The Dazzling Heights

“Brice Anderton. Sorry, my mistake.” His grip was too firm on her hand, his voice tight with an unspoken threat.

“Please ignore my brother. He obviously has trouble remembering all the women he meets in his travels,” Cord joked, oblivious to the tension.

Brice still hadn’t let go of her hand. Calliope gently tugged at it, and he released it with obvious reluctance. “Why haven’t I met you before, Calliope Brown?” He said her name as if there were quotation marks around it, as if he wasn’t convinced it was hers.

“I don’t live in New York.”

“And where did you say you’re visiting from?”

She refrained from pointing out that she hadn’t, in fact, said. “London.”

The older boy’s expression shifted for a moment. “Interesting. You have a very unique accent.”

Calliope glanced at Atlas, but he was making some remark to Cord, ignoring her conversation with Brice. Her blood quickened a little.

“Since you aren’t from New York, I’m guessing you need a date to the Under the Sea ball,” Brice went on.

Calliope quickly lifted her gaze. “Under the Sea ball?” she repeated, like a moron, and caught herself. “That sounds fun,” she went on, raising her voice for Atlas’s benefit.

As if he’d seen and understood her intentions, Brice turned toward Atlas. “Fuller, your mom is chairing that Under the Sea party, right?”

“The Hudson Conservancy thing? I think so,” Atlas replied, puzzled.

So Atlas would be there.

Brice smiled, and Calliope couldn’t help thinking that there was something wicked in it. She wondered with a little thrill that was half panic, half excitement whether he’d seen through all her lies. It felt like he’d made that comment to Atlas specifically to bait her.

“So, Calliope,” Brice went on intently. “You’ll come to the party with me, right?”

She kept track of Atlas in her peripheral vision, even as her gaze remained on Brice. This was Atlas’s cue—he was supposed to interject and offer to take her himself. But he wasn’t saying anything.

Fine, then. Some part of Calliope knew it was a terrible idea for her to go out with the boy who had just almost recognized her, but wasn’t there an old saying about keeping your enemies close? And after all, a party was a party. She’d never been one to turn down an invite, no matter the occasion.

“I’d love to,” Calliope said to Brice, and held eye contact with him to link their contacts. His gaze was steady and unblinking.

By the time the Anderton brothers had said their good-byes, Calliope had decided that this might work to her advantage. There was no better way to get a boy’s attention than showing up to a party, dressed to kill, on someone else’s arm. She would make damned sure that Atlas regretted not asking her to that party first. And then she would take him for everything she could, before she and her mom skipped town.

It might just be her greatest con yet.

AVERY

THE SOUND OF bells rang clear and sweet through the cold night air. Avery nestled closer to Atlas beneath the pile of blankets, her heart pounding in excitement as their sleigh moved down the tree-lined path.

She still couldn’t quite believe they’d gotten away with this. It was Saturday night, and they were in Montpelier, Vermont—together, in the open. Far away from New York, with all its restrictions and limitations and nos.

Atlas had planned everything. They’d both been at the breaking point lately: walking around the apartment constantly tense and on eggshells, acutely aware of each other’s every move yet trying desperately to pretend they didn’t care at all. Avery felt like she’d been holding her breath since the Dubai announcement. When Atlas suggested that they get out of the city for a night, it had seemed too good to be true.

“I’m so glad we were able to sneak away.” Her breath came in puffs of crystallized cloud against the chill. She looked over at Atlas’s profile, his straight nose and the full line of his mouth, the light dusting of freckles across the pale peach skin of his cheekbones. By now his features were more familiar to her than her own. She could draw every line of his body blindfolded, she’d memorized him so thoroughly.

“Me too, Aves.” He reached an arm around her to pull her closer.

“You don’t think Mom and Dad will suspect anything?” She still felt nervous that they were both gone from home on the same night. It felt like an enormous red flag.

“Didn’t you tell them you’re at Leda’s?”

“Yeah,” Avery said shortly, though she’d actually told them Risha’s, on the off chance they pinged to check on her. She couldn’t trust Leda to cover for her, not anymore.

“And I told them that I’m going to the Rangers-Kings game in LA, with Maxton and Joaquin. I even bought the tickets to prove it. Don’t worry.”

Avery nodded, but she couldn’t help fidgeting a little, trying to quiet the nervousness that kept pricking at her. She was reminded of when she’d tried to steal a bag of sugar chips from the kitchen, once, when she was little. She’d pulled it off without a hitch, only to find that when she got the chips back to her room, she was too wrung out with anxiety to enjoy them.

Atlas noticed the movement and sighed. “Aves, I know that whole scene with Dad made you nervous, but I promise we’re safe here. And we only get this one night together, away from it all. Can’t we make the most of it?”

Avery silently cursed her own stubborn fear. She knew how much effort Atlas had put into planning this; trying to find somewhere they wouldn’t be recognized, something he knew she would love. And here she was, apparently doing her best to ruin it. She shifted beneath their temperature-controlled blanket so that her head was on his shoulder.

“You’re right,” she murmured.

Atlas laced his fingers in hers, bringing her hand lightly to his mouth and kissing it. It was a tender, almost courtly gesture, and it melted Avery’s lingering anxieties.

She glanced at the darkness swishing past, thick and layered and beautiful. It felt like there could be ghosts out there in the woods—or nymphs maybe, some kind of ancient spirit. The Tower felt worlds away.

They were on their way to see the Northern Lights. Because of the shifting movement of the tear in the ozone layer, the aurora was visible this far south only once a year. Avery had always longed to see it, had watched it in VR countless times, yet for some reason she’d never come in person before.

They pulled into a clearing where a dozen other self-driving sleighs were already parked, separated by discreet distances, like some enchanted version of old-fashioned drive-in movies. A hushed spell had fallen over the gathering. Steaming mugs of cocoa, topped with fluffy dollops of whipped cream, were passed on floating hovertrays. Their seat began to recline until they were lying flat, blinking up into the darkness. It seemed to Avery that there was nothing in the world at all except the cold outside and the warmth of Atlas’s body next to her, and the velvety vault of the sky stretching endlessly above her.

An array of colors burst suddenly into life: streaks of blue and green, of blush and apricot, arcing and twisting around one another. For a brief moment Avery felt almost afraid, as though the earth were careening toward a distant galaxy. She held tight to Atlas’s hand.

“Are you listening to anything?” she asked quietly. There were dozens of soundtracks recommended to accompany the lights, everything from violin concertos to oboe solos to rock music. She’d shut them all off. She imagined that she could hear the lights swishing in the silence, whispering to her against the curtain of the sky.

“No,” Atlas murmured.

“Me neither.”

Avery snuggled closer to him. Tears pricked at her eyes, and the tears fragmented the light even further, splintering it into a million beautiful shards.

She must have dozed off at some point, because when she opened her eyes, the sun’s rosy fingers were appearing on the horizon.

“We’re here, Sleeping Beauty.” Atlas tucked her hair behind her ears and kissed her tenderly on the forehead.

Avery looked up at him, no longer tired at all; her whole being suddenly and painfully alert to how close he was. “I like waking up to you,” she said, and was rewarded with one of Atlas’s dazzling smiles.