The Dazzling Heights

There’s no way she’ll ever trust me enough to confess the truth about Eris. Is there? Watt asked Nadia, not really expecting an answer.

I’d say you’re not off to a great start, given that you both said you can’t stand each other, Nadia pointed out drily.

When he remembered the exchange that Nadia was talking about—how they’d been half-dressed, in Leda’s bed—Watt felt suddenly uncomfortable. I thought I told you to always shut off when I’m in, um, intimate situations, he reminded her. He’d made that command a long time ago. There was something he couldn’t handle about having a third presence in the bed, even if it was just a computer.

Yes, but you also directly commanded that I never turn off when Leda is around, Nadia reminded him.

Please reinstate the block on romantic situations, he thought firmly.

We should revisit your definition of romantic, because whatever is going on right now, I don’t think it qualifies.

You know what I mean, he thought, and stretched out a little farther in his plush first-class seat. Honestly, Nadia, I’m losing track of all the commands I’ve given you.

I’m happy to make you a list, with time stamps. Snarky as usual.

Watt knew he just had to get through the weekend and get on with his life—and try to have some fun pushing Leda’s buttons in the process. It was the best outcome he could hope for, at this point.

The plane touched down with a thud, steam rising from the hydrogen-fuel system like liquid smoke, a few droplets scattering onto the scorched runway below. Watt remembered that once upon a time planes had been powered with carbon-based fuels, not water. How shortsighted, and wasteful.

He and Leda still didn’t speak as they made their way into the waiting area, where floating hover-bots brought over their luggage. Leda tilted her head for a moment, receiving an incoming message. “Our car is here,” she said shortly, and headed into the glaring outdoors. She moved like a ballet dancer: her carriage erect, her shoulders back, her steps light and quick as if the ground were on fire and she couldn’t bear to touch it for any length of time.

Something unfamiliar danced along the periphery of Watt’s vision. It took him a moment to realize that it was his shadow. The solar lighting in the Tower was perfectly even from all angles—unlike the real sun, a single, focused source of light that actually moved throughout the day—so he never saw his shadow within the Tower itself. He suppressed the urge to stop and study it.

He and Leda maintained their chilly silence as they slid into a car, its polymer exterior set to a bright silver-blue, and turned onto the speedway. The dusty horizon line glimmered in the distance. Watt closed his eyes and played mental chess with Nadia. She felt such pity for him that she let him win, for once.

Suddenly they were turning down a side road into a lush profusion of green. A village of sandstone buildings was centered on an enormous pool, with a waterfall that flowed upward—a cleverly constructed illusion, Watt realized. Flowers cascaded over the red tile roofs, and palm trees stretched their fronds up into the sky.

Girls walked throughout the space. Like Leda, they all had an aura of wealth and privilege, yet a hollow, haunted look about their eyes. Next to him, Watt felt Leda tensing up. No wonder she didn’t want to come here, he thought. Despite looking like a high-end spa, it probably brought back some memories that were complete shit.

He didn’t speak until they’d arrived at their rooms, each a self-contained cottage on wooden stilts, in a far corner near the pool. “Separate rooms? I thought I was supposed to be your boyfriend,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

What little composure Leda had left seemed to snap at his remark. She unlocked Watt’s door and grabbed his shirt by the collar, pulling him roughly inside. She was suddenly very close, so close that he could feel her pulse leaping through her wrist. There was a microscopic fleck of green in one of her dark eyes. Watt had never noticed it before. He found himself staring at it, wondering which of her parents it had come from.

“Let’s get this straight. You are here for one thing only,” Leda told him. “To get my mom off my back by helping me pass this stupid rehab check-in, preferably with as little actual rehab as possible. I only told them you’re my boyfriend so that you could be here as my accountability partner instead of my mom.”

Watt wondered why Leda was so against bringing her mom here, but decided it was too complicated a question. He’d rather keep rattling her composure. “You’re sure this isn’t a cross-country booty call?”

“What happened last weekend was a drunken mistake that we will never repeat and never speak of. You are working this weekend, got it? This is not your damn vacation.” Leda’s voice crackled with tension.

Watt smiled. “Of course this is my vacation. It’s not every day that I’m coerced into flying to Nevada.”

Nadia directed his attention to a schedule projected on the cottage wall. She loves yoga, Nadia reminded him, probably attempting to be helpful. But Watt knew exactly how Leda would react if he hijacked her beloved yoga class.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to make afternoon yoga,” he said, with a nod at the schedule.

“No. You are not coming to yoga with me,” Leda threatened, but the more she protested, the more Watt was determined to be there.

The fun was just beginning.

Later, after an hour of yoga in the meditation tepee—which Watt had mostly spent sitting cross-legged, watching Leda flow effortlessly through the poses despite Watt’s attempts to make distracting noises—they were both in the waiting room of the main building. Watt crossed an ankle over the opposite knee and jangled his foot impatiently. Leda kept shooting him glances, clearly piqued, so of course he didn’t stop.

“I’ll do all the talking,” she volunteered at last. “You don’t have to say anything. Just smile and nod, and answer any direct questions as quickly as possible. All you have to remember is that you’re my supportive, helpful boyfriend. Oh, and that your older sister died tragically of addiction,” she added, almost as an afterthought.

Watt pretended to gasp in horror. “You invented a big sister for me and then killed her? How could you?”

Leda rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me regret bringing you here, Watt.”

“Don’t worry, I already regret it enough for the both of us,” he replied cheerfully, just as the door opened to reveal a slender, red-haired woman in a doctor’s coat.

“Leda, nice to see you again.” The doctor held out a hand. She wasn’t wearing a nametag, but it didn’t slow Watt down, because he already knew everything about her.

Game time, Nadia, he thought, and stepped forward. “Dr. Reasoner, Watt Bakradi. I’m Leda’s boyfriend.” He gave a charming smile and shook her hand as they all sat down.

“Watt’s here as my accountability partner,” Leda hurried to explain.

Dr. Reasoner’s brow furrowed. “Leda, I don’t have any mention of a boyfriend in your file …”

“We only started dating this fall, after Leda came back.” Watt reached out to put a hand on Leda’s, where it sat on the arm of her chair, and laced his fingers in hers. She shot him a dark look.

Dr. Reasoner leaned forward, regarding them both curiously. “And how did you two meet?”

“Watt was actually interested in a friend of mine first, but once he met me, he realized that we were much more similar,” Leda said tersely. She dug her fingernails into his palm. He turned his grimace into a smile.

“Yes, I regret to say that like Leda, I’m entirely self-absorbed and insecure. It’s something I’m working on,” Watt declared, so matter-of-factly that Dr. Reasoner blinked, unsure how to react. He could feel Leda seething next to him, her anger radiating in small swirling waves.

“And, Watt, you understand what it means to be an accountability partner?” the doctor said after a moment, clearly deciding to ignore that last comment. “That your job is to enable Leda to keep making good choices?”

“Of course I understand, Dr. Reasoner,” he said quietly. “Although Leda is really the one who helped me. I can’t tell you what an inspiration she was to my sister. You see, my sister suffered from crippling addictions for years—”