“I just want things to go back to normal.” Leda watched her best friend’s face. She hated that it sounded like she was begging. But she didn’t care about her pride anymore. She missed Avery, and she’d apologize for anything she had to just to make things right between them.

Avery sighed. “Leda,” she said, “you’re the one who started acting strange, and keeping secrets from me.”

“Oh my god,” Leda breathed, because now it all made sense. Avery definitely knew. “Atlas told you, didn’t he? About the Andes?”

Avery pursed her lips and didn’t reply. Leda pressed onward, the words coming out so fast they were tripping over one another. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. But you were already in New York for surgery, and it only happened that one time. And then Atlas disappeared, and I didn’t want to bring it up.” It felt so good to say this at last, to clear the air between them once and for all.

“Yeah,” Avery said cautiously.

Leda looked down. “I know it’s stupid and clichéd, losing it to your best friend’s brother. That’s part of why I didn’t want to tell you. I felt so embarrassed, you know? I thought it actually might mean something. But then he just ran off.”

Avery had gone pale, and wasn’t saying anything. Leda floundered a little. “It’s just … I really like him,” she persisted. “Even if you think it’s a bad idea. I want to at least try.”

“Right. I mean, of course,” Avery said woodenly.

“I’m sorry,” Leda said again. “I know I should have told you. I promise, no more secrets between us.” Except for rehab, her mind whispered, but she shoved that aside. It wasn’t important right now.

Avery nodded slowly. “I get why you didn’t tell me,” she said. “And even though I’m … a little weirded out”—she laughed, but there was no humor to it—“I’m happy for you guys. Now, um, I really need to go ping Eris. Is that okay?” She turned toward the entrance.

“Okay,” Leda said softly. But she knew with a sinking feeling that her apology, or confession, or whatever it was, hadn’t worked. Things between her and Avery were still strained.

It isn’t fair, Leda thought with a new wave of bitterness. What more did Avery want from her? Was she supposed to just accept the role of Avery’s sidekick, accept that Avery would never let Leda date her beloved brother? And why did Avery get to call all the shots, anyway?

Leda stood there alone, anger emanating from her in mounting waves. She pulled the engraved white straw out of her bag and began searching for an amber bubble.

AVERY

AVERY STUMBLED DOWN the hallway, cursing as she tripped over a vacuum bot, her breath coming in deep, ragged gasps. She knew she shouldn’t have left early from a party she had thrown, but there was no way she could stay.

It had been awful enough seeing Leda and Atlas kiss. She’d run away from Watt mid-conversation and fled to the side room, where she sent a bartender for a tray of atomic shots—she needed something stronger than what was in the bubbles—and knocked back several of them by herself. Then she’d shakily gathered the others for Eris’s surprise. Which had turned out to be yet another disaster.

She’d still had a handle on things, though, until Leda capped off the night by telling her how she’d slept with Atlas. At that news, Avery’s last shreds of self-control had snapped.

Now she was home, running into the pantry, flinging open the door and yanking down the ladder, her elaborate updo shaking loose. She pushed on the trapdoor, feeling dangerously on edge as she stepped out onto the roof.

There was a downpour coming; Avery could feel it. The wind was already gaining strength, tearing out the last of her hairpins, whipping her dress close to her body. The air was heavy with the scent of rain. Avery leaned on the railing. Her thoughts circled frantically in her mind, pressing so hard she thought she would burst.

A falcon that had been perched farther along the railing turned a beady eye on her, curious. Avery watched it unfurl its wings and take off. She felt a sudden kinship with the bird, the way it flew screaming into the sky like a wild thing. She wished she could follow it straight into the gathering storm.

“Avery?” Atlas’s voice sounded behind her.

She realized in a panic that she’d left the trapdoor open. But Avery’s fear was immediately followed by a perverse wave of relief that Atlas hadn’t gone home with Leda.

“What is this?” he asked, walking unsteadily toward her.

“The roof.”

Atlas nodded. It was a sign of how drunk he was that he skipped right over her sarcasm. “We should go back down.”

“You go. I like it up here.”

Atlas shot her a look. “Wait,” he said slowly, “have you been up here before?”

Avery didn’t answer, just stared out at the dark line of the horizon in the distance.

“How did you find this, Avery?”

She shrugged. “I just did, okay?” She was still angry with him for sleeping with Leda, which she knew wasn’t fair.

“We should call maintenance and have them close it off.”

Avery whirled around to face him, panic rising in her chest. “You can’t! Then I’ll have nowhere to go!”