“Nice job,” she said. “Even if I was better.”
“Thanks.” Lilith laughed. “The Slights were great, too.”
Chloe nodded. “That’s how we roll.”
“Settle down,” Luc said, motioning for quiet. “Winners and losers must be determined.”
Lilith fidgeted between Chloe and Cam. Tarkenton was mounting the stairs to the stage, carrying an envelope and a trophy topped with a golden guitar.
“Have the esteemed judges reached a decision?” Luc asked.
Tarkenton tapped the mic. He seemed as stunned by the performances as Lilith. “The winner of the Battle of the Bands, sponsored by King Media, is—”
A synthesized drumroll blared through the stadium speakers. A sudden competitive surge filled Lilith. Their band had killed it tonight. They knew it. The audience knew it. Even Chloe King knew it. If there was any justice in this world— Luc grabbed the envelope from Tarkenton. “The Perceived Slights!”
Then Chloe’s band was screaming, crying, pushing everyone else out of the spotlight.
“Next stop, prom queen,” Chloe squealed, and hugged her friends.
Lilith’s ears were ringing as Chloe accepted the trophy. Only moments before she had been having the night of her life. Now she felt brutally defeated.
“Sucks,” Jean Rah said.
Luis kicked a stage marker. “We were better.”
Lilith knew Cam was watching her, but she was too dumbfounded to meet his gaze. She’d felt like their song had changed the world.
It hadn’t.
She felt ridiculous that she’d let herself believe otherwise.
“Hey,” Cam’s voice was in her ear. “You okay?”
“Sure.” Tears stung her eyes. “We should have won. Right? I mean, we were good—”
“We did win,” Cam said. “We won something better.”
“What?” Lilith asked.
Cam glanced toward Luc. “You’ll see.”
“Contestants, please exit stage left,” the crew boy said.
The Slights were escorted to a card table that had been set up next to the judges’ table. On it sat a folded paper placard that read Reserved for Winners. The other bands squeezed into the wings. Cam took Lilith’s hand. “Come with me. I know a place where we can watch the Four Horsemen.”
“Not so fast,” Luc said as he took Lilith’s other hand.
She was caught onstage between the two of them, wanting to go with Cam, wondering what Luc wanted. She looked out at the audience, surprised to feel as nervous as she’d been before her performance. On the school’s Jumbotron, the huge clock read 11:45. Lilith’s usual curfew was midnight, but since her mother and Bruce were in the audience, Lilith could probably get away with staying out later.
“So it comes to pass,” Luc said into his microphone, “that Love and Idleness, Death of the Author, and Revenge are not the only losers tonight. All those who entered tonight’s lyrics contest…are also losers. All of you except for one.”
Lilith’s breath caught in her chest. She had nearly forgotten the email from Ike Ligon. The Four Horsemen were about to cover her song.
Her disappointment waned. Winning the Battle of the Bands would have been great, but the music she made onstage with Cam, Jean, and Luis was what mattered. Everything else was gravy.
“I’ve asked Lilith to stay onstage,” Luc said to the audience, “because I think she knows the song the Four Horsemen are about to play.”
A curtain rose at the back of the stage, and behind it were the Four Horsemen. Rod, the beefy dark-haired bass player, gave the audience a wave. Joe, the eccentric blond drummer, held his drumsticks aloft with a bemused expression. Matt, the keyboard player, was glancing at his set list. And in the center of the stage, Ike Ligon, Lilith’s musical idol, looked at her and grinned.
She couldn’t help it. Lilith screamed, along with every other girl and three quarters of the boys in the audience.
“This is so cool,” she said to Cam.
He just smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. There was no one Lilith would rather be here with than Cam. This moment was perfect.
Ike locked eyes with her and said, “This one’s for Lilith. It’s called ‘Vows.’?”
Lilith blinked. She’d never written a song called “Vows.” Her heart started racing, and she didn’t know what to do. Should she tell someone there’d been a mistake? Maybe Ike had simply gotten the title wrong?
But by then it was too late. The band began to play.
“I give my arms to you
I give my eyes to you
I give my scars to you
And all my lies to you
What will you give
To me?”
The song was beautiful, but Lilith hadn’t written it. And yet, as she listened, chords began to jump out to her in the fraction of a second before the band played them, as if she could anticipate where the song was going.
Before she realized what she was doing, the words were in her mouth and she was singing, too—because somehow she knew “Vows” was meant to be a duet:
“I give my heart to you
I give the sky to you
But if I give my speed to you
I cannot fly to you
What will you give
To me?”