“How does it work?” he asked.

“Like this.” She couldn’t hide the proud glint in her eyes as she reached up and pressed something high on the breastplate. With a faint hiss, it swung open, revealing a cavity inside where a man could stand, and levers and buttons with which to manipulate it.

“It’s amazing.” He circled the first iron soldier, peering at it from all angles. “A vast improvement on the metaljackets.”

“Having a human to drive it makes it far more efficient,” she replied, hopping up inside the cavity and sliding her feet into the hollow legs, hooking her boots into the feet molds. She strapped the leather harnesses to her thighs and tugged them tight. The boilers on the thing hissed to life with a press of a button, the Cyclops vibrating. Sliding the chest harness over her shoulders, Mina manipulated a set of levers with brisk efficiency, and one of the arms jerked to attention, pointing a flamethrower-mounted arm directly at his face.

“Are they difficult to manage?” He peered inside, his face inches from her thighs. She had legs like a dancer or a duelist.

For the first time, she looked uncertain. “Not truly. One wields it physically. If I take a step, it moves with me, but they will require a certain amount of instruction before one launches them into battle.”

Tension filled him. How much time did they have? “We’d be better off using the mechs to drive them. They, at least, know what everything does. Blade’s men can clear the way until we have some semblance of control.”

Her gaze slid to Kincaid.

“Don’t doubt yourself,” he murmured, sliding a palm over her thigh and squeezing it. “He’s not going to make a move. If he’d wanted to, he’d have done it by now, while you weren’t here.” Taking a deep breath, he continued, “You cannot understand how in awe I am of you, Mina. To create all of this, right beneath the prince consort’s nose… To start with nothing and build an army large enough to shake the foundations of the Ivory Tower… You are the most fearless, amazing woman I know.”

“I worked with the queen and others—”

“Yes, but you were the catalyst.” He stepped up onto the Cyclops’s bent knee, until his face was of a height with hers, leaving her trapped in her harness. Leo brushed his fingers against her cheek, using the other hand to support himself. “Don’t you like compliments?”

“I’m used to flattery.”

Comments on her beauty. He’d seen the way she shrugged such things off in the past. Leo traced the path of her jaw. “I remember the first time I ever saw you. It was the duel with Peter. You were breathtaking—fierce and aloof and so coldly focused on what you were doing. Determined beyond all means. I wondered then what you could make of yourself.” He looked around. “This far surpasses even my expectations.”

Something caught his eye. A leather cap drawn low over a young man’s face as he darted behind a Cyclops. Leo swore under his breath as he stepped down for a closer look. Charlie. Who was supposed to be at the rookery.

A hand tightened around his arm as he took a step toward the lad. “Don’t,” she said, leaning precariously out of the Cyclops’s shell.

“You knew he was here?”

“I saw him but a minute ago. There’s nothing to be done now. We cannot send him back, and indeed, I don’t believe he’d go. He might as well stay with us—it’s the safest place for him.”

“You don’t understand.”

That earned him an arched brow. “Enlighten me.”

He didn’t want to. What man wanted to speak of his greatest shame? But Mina was watching him with a steady gaze. It couldn’t have been easy for her to offer him her trust with so much at stake. And if he wanted to prove himself worthy of it…

“I can’t let him get hurt,” Leo said, looking away and sliding his hands into his pockets. He presented the very picture of a man of repose, but inside…inside his heart was lead. He added softly, “I caused Charlie’s infection with the craving virus. I hated his father—my father. So much so that I sabotaged the vaccine Todd was preparing to inject into himself. I didn’t realize Todd intended to use the same vaccination on his son. Charlie…he nearly died, Mina, because of me.”

Understanding softened her eyes, then they turned thoughtful. “Your guilt is blinding you. He’s not a boy anymore, Leo, but a young man, restless with the cage you’re trying to force him into. If you and Blade keep trying to smother him, sooner or later, he will do something foolish—something risky—just to escape it. And if I can see that, then you’re closer to that point than you realize.”

Leo opened his mouth. Then closed it. He scraped a hand over his stubbled jaw. Bloody hell. “So you think I should let him come along?”

“If he wants to come, then he can suit up in one of the Cyclops. It’s the safest place for him. I’m quite happy to make it clear that he either follows our orders precisely, or I shall see him chained up in one of the cells for unruly mechs.”

“No, I’ll do it.” He glanced across the room, jaw tightening. “Just give me a minute, or I’m likely to say something else to him entirely.”

“Very well. Here, help me finish strapping in. It will show you what to do.”

The next minute was a quiet one, as Mina showed him each control and how it worked. Leo threw himself into the task, pushing Charlie to the back of his mind. Or trying to.

He felt eyes upon him. “Why did you hate your father so much?” she asked.

Leo reached out, helping to strap her buckles into place, taking his time with the answer. He locked the last one tight, testing it across her shoulders, before resting his hands on her hips and looking up. He felt like he was cutting open an old wound, long years of ugly emotions oozing up inside him like an infection that needed to be lanced.

“Perhaps the correct word is not ‘hate.’ Perhaps it’s because I wanted him to be something he wasn’t.” There were razor blades in his throat. “Todd made it quite clear he never gave a damn about me.”

“You hoped for such recognition once?”

“I knew from an early age that the duke was not my father. He told me on the morning of my sixth birthday.” Not the best present he’d ever received. “Let us simply say that Caine was a rather cold, exacting ‘father.’ I remembered Todd from his time serving under Caine’s patronage. He was polite, highly intelligent, and driven. Of course, I began to imagine him to be something else; more of a dream than a reality. When I was thirteen, Caine suggested I visit with him. He told me I should learn something of the scientific advances of the time, and it fit with my schooling.”