We wait all of thirty seconds.
Then move across the street toward the entrance of the bar.
I pass the doorman two hundred-dollar bills, and he nods us in with mild suspicion that I choose to ignore.
Inside, the atmosphere pulses with neon lights, dark corners, and too much bass vibrating through cheap speakers. It’s the perfect place to disappear.
The perfect place to watch without being noticed.
We split without speaking. Jace drifts toward the far end of the bar. I take the entrance. It has the best vantage point, the best field of view to observe all the writhing bodies as I search for Eris.
It’s also the best choke point if something goes wrong… And I don’t miss the fact that Jace left this spot to me. I suppose murder needs a quicker getaway, and beating someone to an inch of their life needs bail money.
Eris is easy to find.
She always is.
Gravity has a face, and it’s hers; shining metallic gray eyes, plump lips… A dress so short I wonder which of us will get in a fight tonight. I would never stop her from wearing it, though Idowish I was going to be pulling it off her tonight, leaving it in a pool of black lace on the floor of my bedroom.
Eris stands with Romily at a high-top table, drink already in hand, chin lifted in a defiant tilt that saysI dare someone to try me tonight. Her jacket hangs open, leaving one shoulder bare, lipstick slightly smudged like she either kissed someone or bit her own mouth trying not to.
I want to suggest a better place for that lipstick… But I don’t dare interrupt her night out. Not in her current mood.
She looks like a blade just pulled from the fire.
I keep my distance.
Jace doesn’t. He shifts forward, shoulders angling toward her like his body forgot we’re playing invisible tonight.
My phone buzzes.
Hollow
Still tracking. She’s marked.
One of you check in every five.
Cipher
Already on it. Find the wicked bitch?
Hollow
No.
I don’t like how fast Eris moved past the afternoon.
Cipher
She’s not moving past it.
She’s reacting to it.
I look up, studying every move Eris makes while she’s so carefree. But it’s an illusion. She isn’t carefree at all… She’s acting as if she isn’t aware of her surroundings, as if I can’t see the subtle way she checks over her shoulder when Romily’s attention is elsewhere.
She’s also burning energy that she can’t seem to displace anywhere else. Dancing will wear her out… Then again, something tells me she shares a trait with Jace.
Not turning away from a fight when the energy freely crawls under their skin.
