He smiled a little. “I can’t make a new heliograph without Raven knowing,” he said. “She would have to sit for it. You know that the images of people’s faces must be clear and are regulated. The ears must be shown. The person must look directly forward. There is no way I could secretly capture her image, and the moment I ask her to sit for a portrait, no matter what excuse I give, she will guess that it is for you. She is too clever.”

I felt a sick disappointment.

“But”—his smiled widened—“I happen to have an extra passport heliograph of her. I took two images when she asked for one a while ago. I thought it might be useful someday, though I wasn’t sure how. It felt like a bit of insurance against her.”

“Against her?”

His light eyes blinked in surprise. He spoke as if he were saying something everyone knew. “She can be ruthless.”

“But she does so much good for the Ward.”

“Yes,” he said, “in her way.”

“She is good to me.”

His gaze roamed over my face. He seemed to consider a response and then abandon it to say, “Well, she would be good to you.”

I started to ask him what exactly that meant, when he brushed loose hair out of my eyes and tucked it fondly behind my ear. “It’s easy to be good to you.” His hand trailed down my neck and brushed over my collarbone, not quite touching my breast, but almost. “But you must be careful around Raven.”

It was true: she was easily angered by me. But didn’t I deserve it? Look how careless I’d been with the heliograph.

“Ask Morah,” Aden said. “She knows better than anyone.”

“Morah has never liked her.”

“Of course she doesn’t.” Holding up a flat hand that asked me to stay where I was, Aden left the room. I heard rummaging sounds and then his heavy, approaching tread as he returned. He offered a small tin square. “It’s not exactly the same as the one I gave you a few days ago, but she won’t know the difference, will she, since she never saw the one you lost?”

I was awash with dizzying gratitude. I took the heliograph. Its sharp edges felt like salvation.

Aden took my hand and gently pulled me close. My gaze was level with his tanned neck. I saw him swallow. His breath brushed my brow as he said, “I have missed you.”

His hands slid down my back.

I knew what he wanted, though he didn’t ask for it, and it seemed like something he deserved, so I gave it to him.