“No.”
“You need to eat anyway.”
He turns back to the stove. Garlic fills the room again.
“Do not waste a second chance,” he says quietly. “If you’re given one.”
“I won’t.”
He glances over his shoulder. “Good.”
I sit by the windows, river beyond them, the logo below, the empty space where Wren used to be.
And I finally understand with brutal clarity that this will cost me everything I thought I was owed.
34
PHASE SHIFT (WREN)
Ididn’t expect healing to come wrapped in strobe lights and off-key singing. I was proved wrong. Larisa stood beside me at the Billie Eilish concert, clutching my sleeve and singing every song like a declaration of war against sadness. When the lights went down between songs, she leaned in and whispered, “You’re the best cousin in the world.”
After her concert high, I thought that peace would last longer than a day. But this morning, before I was even fully awake, Erin O’Connor’s name lit up my phone.
ERIN
Kieran says you’re probably in NYC for Billie Eilish
I don’t care what drama is happening with my idiot brother
If you’re in the city, you’re coming tonight
Two will-call tickets under your name
Radio City Hall 7pm
No excuses
Do not make me send Dmitri to collect you
He’s Russian
My stomach drops and soars at once.
The mental image of six-foot-four Dmitri Sokolov collecting me from Queens like I’m a delinquent package is too absurd not to laugh at. I snort into my pillow. No room for negotiation or hiding. Classic Erin.
Now it’s evening, and I’m pacing my room with my stomach in my throat when Larisa looks up from her phone, eyes bright. “Did you see my hoodie?”
“On the chair,” I say absently. My fingers tighten around my phone. “Also…I know you might be tired after yesterday, but I was wondering…” I clear my throat. “Would you want to come with me to a StringTheory concert?”
Her thumbs freeze over the screen. She blinks once. Twice. Then actually looks up. “StringTheory-StringTheory? At, like…an actual place?”
“At Radio City,” I add weakly.
“WAIT. Luka Havran? As inthatLuka Havran? And Erin O’Connor? The cello girl from YouTube who looks like some kind of angelic warrior princess sent to destroy me emotionally?”
“Yes. Erin O’Connor and Luka Havran,” I confirm, aiming for calm. I realized Erin is a big deal after Kieran showed me a few of her YouTube videos. I just…didn’t realize she is this big a deal.
Her whole face goes supernova. “OH MY GOD.”
