“One is pointless,” replied Diana, wondering what refuse had to do with it. “Two would make it easier to run in.”
“Pretty sure there’s no red-carpet obstacle course,” Alia said as Nim tossed Diana a slim silver bag.
“I’m going to need something larger.”
“Why?” said Nim. “That clutch is perfect.”
Diana removed the lasso from the plastic bag. “I need something for my things.” Meyers and Perez would transfer the rest of their belongings, including her leathers, to the jet, but there was no way Diana was parting with her mother’s lasso or the heartstone.
“What is that?” Nim said, reaching for the golden coils. “What is it made out of?”
Diana hesitated, then let Nim run her fingers over the glimmering fibers. “It’s kind of an heirloom.”
“I mean, it’s gorgeous, but you can’t carry it around like you’re going to hog-tie the DJ.”
“It will definitely attract attention,” said Alia.
“Wait,” Nim said. “Give me that.”
Diana frowned, hesitant. “What are you going to do?”
“Eat it,” Nim said with a roll of her eyes. “I’m not going to hurt it; just trust me.” She laid the rope on the desk and turned her back to them, making little humming noises as she worked. A moment later, she hopped onto the desk chair and held up an open-work capelet of shimmering knots. It was somewhere between a shawl and a shrug. “Turn around, you magnificent tree.”
Diana let Nim help her into the glittering creation and looked at herself in the mirror on the back of Alia’s closet door. The lasso felt cool against her skin, its weight light over her shoulders, but it glinted like gold when she moved, as if her arms had hooked a field of falling stars.
“Perfect,” said Nim with a happy sigh.
And it was. Bolder and more whimsical than anything she’d ever worn before. It was fun. She had always let her mother dictate what she wore, let her desire to belong, the wish to look like an Amazon make her choices. But tonight she could look like anything she wanted. A laugh rose in her throat, and she spun in a circle, arms out, watching the gold flash at the corner of her eye. She felt transformed.
“Nim,” said Diana happily. “You’re a genius.”
“Guilty as charged. But the hair is going up. This look needs more neck.”
Nim pinned Diana’s hair into a twist, and then they were racing down the stairs.
Meyers and Perez were waiting to escort them to the car and rode in the backseat with them the short distance to the museum.
“There it is,” Alia said, pointing through the dark glass.
Diana glimpsed the outlines of windows, high and arched, glowing with light in the gathering dusk.
Dez continued on, and Diana realized he was circling the building so they could enter away from the main doors. When they stopped, Meyers and Perez spoke briefly into their sleeves. It took a moment for Diana to understand they were wearing communication devices. They exited the car first, and Diana saw more guards at the door, but she kept close to Alia anyway. She wasn’t about to trust these men just because Jason did.
They entered a shadowy, high-ceilinged hall. In the distance, Diana could hear voices, the swell of music. She remembered being a little girl in the palace, falling asleep as the sounds of Amazon revels continued in the courtyard below. The museum felt a bit like that now, as if the adults were having a party while the rest of the building had been put to bed.
She saw two men approaching and shifted her stance so she could block their path to Alia.
“I said eight o’clock,” said Jason’s voice as he stepped into a well of light. “You—” His voice broke off abruptly as his eyes locked on Diana. There was that strange look she’d seen on male faces all morning: gaze stunned, mouth slightly ajar.
“What did I tell you?” murmured Nim. “I know what I’m doing.”
Jason had changed since they’d seen him that afternoon. He still wore a suit, but it was sleek and black, and its lapels looked almost like burnished metal. He seemed to remember himself. A scowl broke over his face. “You’re late.”
Nim shrugged. “It takes time to look this good.”
“You can work as hard as you want,” said Jason’s companion, a gangly boy with dark brown skin and hair that stood up from his crown in exuberant twists. “You’ll never be as fine as me.”
“What a surprise,” said Nim. “Theo is with Jason. It’s almost like he doesn’t have something better to do with his time.”
“Can we not start this tonight?” said Alia.
“That’s right, Nim,” Theo scolded. “Show some maturity. I don’t want you poisoning the new girl’s mind against me. Hi, New Girl.”
“Theo,” Jason said warningly.
“I just said hi! Not even hello! I kept it to one innocent syllable.”
Theo Santos was a little shorter than Jason, and far leaner. He wore a snug suit of dark-green fabric with a showy sheen, and an open expression that made him look far younger than his friend.
“I stand corrected,” Theo said, jamming his hands into the pockets of his trousers and rocking back on the heels of his pointy-toed shoes. “You guys are almost as gorgeous as I am.”
“Weak,” said Nim. “We’re going to need a higher caliber of compliment.”
“If I must,” Theo said as they started toward the noise of the party bracketed by Meyers and Perez. “Nim, you look like a delicious confection, a walking, talking—probably poisonous—petit four.”
“In that case,” said Nim, “bite me.”
“And you—” he said, looking at Diana. “You look like a star-spangled slice of hell yeah. Who are you, anyway?”
“She’s one of Alia’s friends, so leave her alone,” said Jason.
“Don’t mind him,” said Theo. “He’s just bitter because he got stuck with me as his date.”
“I’d think he would be pleased to escort the most gorgeous among us,” said Diana.
Theo barked a laugh. “Oh, I like her plenty.”
“What about Alia?” said Nim.
“Shut up, Nim,” Alia said under her breath.
Theo glanced over his shoulder and gave a cheerful thumbs-up. “Alia looks really nice, too!”
“Gosh, thanks,” Alia muttered.
They entered a vast room teeming with people and echoing with sound. It was an extraordinary chamber. The far wall tilted at an angle like the side of a pyramid and was comprised entirely of windows that showed night falling over the park beyond. Partygoers sat at the edge of a rectangular reflecting pool bordered in slate stone, and others clustered around tables set with white orchids and glimmering candles. But the focus of the room was what Diana realized were ruins: a vast stone gate that she suspected had once led to a courtyard and the columned temple itself, covered in hieroglyphs.
My mother is older than these stones, she thought as they joined the swarm of guests. In the mortal world, my people are the stuff of museums and myth. Legends. Artifacts. Hippolyta and the first Amazons had vanished from the world long before this temple had been built. Diana looked at the partygoers, drinking, laughing, lifting glasses of wine to their lips. Lives like the wing beat of a moth. There and then gone.
“This room was designed to mimic the place where the temple was originally located,” said Nim, eyes sparkling, as they made their way to one of the tall tables. Heads were already turning at the sight of Jason and Alia, hands lifted in greeting, beckoning them over. “The pool represents the Nile, and the windowed wall echoes the cliffs.”
“You know what no one asked for?” Theo said. “Trivia.”
Jason glanced at Theo. “Go find yourself some champagne.”
Theo saluted. “That’s my kind of ultimatum.”
“Good riddance,” Nim said as he loped off. “I don’t know what it is about that guy, but I constantly want to shove him down a flight of stairs.”
“I have a pretty good guess,” murmured Alia.
“And he couldn’t even be bothered to pay you a proper compliment,” said Nim, her glare tracking Theo as he wended his way through the crowd.
“It’s fine,” said Alia, but Diana didn’t think that was true.