The Towering Sky

Leda froze at the unusual sight of two police officers lingering just past the school’s entrance. Their relaxed poses didn’t fool her one bit. They were watching the ebb and flow of students around the edge of the tech-net, looking for someone in particular.

Leda knew, with an instinctive animal certainty, that they were here for her.

One of the police officers—or maybe they were detectives?—met her gaze, and the flash of recognition in his eyes confirmed her suspicions.

“Miss Cole?” he asked, stepping forward. He was pale and plump, with a curling dark moustache and a name tag that said OFFICER CAMPBELL. In contrast, his partner was a young woman named Kiles; tall and willowy with a dark bronzed tan.

“That’s me,” Leda said reluctantly.

“We were hoping you would come down to the station, answer a few questions for us.”

“Leda . . .” Avery whispered, and bit her lip in alarm. Leda held her head high, ignoring the frantic pattering of her heart. On some level she had known that this day would come.

She just didn’t know which of her many transgressions she had to answer for.

“What is this regarding?” Leda was proud of how cool and unconcerned her voice came out. But then, Leda had plenty of practice at pretending not to care about things that actually mattered.

“We’ll fill you in at the station,” said Officer Kiles. Her eyes cut significantly to Avery. Through the haze of her panic, Leda felt a sharp curiosity. Whatever this was, it was confidential.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t just question my friend without reason,” Avery cut in. She had that stubborn, protective look she’d inherited from her father. “Do you have any paperwork?”

Kiles swerved on her. “Avery Fuller, right?”

The fact that they knew her name didn’t subdue Avery one bit. She was used to being recognized, especially these days. “If you think I’m going to let you drag my friend off without any formal request—”

“We’re not dragging anyone. We were hoping that Miss Cole would come voluntarily,” Kiles said smoothly.

“It’s okay, Avery,” Leda cut in, though she was touched by Avery’s defense of her. She knew what would happen if she told the police no. They would just go get whatever paperwork they needed, meaning she would still end up there involuntarily. And with far fewer niceties.

“I’m happy to come,” she told the officers, trying to project more confidence than she felt.

“How are you doing, Miss Cole?”

Leda barely refrained from rolling her eyes. She’d always hated that question. It reminded her far too much of what her therapist would ask.

“I’m fine, thank you.” She knew the police didn’t actually care how she was doing. The question was a vacuous courtesy or perhaps some kind of test.

She tucked her heels behind the legs of her dented metal chair and glanced impassively around the interrogation room. She didn’t see the telltale shimmer in the air, like a self-contained heat wave, that usually indicated a security cam—but that didn’t mean anything, did it? Surely the police were recording her some other way. Or would they need her parents’ consent for that, since she was still a minor?

Across the metal table, both police officers blinked at her, revealing nothing. Leda kept her lips pursed, content to let the silence swirl around her.

“Are you aware of why you’re here?” asked Officer Campbell.

“I’m here because you asked me,” Leda said crisply.

Campbell leaned forward. “What do you know about Mariel Valconsuelo?”

“Who is that?” Leda asked with more force than she should have.

“You don’t know her?” Campbell laid his palms on the table, causing a holographic insta-screen to flare to life before him. Leda craned her neck, but from her perspective the holo was just a flat, opaque rectangle of pixels. He tapped the screen to input a series of commands, and a hologram burst to life, visible to all of them.

It depicted a Hispanic girl around Leda’s age, with curling dark hair and conspicuous eyes. There was something fierce and determined in her features. She wasn’t smiling, the way most people did in their official ID photos.

It was the face that, along with Eris’s, had haunted Leda’s nightmares for the past year.

Suddenly Leda was back in Dubai, terrified and helpless on that beach, and Mariel was looming over her, her gaze sharp with hatred. You killed your sister, Leda, she’d spat. A light from the dock had illuminated Mariel from behind, limning the edges of her form, making her look like some kind of avenging angel in her black bartender’s outfit. An angel sent from hell, to hold Leda accountable for all the ugliness in her heart—

“It looks like you might recognize her,” Kiles said pointedly.

Shit. Leda tried to get a hold on her emotions. “Maybe I’ve seen her around? She seems familiar, but I don’t know why.”

“Mariel worked as a waitress at Altitude Club,” Campbell offered in a condescending tone. As if Leda was supposed to seize gratefully on that fact and thank him for it.

“I guess that explains it.” Leda shrugged, but the officer wasn’t done.

“She was also at the launch event for the Mirrors in Dubai. She was part of the Altitude Club staff that the Fullers brought over to work the event.” His eyes were twin globes of watchfulness. “According to her family, she was also dating Eris Dodd-Radson, before Eris’s death.”