In the cold gray of dawn I was awoken by a gentle knock on my door. I swam out of a dead sleep, surfacing in a soft and lovely bed. It had the clean feeling that things in a guest room had. They had no memories attached to them, only brief glimpses into lives that the next guest would never know about.

I slid out of bed and went to answer the door with a blanket over my shoulders. Ferdinand stood on the other side, his face still creased with sleep. He stifled a yawn. "We should head out as soon as we can, to avoid anyone on the streets," he whispered.

"Give me a moment. I'll meet you downstairs."

I closed the door and began to get ready for the day. There was no nightgown in the room, so I'd slept in my clothes, which meant I only had to splash my face with water and refasten my hair before wandering down the stairs to the front hall.

The Padvas were not yet awake, and the house didn't seem like it was either. Everything hung in heavy silence, with even the clocks seeming to quiet their voices. Ferdinand stood by the front door, his eyes trained on a crack between the curtains of a nearby window. I walked to his side, resting a hand on his elbow. He startled until he saw it was only me, at which point he pulled something out of his pocket and dropped it in my hand. I unwrapped the cloth wrapping to see an iced bun, cold but still fresh enough that the glaze hadn't yet become stone-hard. I grinned and took a bite.

Ferdinand unlocked the door and we stepped outside into the hard winter's morning. He hid the key in a flower pot under one of the windows, and we were on our way.

As we walked wherever it was that Ferdinand was headed, I glanced around at the empty streets. Normally, at this hour, the servants were just getting up and going about their business. There should have soon been cabs and horses coming and going, and those who liked to take the air walking on the sidewalks. Yet, none of that happened on this day. We were eerily alone on the roads when we should have been just two of many. I felt uneasy with the complete abandonment of the city. Somehow it felt like living underwater, blocked off from everything else. There were no noises or voices, not one person walked to work or passed us on the way to buy the morning's groceries. I commented on it to Ferdinand, who looked grim.

"It took me a while to even find a baker who was open in order for me to get breakfast," he said, just as I took another bite of the iced bun. I looked down at it as I chewed. "He wanted me out as soon as possible, so when the buns were done he gave them to me and went into the back without another word. Other than you, he's the only other person I've seen today."

"I wonder where they all are?" I asked, shivering.

"Hiding. Our worlds are about to change forever, and maybe if we all keep locked up in our homes it might stave it off for a few more days," Ferdinand said. "I doubt it, though. I think this festering boil is on its way to finally bursting."

"That is a disgusting analogy," I said. Ferdinand looked at me in surprise, blinking once before beginning to laugh.

I smiled and slid my arm through his so that we walked down the empty path side by side.

I didn't even think to ask where we were headed until I recognized the buildings rising around us. We'd been walking for about an hour, the sun slowly rising enough to burn away the mist of the dawn, and I stared at the lodging homes of the middleclass that sat in uniform rows of brick and white shutters. My steps faltered as the Lennox Company's boarding house rose into view, just as I remembered it before the attack on our show. I wondered if anyone was home, and the thought chilled my blood for some reason.

"Come on, I want to get your things," he said, pulling me forward with a tug on my arm.

"What do you mean?" I asked, letting him walk me to the door where he tried the locked handle.

"I mean we're going up to your rooms to get your clothes so that you don't have to sleep in those again." He jerked his chin at my rumpled dress.

I wanted to say more, but instead I pulled my arm away and walked back down the steps to find the loose one that held the spare key. I held it out to Ferdinand who unlocked the door and let us in.

The interior was just as silent and abandoned as the streets. The landlord and his son were nowhere in sight and I heard none of the usual morning noises coming from any of the rooms as we passed by them. On any normal day the corps girls, especially with the new additions from the Rumonin, would be clogging the hallways on their way to the shared wash room. I was so used to their chatter that it felt strange to walk through in silence. Ferdinand, of course, didn't notice anything amiss. I was slightly surprised that he'd even known where our boarding house was in the first place.

