair. “Funny. You
don’t smell like fish.”
Nate’s arm still stung from the force of her grip—a re-
minder that she’d saved his life. He offered the truth in ex-
change. “I’ve got a spool of fishing line to sell.”
“That’s hard to come by,” Val said, gaze keen.
Nate shrugged. He didn’t have to tell her where it came
from. Once people knew you were a Tinkerer, they started
thinking about all the things that needed mending. He didn’t
have time for that.
“You look like a dead sludge-fish.” Val brushed pale specks
of gravel from her shoulders. “I don’t want to step in your guts
next time I’m on the rails.”

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