Free Cold Copper: The Age of Steam by Devon Monk Page A

released the hammer on her gun like the slow crack of knuckles.
    Cedar nodded slightly. She’d had a gun beneath the blankets aimed at him. Practical. But unsettling, nonetheless.
    She shifted and stretched out under her blankets, but lay facing him.
    Cedar rubbed at his hair and tried to settle his mind. His neck ached from where the dream creature had bit him. He pressed his fingers there and didn’t feel blood, though it was too dark to see.
    He was no stranger to nightmares or the Strange. And he knew that creature had been watching them. It had known what he was and had called him “hunter.”
    Maybe he wouldn’t let Mae chain him at the full moon. Maybe it was time for the hunter to hunt.

R ose left the house at a run. She’d overslept and dawn was already starting to shine up the sky. There was no time for walking now. If she was going to catch the train out to Kansas City, she was going to have to steal Hink’s horse.
    But before she left, and even though it might mean she’d have to gallop a mile or two, she wanted to take one last look at the
Swift
. She was the first airship Rose had ever been aboard, and the first she’d ever had the chance to help repair. She couldn’t leave without saying good-bye.
    The door to the big wooden shed was propped open by an overturned bucket. The voices of two men drifted out.
    “. . .get word back to you soon, so watch the wire,” Hink said.
    “Chicago, you think?” said another voice, that of Mr. Seldom, Hink’s second-in-command.
    “It’s where I’ll start looking. If you hear anything, send me a dove. There has to be another connection between the east and west trade and I want to know what it is, and who’s behind it. And watch Miss Adeline. I’ve a feeling the witches are in this deeper than they’ll admit.”
    “What about Miss Small?”
    Rose skidded to a stop and ducked just behind the open door.
    “She’s…” Hink sighed. “Look after her for me. Keep her on theboilers. She’s got a hell of a knack for steam and I have no doubt will be the best boilerman the
Swift
has ever had if she gets over her stubborn foolishness.”
    Rose made a small sound but clapped her hand over her mouth.
    There was a pause, wherein she wondered if he’d heard her. Then he said, “Do me a favor, Seldom. There’s a man named Thomas Wicks who’s sweet on her. Kill him.”
    “No!” Rose gasped. She stormed around from behind the door.
    And ran straight into Hink’s massive chest.
    “You were spying on me.” Hink reached out and caught her elbows to keep her from falling.
    Rose adjusted her wide-brimmed hat and pushed away from his embrace.
    “I was not. You were talking too loud.”
    “I was having a private conversation. I can talk as loudly as I please.”
    “You. You.” Rose felt the heat creep across her face. Too many thoughts were colliding in her brain, and too many emotions in her chest. He’d said she was good at her job, a better boilerman than even his last crew member, Molly Gregor. He’d told Mr. Seldom to look after her for him.
    Because he cared about her, or cared about getting the
Swift
’s boiler repaired?
    “You will not have Thomas killed,” Rose blurted.
    “Thomas?” Hink tipped his head down just a bit so that his eye was covered in shadow. “Are you on a first name basis with a man you’ve just met?” he asked softly. Too softly. “You
did
just meet him last night, didn’t you?”
    Rose closed her mouth and glared at him. “I was on first name basis with you quickly enough. Why not also with an educated gentleman?”
    “I had to beg you to use my first name.”
    “You never told me your first name! I had to bribe it out of Mr. Seldom.”
    “Aha!” Hink turned to his first mate and stabbed a finger toward the man. “I knew you told her.”
    Mr. Seldom was a thin man with close-cut red hair and a face most often set in a droll expression. He wore coveralls, leather gloves, goggles, a flat cap, and a tool belt with an