Page 106 of The Art of Exiley

He continues. “You were right, and I’m thankful that you didn’t hold back on confronting me about it.”

I’m not even sure which confrontation he’s talking about at this point. I guess that goes to show how much time I spend scolding the poor guy.

He runs his hand through his floppy hair, making it even more floppy. “Yeah, so, I just wanted you to know how much I value your friendship.”

“Oh. Thank you. I mean… you too.”

That was so… sweet. So why does it hurt so much?

“I’ll just…” He motions forward and then, with a last smile, heads off in the direction of the bonfire.

I head to my apartment, and when I enter, I hear Georgie humming in her room. I guess she’s not going to the bonfire either.

With everything going on, Georgie and I have hardly seen each other, and she’s seemed more than happy to keep her distance. But she showed up for me at the game today and has been a consistently amazing friend. I owe her better. Now’s the perfect time to finally speak to her. To explain that everything with Rafe is fake. Which is absolutely still true.

I’m hesitant as I knock at Georgie’s door, but she eagerly shoos me in. She’s excited about something enough that she seems to have forgotten we’ve been awkward with each other for days.

“Congratulations on your match!” She has the harp and rose of the Artisan emblem painted on one cheek and the Alchemist emblem––for me, despite everything––on her other cheek. “It was totally awesome, but there’s something I want you to see. Come look!” She claps to herself. “Cicero—”

“The guy who runs the conspiracy forum?”

“Yes!” She’s as giddy as the time Hera Earhart complimented her bow tie. “Except he isn’t a guy! I don’t know why I just assumed, but his—I meanher, I checked her pronouns—her identity was so well hidden, it took me ages to track her down. Look, this is Cicero.” Georgie gesticulates to her monitor, which has a photo of an Asian girl with thick round glasses and half of her hair shaved off. The haircut is new, but I’d recognize her anywhere. My heart swells with missing her.

“Izzy King,” I say. Nothing should surprise me anymore. But there always seems to be at least one more thing.

“You know her?” Georgie jumps up from her chair. “How? What are the chances?”

Well, now that I realize who Cicero is, the chances actually make a lot of sense. All this knowledge about the Makers? It’s more surprising that I hadn’t already considered Cicero might have connections to the Families.

“She’s an old family friend.”

“This girl knows computers, already knows we exist,andshe’s cute. Can you, like, introduce us?”

“She’s afamilyfriend.” I emphasize the word “family” for meaning. “And these days she works for Oz Tech with Nora Montaigne.”

“Oh.” Georgie’s eyebrows gradually rise as understanding dawns. “So that’s how she knows… stuff.”

“Her family, and mine, and all the others, would be furious if they knew what she was up to.” Even though I haven’t spoken to Izzy in months, she’s still one of my best friends, and I hope she’s not getting into any trouble.

Georgie stares at Izzy’s photo with wide eyes. “It’s so weird to think that the Inquisitors we hear so much about don’t actually exist. Really makes me wonder what else the Makers are wrong about. Ya know?”

I get what she means. Since the mourning day for the Fall of Naiot is approaching—it’s the day before my birthday, so I have a chance of actually remembering it—we’ve been discussing the Inquisitors at length in Foundations. The Makers talk about it as if the “strangers” mentioned in the stories are, without question, the Inquisitors.

“Yeah, I feel like they must have some other enemy out there they don’t even know about.”

Maybe the Fall of Naiot was Ozymandias Tech too?

Except now I find myself questioning whether Izzy’s warning message was about Oz Tech after all. With what I’ve learned about the Oculus and Hypatia’s abduction—could whatever she saw that scared her be related to theFamilies? Could it be connected to why she left them in the first place?

But even if Oz Tech aren’t the ones who took Hypatia, they’re not innocent. They did try to take me.Twice.Leo de Montaigne roofying me to hand me over to his sister is proof of that.

I wonder for the millionth time what Izzy knows that she’s not telling me. I wish she had trusted me instead of cutting me off.

Georgie trusts me. She completely took me at my word that the Makers must be wrong about the Inquisitors.

That kind of trust deserves my honesty. I take a breath and then say, “So, about Rafe.”

She immediately stiffens, her lips pursing.

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