"Which door?" he asked, and I pointed it out to him.

Once inside, Ferdinand immediately checked all the rooms for anyone who might have come back during the riots the night before. It was all empty, though, which I could have told him. None of the corps girls would dare enter our rooms without Mr. Lennox's consent, and I would have known if Mr. Lennox was around. His presence was one that I had been fine-tuned since childhood to sense.

Ferdinand began to pack up food from the kitchen, while I went to my room and selected the dresses I would bring with me. I tried to pick the plainer ones to fold into my bag, while also grabbing warm undergarments and my heavy fur coat. I slid it on right then, since no one had been in the apartment to keep the fire going and the air was as chill as the grave. I was just closing up the bag and pulling out my boots to pick the most comfortable pair when Ferdinand appeared in the doorway with his own satchel in one hand.

I watched him for a moment, remembering that time when I might have imagined such a scenario in my idle hours. Back before any of it had happened, in that time right after he'd kissed me, my mind would have loved thinking about looking up to see Ferdinand in my doorway, leaning on the frame and watching me work. It probably would've been while I was doing something a bit more romantic, like practicing my dances or sewing, but still I felt a sad twinge that I could not feel as happy as I knew that Nadia, the one from what felt like ages ago, would have been.

"You almost ready? I don't want to hang around here much longer," he said, breaking the spell.

I nodded silently and he turned away, heading back into the main room. I followed at a distance, my eyes scanning over all the things that were so familiar to me. I hadn't had the chance to clean the dishes from a meal long past, and they still sat in a pile by the stove. One of the chairs was pushed out from the table, and one of Mr. Lennox's scarves hung over its back. As I stared at the dark gray wool, I couldn't help but remember the way he'd been trapped in the theater. All the gunshots, the screams... My feet halted on their own, level with the scarf. I couldn't bring myself to touch it, but I couldn't look away either.

"All right, let's go," Ferdinand said, completely oblivious that I wasn't following him as he pulled open the front door.

As much as I knew he wouldn't want me to say it, I couldn't help myself. "But what about Mr. Lennox?"

Ferdinand stopped dead in his tracks, his shoulders tensing. The satchel shook as his hand tightened around it, his knuckles going white. He didn't turn to answer me, but I heard the way his jaw clenched around the words. "Hang Lennox. My God, Nadia, I don't know what is wrong with you."

He flung the door open the rest of the way and stormed into the hallway, heading for the stairs.

My steps echoed hollowly, and by the time I reached the landing, Ferdinand was already halfway down the stairs. He paused at the bottom, almost as if I had called out to him-which I hadn't. I stayed at the top, twisting the gold band on my finger.

"Where are we going?" I finally asked, after the silence stretched for too long.

Ferdinand didn't look up. "Anywhere but here."

"I can't leave," I said.

He growled in frustration. "Of course you can. Lennox almost got you killed by choosing sides in this blasted war, and if the Lenotskaya and Prest's kingsmen defeat the Vigilant Men, they'll no doubt come here looking for anything to use against Lennox. I don't want you here if they come searching for leverage."

"But my dancing..." I trailed off when he gave me a stern look over his shoulder.

"You can dance anywhere, Nadia. You're better than you think," he said, clenching and unclenching his fists. "You don't need Lennox, even though you seem convinced that you do. I firmly believe that you will do better without him lurking over your shoulder, telling you what to feel and do."

"Stop it," I said, my jaw tightening. "You think you know me so well, but you've only known me a few days. I've been in this body my entire life, and I think I know what my limitations are."

He inhaled and placed a hand on his forehead, a weary expression playing across his features. "Let's not fight," he said. "We should be going somewhere safe, not hanging around waiting for the worst to happen."

"Fine," I said, coming down the rest of the stairs and brushing past him to reach the landing at the bottom. I heard him exhale, but didn't turn to look. I was too afraid to see the expression on his face any longer.