“Are you really not drinking?” Mariel asked. She sounded incredulous.
“Yeah. I just wasn’t in the mood, after our fight.” She sighed. “I’ve been thinking about it all night, trying to figure out how to make it right. I don’t want to lose you,” she added, a little quieter.
Mariel inhaled. “Why don’t you come over, and we can talk about it.”
“Yes!” Eris said. “I’m on my way!”
A sudden warmth spread from the center of her chest, and she burst out laughing; a joyful, bubbling laugh that came from her unthinkingly. Mariel forgave her. As long as Mariel forgave her, everything else would work out.
She started to walk away, but the wounded confusion in Cord’s eyes stopped her. Well, why shouldn’t Cord’s romance with that girl work out too? If she and Mariel could figure it out, there was no reason Cord and his maid shouldn’t be able to do the same.
“If you love her, go talk to her,” she insisted. But Cord just shook his head, stubborn and stupid the way boys always were. Eris felt torn. She couldn’t just leave him like this, not when she’d gotten back the thing she’d been most terrified of losing. She felt expansive, glowing with a wild, furious joy.
I can fix it for him! The thought rang out sharp and clear in her mind, like the bells in Mariel’s church.
I need to do one small thing for a friend. It’s important. I’m sorry! Be there in half an hour, she replied to Mariel, and looked up at Cord. “I’m getting her for you,” she announced.
“What?” Cord looked lost. “Where are you—”
“I’m bringing her back to you, and then I’m going home to Mariel!” Eris called out over her shoulder, delighted. She took off running in the direction of the lower-floor girl, laughing again at the strangeness of the universe.
RYLIN
RYLIN WAS RUNNING headlong through the party, no longer caring who laughed at her. All she wanted was to get out, but she’d gotten lost in this stupidly huge apartment, and somehow ended up in the kitchen. There were people here, other kids just around the corner; she could hear their voices. She turned a circle, wondering which way was the exit—and saw a flash of red-gold hair in the hallway just outside. Holy shit, Rylin thought wildly, was that girl following her?
She grabbed a door that looked like it led to a pantry, and ducked inside.
Her eyes widened at what she saw, and in her shock, she left the door open. In the middle of this tiny pantry was a ladder—leading up to a square of deep blue that could only be the velvet of the sky, scattered with stars.
This was a ladder with roof access.
She heard voices up there, girls’ voices, but they were too far away and the wind too loud for her to distinguish their words. Rylin hesitated, curiosity momentarily outweighing all other emotions. Why shouldn’t she climb up this ladder and see where it led? Out there in the party were Cord and the red-haired girl and the sharp pain of disappointment. And farther down were Chrissa, and Hiral and Lux and everyone else Rylin had managed to hurt. This whole damn Tower was filled with her mistakes. But up there on the roof, who knew?
She grabbed the edges of the ladder, her black-painted nails holding tight, and climbed up.
Moments later she was pulling herself out of the trapdoor. She almost couldn’t believe her own eyes. She was standing on the roof of the entire Tower. Everyone in the steel forest was literally two and a half miles below her. The thought made her light-headed.
She was standing on a central platform, probably big enough to accommodate thirty or so people standing close together, with a railing on one of its sides. On the other ends it fell away at a drastic slope, disappearing far into the shadows. Overhead Rylin could see the Tower’s spire, arcing up into the heavens. She shivered, rubbing her bare arms. She hadn’t counted on the wind up here.
They were fighting, the people across the platform. Rylin could hear it in their voices. There were two of them: a black girl whose thin wrists were raised in angry gesticulations, and a blonde who was probably the most beautiful girl Rylin had ever seen. They hadn’t noticed her yet.
“I don’t know!” the smaller girl snapped, taking a step away from the blonde. There was something so wounded and dangerous in her voice, it scared Rylin a little. She wouldn’t want that girl as an enemy.
She should go back down. This wasn’t something she needed to be part of. But before she could get back, she heard footsteps coming up the ladder.
LEDA
LEDA THOUGHT SHE heard a noise, and looked sharply over toward the trapdoor. There was a girl standing there, she realized in bewilderment. “Who are you?” she snapped.
“Rylin Myers,” the girl stammered, and Leda thought she recognized the name. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“You should go,” Avery said urgently.
Another set of footsteps clattered on the ladder, and a moment later, Eris’s golden-strawberry head appeared. Great. The last person on earth Leda wanted to see right now, and here she was.
“There you are!” Eris exclaimed, unfolding herself from the ladder. She was looking at the Rylin girl. “Listen, I just want to talk to you. Cord is looking for—”
“What the hell is your problem?” Leda hissed, venomous. Her anger had swerved wildly from Avery to Eris, sharpened to a single white-hot point.
Eris raised an eyebrow. “Calm down, Leda. I’m sure she didn’t mean to come up here.”
“I’m not talking to her, I’m talking to you!” The moonlight gleamed on the cream Calvadour scarf—the scarf that Leda’s dad had given Eris—and Leda lost whatever self-control she had left. “How dare you even look at me right now?”
“Eris!” Avery cried out. “Go back down, okay?”
Eris glanced at the other girl—the one she’d followed upstairs—and then back to Leda. For some crazy reason, she stood her ground. “I’m guessing that you found out,” she said steadily, looking right at Leda. “Did your dad tell you?”
“I don’t want to talk to you!” Leda backed away frantically, approaching the edge of the roof.
Avery came to stand next to Eris, and the two of them exchanged a worried glance. “Leda,” Avery said, and Leda could hear the fear in her tone, “please come down from there, and we’ll talk about it.”
But Leda looked only at Eris, her eyes glued to the scarf. How could she go around wearing that in public, a gift from a married man? Wasn’t she ashamed? “What’s wrong with you?” she shrieked. “Why can’t you just leave my family alone?”
She took another step back, feeling desperate. They were literally backing her into a corner, these two girls who were supposed to be her friends. But one of them was having an affair with her dad and the other had stolen the only boy she ever cared about. The joke was on her, she thought frantically, for having such shitty friends. She fumbled in the pocket sewn into the side of her dress, looking for another xenperheidren. She just needed to think a little more clearly; then she could figure out how to handle all this. But her hand came up empty.
“I know you’re upset!” Now Eris’s voice was raised too. “I’m sorry, okay? I know it’s weird! But I won’t tell anyone. And I’m never going to s-see”—she stammered a little—“see your dad, ever again. I promise.”
“Take your stupid scarf and just go!” Leda wanted to cry, or scream, or tear Eris apart limb from limb—anything except stand here another second, hearing Eris talk about seeing her father. As if she hadn’t had enough to deal with tonight.
By now Eris was standing next to her, close enough for Leda to pull the scarf right off her neck. Her heart pounded with the razor-sharp clarity brought on by the stimulant. They were both dangerously close to the edge. Avery kept shouting at them to get back. “This has all been weird for me too, okay?” Eris murmured, looking right into Leda’s eyes. “Please,” she said, and reached out to touch Leda’s arm. That was the final straw.