The stairs of the row house were rickety, like pretty much everything else, and the fourth one squeaked something awful. Lore made sure to grind her heel into it. Fifteen minutes weren’t much, and Michal needed the job with Val’s team. Even with rent taken care of, they could use all the coin they could get. She didn’t want him in the boxing ring again.

Michal had apparently heard the squeak. He was sitting up when Lore pushed aside the ratty curtain closing off their room, sheets tangled around his waist and dripping off the side of the mattress to pool on the floor. The light through the cracked windows caught his gold hair, so like his sister’s. He ran a hand through it and squinted at her. “Coffee?”

Lore leaned against the doorframe. “Last cup, but I’ll share if you come get it.”

“That’s generous, since I assume you need it.” He grumbled as he levered himself up from the floor-bound mattress, holding the sheet around his naked hips. “You had another nightmare last night.”

Her cheeks colored, but Lore just shrugged. The nightmares were a recent development, and random—she could never remember anything about them, nothing but darkness and the feeling of being trapped. Usually she could trace her dreams back to a source, pick out a piece and see how something she’d thought about that day had alchemized as she slept, but since the nightmares were so vague, she couldn’t figure them out. It made them more unsettling. “Sorry if I kept you up.”

“At least you didn’t scream this time. Just tossed and turned.” Michal took a long drink from her proffered mug, though his face twisted up when he swallowed. “Damn, that’s bitter.”

She didn’t tell him that the taste was probably not improved by his sister’s spit. “Val came by. We need to leave in fifteen minutes.”

Another squint. His eyes were blue, also like Elle’s, but deeper and warmer. If Elle’s eyes were morning sky, his were twilight. “Guess I’ll be late, then.” He leaned in and kissed her, mouth hungry and as warm as his eyes.

She kissed him back, just for a moment, before pushing him away. “If we don’t make it to the rendezvous point in time, it’ll be crawling.”

Michal frowned, concern cutting through the haze of heat and sleep. “I wish Val didn’t make you watch the drop point,” he said quietly. “It isn’t safe.”

The solemnity in his voice made her stomach swoop, for more reasons than one. Lore poked his shoulder, and her lips bent the corner of a smile. “I can take care of myself.”

“Doesn’t mean you should have to.”

Her wry smile flickered.