Page 66 of The Dazzling Heights
“Here I thought you were going to thank me for the rescue.”
“Zay isn’t that bad,” Avery protested unconvincingly.
Cord laughed. “I wasn’t talking aboutyou. I was rescuing Zay from another broken heart. You’re a little cruel sometimes, you know, Avery,” he said lightly.
Avery glanced up at him. They hadn’t spoken since the party the weekend before. “I didn’t know you were coming out tonight.”
“I wasn’t, until I saw all the snaps.”
“Cord,” she said, not quite certain what she wanted to tell him. That he shouldn’t read anything into that moment on his couch, that she was raw and hurting and that he should stay away from her. But before she could formulate a coherent thought, she let out a hiccup.
Cord laughed. Avery had always loved the way Cord laughed—reallylaughed, not his cynical dark laugh but the genuine one. He laughed with his whole body, the way he used to when they were kids.
Before she’d quite realized it, they were dancing, his hands at her waist. “You’re still not going to tell me what’s going on, are you,” he said at last.
“I’mfine.”Avery gave her head an emphatic shake.
“Look, I don’t know who this guy is, but if you really want to make him jealous, you need to do better than Wagner.”
“How did you know it’s a guy?” she asked quickly, wondering what had given her away.
Cord gave a triumphant grin. “I didn’t, until just now. Thank you for confirming my suspicions.”
Now it was Avery’s turn to laugh. It made her feel surprisingly good; almost normal again, for a fleeting second, if there could be such a thing as normal in a world without Atlas.
“Come on, you’ll have to get closer to really sell it,” Cord told her, his voice husky. Avery hesitated before stepping in to loop her arms around Cord’s shoulders. He really was very tall. A terrible, sinful part of her hoped that someone was snapping it and uploading it to the feeds. It would serve Atlas right.
But then she thought of Atlas actually looking at the snap, wondered what he would think of her for going straight to Cord—again—and her arms fell back down. Cord didn’t miss a beat, just began twirling her in an easy, friendly way.
“Besides,” he added, “I’ve been your friend since we were in preschool. I know you wouldn’t command our whole class out on a weeknight without good reason.”
“I didn’t command them, they just showed up!” Avery protested, realizing a beat later that he’d used the wordfriend. A sense of relief flooded through her. They swayed back and forth for a while, the electric lights above them flashing drunkenly from one color to another.
Avery felt suddenly exhausted. Too much had happened lately—her world falling apart, all the tears she’d shed, the knowledge that Atlas really was leaving, going halfway across the world. She closed her eyes and allowed herself the luxury of resting her head on Cord’s chest.
“Thank you, Cord. For all of it,” she murmured, knowing he would understand.
He didn’t say anything, but she felt him nod.
And so it begins, Avery thought, as if she were squaring her shoulders to pick up an impossibly heavy load. She needed to start putting herself back together, piece by piece, because this was the start of her life without Atlas in it.
WATT
“WAKE UP, WATT,”Nadia whispered into his ear as their hydrogen-fueled jet began its descent.
Watt stirred and rubbed his eyes, a little annoyed with himself for falling asleep on this flight. It was his first time on a plane—first time leaving New York, really, unless you counted the one time his science class went to the space museum in Washington, before the latest round of budget cuts eliminated things like out-of-state field trips. Watt glanced out the window on his left and gave an involuntary intake of breath. He was looking out over Nevada, which stretched stark and pigmentless all the way to the horizon. It was like seeing the surface of some desert planet. How surreal to think that normally he was that far down, chained to the earth’s surface by the restraints of gravity.
Next to him, Leda crossed one skinny leg over the other and closed her eyes, glossy and cool and indifferent.
Nadia, what should I say to break the ice?
I don’t know, Watt, I haven’t found much precedent for a couple that’s blackmailing each other, hooked up, and are now headed to a rehab check-in, Nadia replied.I did find one on a holo show, but removed it from the data set as unrealistic.
Watt ignored the sarcasm, though Nadia’s conclusions weren’t far off his own. He had no idea what to make of the situation with Leda. That night with her had been dark and bitter and reckless and honestly, the most electric hookup of his life.
He hadn’t expected to hear from Leda after that—or at least, hadn’t expected anything but more surveillance requests. He’d been shocked when she messaged him demanding that he come to Nevada with her, for some meeting with her old rehab counselor. She’d offered no further explanation than a link to his airline ticket.
There’s no way she’ll ever trust me enough to confess the truth about Eris. Is there?Watt asked Nadia, not really expecting an answer.
