UnSouled

Hayden sighs and looks to the stacks of ca

“It means all those kids won’t get unwound.”

“Maybe . . . Or maybe it means they’ll be unwound more quickly once they’re caught—along with every other kid awaiting unwinding.”

“Starkey’s a visionary!” she yells. Her voice is so loud, she hears it echoing from the stone around her. She wonders who might be listening. In these tu

“And he’ll do this by terrorist attacks?”

“Guerilla warfare!”

By now she has Hayden backed against the wall, and yet he appears at ease. Instead she feels like the one who’s cornered.

“Every outlaw is eventually brought down, Bam.”

Bam shakes her head, forcing the thought into submission. “Not if they win the war.”

He slides away from her, to the other side of the room, and sits on the stack of chili cans. “Although it unsettles the stomach as much as this chili will, I have to give you at least some benefit of the doubt,” he says. “It’s true that history is full of self-important madmen who managed to claw their way to power and lead their people successfully. Offhand I can’t think of any, but I’m sure they’ll come to me.”

“Alexander the Great,” Bam suggests. “Napoléon Bonaparte.”

Hayden tilts his head slightly and narrows his eyes, as if trying to visualize it. “So then, when you look at Mason Starkey, do you see any of the qualities of Alexander or Napoléon—aside from being short?”

Bam hardens her jaw and says, “I do.”

And there’s that slithery smirk from Hayden again. “I’m sorry, miss, but if you want the part, you’ll have to do a much better job of acting than that.”

Although Bam would like to knock out a few of Hayden’s perfectly straightened teeth, she won’t let her anger rule her now. Not after seeing how Starkey let his anger take control today. “We’re done here,” she tells Hayden, deciding not to wait until his guard returns.

Hayden’s smirk broadens into a condescending smile, which is even more infuriating. Maybe she’ll punch him after all. “But you haven’t heard the best part yet,” he says.

She should just leave now, before she becomes the butt of yet another one of his personal jokes, but she just can’t do it. “And what might that be?”

Hayden stands and saunters toward her—which means that maybe he’s going to say something that won’t risk losing him some teeth. “I know you and Starkey are going to continue to liberate harvest camps, for better or for worse,” he says. “That being the case, I’d like to help keep more of your storks alive. Remember, I was the head of tech at the Graveyard. I know a thing or two that could help.”

Now it’s Bam’s turn to smirk. She knows Hayden too well.

“And what do you want in return?”

“Like I said before, all I want is your ear—and not in an unwinding sense.” Then he gets quiet. Serious. She’s never seen Hayden serious. This is something new. “I want your promise that you’ll listen to me—really listen to me—when I have something to say. You don’t have to like it; you just have to hear it.”

And although she had refused the same request five minutes ago, this time she agrees. Even though she feels like she’s making a deal with the devil.

41 • Co

Were Co

However, the circumstance of their first encounter gives Co

It begins with Una.

It’s Co

If the Tashi’ne home gave Co

“Just a walk. Maybe some shopping. Pleeeeeeeeeze?”

Only Lev seems unfazed by all of this, which Co

“How can you just sit there and do nothing all day?”

“I’m not doing nothing,” Lev responds, holding up a worn leather-bound tome he’s been glued to. “I’m learning the Arápache language. It’s actually very beautiful.”

“Sometimes, Lev, I just want to smack you.”

“You already hit him with a car,” Grace tosses in from the other room. Co

“You forget that I was under house arrest for a year,” Lev points out. “I got used to semi-incarceration.”

Una spends most of her time down in the shop, either tending to customers or crafting new instruments in the workshop. The whine of drills and the gentle tapping of a hammer and chisel have become accustomed sounds. It’s when those sounds stop that Co

Two days ago, and then again yesterday, Co

“Una has issues,” was Lev’s entire assessment of the situation.

Co

Later that afternoon, she leaves again, and Co

But he doesn’t have time to argue if he’s going to effectively tail her. He pushes past Lev, down the stairs to the shop, then out into the street, where he sees her turning the corner. There are people in the streets, but Co