It was an impossible role to play: savior and monster, devil and saint.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” she said, trying for casual. “I enjoy being the city’s monster.”

Roman looked at her and then away, saying nothing. He would see through her nonchalance, she knew. He had a way of reading a person’s thoughts with a glance, which was doubly infuriating since she was never able to guess his own. His eyes were always flat and black and distant, his expression infuriatingly blank. Unlike her, he seemed to easily control the members of the Black Cirkus without ever wandering over the line marking him as a monster. He could charm an old lady and terrify a Cirkus Freak all in a single breath.

Dorothy turned away, nose twitching. It hardly seemed fair.

The Fairmont’s main floor was perpetually damp, slicked with the sludgy water people carried in from the docks on the soles of their boots. The furniture and walls were covered in creeping black mold.

Still, the old hotel was beautiful, even in its dilapidated state, with its oak columns, brocade walls, and intricately tiled floors. There was a swimming pool, although it was, somewhat ironically, underwater, the top of the domed skylight peeking out from below the black waves. The rest of the hotel centered around a courtyard, also underwater, but morbidly beautiful, nonetheless, with plush armchairs and ornate lamps forever drifting on the still water.

Best of all were the Fairmont’s garages. Half-hidden below the waves, they looked flooded from the outside, making them the perfect hiding spot for a very large time machine. Dorothy didn’t know of another place in New Seattle quite like it. And, if Mac called in their debts, they would lose it all.

“We could always go back to the way things were before.” Roman shook the damp from his boots as he stepped into the hall beside her. “We could send a group of Freaks out tonight.”

Dorothy was quiet for a moment, turning this over in her head. Roman was right, if they sent out a group of Freaks to the docks, they could probably steal enough money to satisfy Mac by morning. But that would undo all the goodwill she’d been trying to build with the broadcasts. They’d be right back where they were a year ago.

“No,” she said finally. “We can’t do that.” The open hallways surrounding the flooded courtyard weren’t crowded at this hour, but Dorothy saw several Cirkus Freaks standing at the other end of the room. She felt the shift in the air as they caught site of her in the doorway. She heard the murmured rush of whispers as they leaned toward one another.

Did you see who just walked in?

Her lips curved into a practiced smile. This was a different smile than the one she’d cultivated with her mother. That had been demure and pretty, designed to attract. This smile was like the sharp edge of a knife. It would cut someone if they came too close.