“Is that a bad idea?” Her father looked sheepish, then shook his head. “Leda, whatever happens between me and your mom, I promise that I’ll be here for you. I’m so sorry that you were caught in the middle of all this. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Leda said softly as her mom turned back toward them.

Ilara looped her arm easily in her husband’s, still grinning widely. “We’re going straight to the helipad. Are you staying, hon?”

Leda watched, speechless, as her parents slipped off into the crowd. Her father was brave enough to tell the truth: to confess what he’d done and face the consequences. While Leda persisted in hiding the truth beneath a mountain of lies and blackmail and secrecy.

If her father could tell the truth, then maybe . . .

She leaned her elbows onto the table, playing idly with the fake-fire taper on its surface. Its harmless flame flickered over her bare fingers. It warmed the nitinol ring on one hand. That was when Leda looked up—directly into Watt’s eyes.

For a moment her breath caught. She’d forgotten how distractingly handsome he looked in his tux. The tailoring showed off the broad clean lines of his shoulders, set off the golden hue of his skin.

“You made it!” she cried out, rushing toward him, only to falter a little in her steps. Something in Watt’s eyes quelled her excitement.

“We need to talk. In private,” he croaked, his eyes darting around the party. “Are Avery and Rylin here?”

“I haven’t seen them in a while,” she said, fighting back her mounting sense of panic. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

They retreated toward the farthest edge of the party, where a pair of Chiavari chairs were tucked behind a towering display of flowers. Neither of them sat down.

“What’s going on?” Leda demanded shakily.

Watt took a deep breath. “I hacked the police station tonight.”

“What were you thinking? That’s so dangerous!” Leda reached for him, grabbed him roughly by the lapels of his jacket, and shook him a little in panic.

“That tonight was a good distraction, since most of the police are at this party,” he answered. “Also, I may not have been thinking clearly, since I went in for questioning this morning.”

“What?”

He frowned. “I thought Avery must have told you. I was called in for questioning about Mariel. So were Avery and Rylin.”

Leda could guess why Avery hadn’t told her. Avery was trying, in her own sweet and misguided way, to protect her. But Leda expected more from Watt.

“You should have flickered me the instant that it happened. And you should have talked to me before you tried hacking the police!” Leda realized that her hands were still clutching tight to Watt’s jacket, and she lowered them slowly.

“Don’t worry, they’ll never even know I was there. But we have a bigger problem.” Watt averted his eyes from hers. “The police have figured out the connection between Mariel’s death and Eris’s.”

Leda stumbled back a step, her whole body trembling. “You mean they know that I killed Eris?”

“Not yet,” Watt hurried to say. “I think they just know that those nights are connected. Don’t worry, Leda. I won’t let anything happen to you. I swear it.”

Dozens of emotions shot through her at once, horror and grief and regret. “Oh my god,” she said slowly, and then again, more raggedly, “Oh my god.”

“It’ll be okay. We can figure this thing out—”

“Don’t say it will be okay when we both know that it’s not true!” Leda snapped, so fiercely that Watt fell silent. She sank helplessly into one of the chairs. “It won’t be okay,” she said, much more softly. “And it’s all my fault.”

Watt took the chair next to her and reached for her hand in silent support.

As Leda sat there, the scene around her was stamped on her brain with brutal clarity. The scent of the flowers, soft and delicate. The lurid laughter, the clinking of glassware, the music emanating from the dance floor. The warm feel of Watt’s hands around hers. She felt that she would remember every detail of this moment for the rest of her life, however much longer her life lasted, because this was the moment it all changed.

She had put her friends at risk.

Leda had thought that they were all safe—that the police didn’t have anything on them, and that therefore this nightmare would soon be over. That she could pick up the shattered shards of her grief and make a fresh start.

What a fool she’d been. It was clearly only a matter of time before the police figured out what Leda had done. Which would lead them to her friends’ secrets. Rylin’s drug dealing, and Watt’s illegal computer, and Avery’s relationship with Atlas.

Leda couldn’t live with herself if those secrets came to light.

She felt like a tugboat in the middle of a hurricane, wave upon wave of regret smacking unrepentantly over her. She lowered her head into her hands and closed her eyes.

“We’ll find a way out of this,” Watt kept saying. “You and me, together, we can face anything.”

Leda forced herself to look up. The light of the holographic banners overhead was reflected in Watt’s eyes, gave a new bronzed luster to his skin. She let her eyes trace over him for a moment, memorizing him.