Spoiler Alert: This excerpt contains a hint of events in the book. However, no critical details are revealed. The decision is yours.
A Natural in ActionThe bout settled over her, a tingling in her fingertips that spread higher and wider until it covered her torso and scalp, and her ears rang with the siren song of transformation waiting to occur.She did not consciously let it happen, but at the same time she didn’t resist very hard either. The risk should have been too great, especially now that they’d reached a more populated area, but the engine’s aether-driven promises offered the hope nothing else could.Her hand pressed against the panel, its latches posing no barrier when faced with her determination. The covering sprang open for her just as it had the proud coachman, releasing a gust of wasted steam. The bright, flashing metal gears spun around as their teeth bit and pushed the carriage wheels down the road.She could see the answers laid out before her with the glimmer of aether.Little changes, just tiny adjustments, straightening here, redirecting there. Tangling with the gears while they were turning took all her concentration. Her fingers grew slick with castoff grease, and some of her blood almost joined the lubricant when the teeth came too close and tried to slice into her palm.Sam did not pull away. She did not stop. She could not.The transformation held her captive, trapped as securely as she’d locked up the mechanisms she’d created.A shiver of delight ran down her spine when she realized this mechanism would not be trapped. This one would roam free, seeking her, protecting her if she failed to make the ship. No one would be able to catch her, to seal her away in an asylum where they stashed Naturals for the protection of the wealthy and their toys. No, with this carriage, she’d run ahead of all of them, laughing at their efforts.The blood pounded through her veins. Her sight grew distinct until she could detect the slightest anomaly, the slightest place where the gears had been thrown off balance or sealed in at an angle no normal craftsman could detect.One flaw after another, she corrected, she changed, she enhanced, she transformed. This carriage wanted to fly with the winds, and the aether now running between her and the contraption agreed to make it happen. She had only to complete the final adjustment and it would be done.