Page 94 of The Towering Sky
“It’scompletelymy fault! You told me not to go out with Brice, and I did it anyway. If I had just listened to you, none of this would have happened.”
“No, Nadav was right. I’m the adult, and I need to take responsibility for the life I’ve built for us. This day would have come sooner or later. I just always hoped it would be later.” Elise sighed. “It’s time for us to go, sweetie.”
They were leaving New York. And this time, Calliope knew, they wouldn’t be coming back.
RYLIN
RYLIN HADN’T PLANNEDon falling back in love with Cord so quickly.
She’d wanted to be thoughtful and intentional about it, instead of tumbling into their relationship all over again. But then, she hadn’t exactly planned for it last time either. Maybe that was just the way love went—it was something that happenedtoyou, and the best preparation you could hope for was the chance to take a deep breath before the wave of it crashed above you and you were in over your head.
“Thanks for coming with me tonight,” Cord said as they walked together through the inauguration ball.
Rylin felt herself color under his gaze and reached down reflexively to smooth the skirts of her gown. It had arrived this afternoon in an enormous purple Bergdorf’s box, complete with a satin bow.
“Absolutely not,” Rylin had protested when the deliverydrone showed up. She wasn’t going to let Cord start sending her extravagant presents. But Chrissa had insisted that they at leastopenit, and once Rylin had seen the dress—an architectural cream-colored strapless one, with silver splattered over it, as if someone had spilled a vat of liquid stardust on its smooth silk surface—she couldn’t resist trying it on. It fit her exquisitely, the corseted torso giving way to a narrow floor-length skirt.
One dress can’t hurt, she had concluded. After the day she’d had, being questioned by the police about Mariel’s death, Rylin didn’t have the strength to resist something this beautiful. Not that she’d told the police anything; she had nothing to tell, really. But the experience had still unnerved her.
She knew she should reach out to the others, to Leda and Watt and Avery, to ask if they had been questioned too. She told herself she would do it later. Right now, in this moment, all she wanted was to stand here with Cord, feeling beautiful.
“Promise you won’t send me any more dresses,” she pleaded, though she knew her words were weakened by the fact that she was standing here wearing one.
“Only if you promise to stop looking so gorgeous in them,” Cord replied, and Rylin couldn’t help smiling.
She glanced around the expanse of city hall, filled with stylish waves of people, teenagers and adults all wearing smart angled tuxedos or shimmering gowns. Holographic pennants snapped along the walls in a nonexistent breeze. She kept thinking that she didn’t belong here, no matter how much she looked the part.
Then her eyes would slide back to Cord, and her blood would rise up light and buoyant in her veins, and Rylin knew that the setting didn’t matter. She belonged with Cord, wherever that was.
“Will you come over to my apartment tomorrow?” she asked, reaching for his hand. She didn’t mind being here, at a formalblack-tie party, but it couldn’tallbe like this. When was Cord going to come down to the 32nd floor to meet her friends and Chrissa?
“Sure,” he said easily. Rylin had the sense that he wasn’t quite listening. But then he nodded toward the dance floor, and Rylin decided to let herself be distracted.
“Want to dance, now that I’m so good at it?” Cord grinned.
“I didn’t realize you were ever bad at it,” Rylin countered.
“I didn’t realize either, until I started taking dance at school.” Cord laughed as Rylin’s eyebrows shot up. “You didn’t know? This year I’ve been expressing my deep and unshakable love of dance through Dance 101: Introduction to Choreography.”
Rylin stifled a snort. “You’re a ballerina now?”
“The correct term isballet dancer, thank you very much,” Cord corrected. “This is what I get for dropping holography when all the other arts classes are full.”
Rylin wondered if Cord had dropped holography because of her—because he didn’t want to see her day after day—but it felt too self-centered to ask, and besides, it was all ancient history. “Don’t worry,” he went on. “I can’t promise that I’ll teach youallmy epic dance moves, but at least one or two.”
Rylin tilted her head in amusement. “What makes you think I don’t have some epic dance moves of my own?”
They spun around on the dance floor until Rylin was breathless with exertion. Eventually the band paused to take a break. “Want to sit down?” Cord asked, leading her to a table where several of his friends were already clustered.
Rylin had met a lot of them last year, but they didn’t seem to remember her, so Cord went ahead and reintroduced her around the table: Risha, Ming, Maxton, Joaquin. Rylin smiled, but the only one to smile back was Risha. Ming had a glazed-over look to her eyes, having evidently decided that it was more entertainingto read messages on her contacts. Rylin wondered if any of them even recognized her from school.
Oddly enough, she found herself wishing that Leda were here. At least Leda would have engaged with her.
“Cord, we’ve been looking for you. This party is unbearably lame,” Joaquin announced.
Rylin was taken aback by the blasé attitude. This party was lavish and expensive and wasn’t even age-scanning at the bar. What could Joaquin have to complain about?
“Can’t you host the after-party?” Joaquin wheedled.
