The Towering Sky

“I missed you,” she told him.

“I missed you every day, every minute, since we said good-bye,” Atlas answered. “Didn’t you feel me, loving you from across the ocean?”

Avery shifted, tipping her head to lean on his shoulder. She wondered how much time had passed since the power went out. It had probably only been half an hour and yet it had been a lifetime. Avery felt as if the entire world had reoriented in that half hour.

“Atlas. What are we going to do?” she asked, still holding tightly to his hand. “Nothing has changed since last year. All the reasons that we broke up are still there.” Broke up wasn’t the right term for it, she thought. It was more like they broke apart, as if tearing Atlas from her life had involved peeling off a raw exposed layer of flesh.

And now they were back. Despite all the mess, despite their parents and Max and the whole damn world, here they were all over again. It felt almost inevitable, as if there was no way they could have ended anywhere else except in this elevator car, right now, together.

“We’ll figure it out somehow,” Atlas assured her. “I promise.”

For some reason his statement made Avery prickle with foreboding. “Don’t make promises you can’t guarantee you’ll keep.”

Atlas turned toward her, and even in the darkness Avery could feel the quiet intensity radiating from him. “You’re right. All I can promise is to try.”

They turned to kiss again; the silence groaned loud and thick all around them, and the minutes left to them, however many there were, ticked away too quickly. Each kiss felt imbued with significance. Each kiss was a promise that they would fight for each other, even though all the odds, the entire world, were arrayed against them.

Avery was still kneeling there, kissing Atlas—one hand wrapped around the back of his head, the other around his waist—when the doors to the elevator were forcibly pried open.

She felt the light flooding in, flashing on the backs of her closed eyelids, and she jumped apart from Atlas as if scalded. She tried uselessly to scramble to her feet.

Max was standing there, stricken. He had clearly seen the whole thing.

And far, far worse, Avery heard the unmistakable hum of a stray zetta. She watched, helpless to run after it, as the tiny remote-powered hovercam sped off. Its lens gleamed and then vanished into the distance.



LEDA



LEDA WAS GLAD she’d come to the inauguration ball, if only for Avery’s sake.

She hadn’t realized how rattled Avery was by Atlas’s return. Living under the same roof as her ex, being forced to see him every day—Leda should have realized that was a uniquely cruel form of torture. But then, Avery was so expert at disguising her true feelings from everyone, even from herself. Seeing her best friend tonight, the way she stood so proud and glittering in that ethereal gold gown, Leda’s heart had ached for her. She recognized that bright remoteness for what it was—loneliness, and longing.

Leda leaned on a table near the dance floor, watching the party unfold around her. She felt more like herself than she had in ages. She knew she looked gorgeous in her gown, a close-fitting armor of structured black silk. Star-shaped diamonds blazed in each ear, setting off the dark curve of her neck. But it was much more than that. Leda was glowing from what had happened with Watt last night. She could still feel his touch on her, like an inktat that had marked her in new and indelible ways.

She wished he were here tonight. She’d tried not to be alarmed by his flicker earlier. Something urgent came up. Everything is fine, but I can’t make it. I’m so sorry. I’ll explain later, Watt had told her. She tried to take his word for it, but it was hard not to worry when she had no idea what he was up to.

A group of her classmates flocked to the dance floor; Leda saw Ming Jiaozu and Maxton Feld, and was that Risha with Scott Bandier again? How predictable. They caught her eye and tried to wave her over, but Leda shook her head. They were all happy to associate with her now, but none of them had been there when she crumpled to pieces last year. None of them were her real friends.

“Leda! We’ve been looking for you.” Her parents approached, both of them grinning as if they’d gotten away with something illicit. It was an expression Leda hadn’t seen from them in a long time.

“We’re heading out to the Hamptons,” her mom announced. She looked stunning in a pale apricot gown that set off her rich black skin.

“Right now?” It wasn’t like her parents to do something so spontaneous. Which, Leda guessed, was probably why they needed it.

“Just for the night. It’s not too late,” Leda’s dad said, his eyes sliding toward the edge of his vision as he checked the time. It was barely 10 p.m.

“I’ve been so wrapped up in work lately; your father and I could use a night away.” Ilara reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her daughter’s ear. “Will you be okay on your own?”

“I’ll be fine,” Leda insisted, just as one of her mom’s friends approached to ask Ilara a question, momentarily stealing her attention.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said last week,” Leda’s dad said abruptly, lowering his voice. “You were right. I need to tell your mother the truth. She deserves that.”

Leda startled, then pulled her dad into a hug, so fierce that his head almost knocked against hers. “I’m proud of you,” she proclaimed. “But—you’re going to tell her tonight? In the Hamptons?”