Once the shock of seeing my friend wore off and my pulse decreased to a somewhat normal rhythm, I asked, “You didn’t pick a Triple, didyou?”
“Nope. A fiver.” She eyed me cautiously. “So, what was your worst decisionever?”
I walked over to my bed and flopped back onto it, arms outstretched. The mattress bounced twice before molding around my tired body. “Picking aTriple.”
To think I’d done it to access Elysium quicker. Perhaps, this was why my mission had been fated to fail from the get-go. Because I hadn’t come here for Jarod; I’d come here formyself.
“Didn’t go sowell?”
“I lost afeather.”
Celeste’s heart-shaped mouth popped open. “You’ve never lost afeather.”
“My point exactly.” I groaned at my stupidity or was it naivete? “To think I’m about to lose twomore.”
“You’re quitting?” sheexclaimed.
“He doesn’t want to bechanged.”
“Since when do sinners want to bechanged?”
“He wasrude.”
“Since when are theynice?”
“He made me lose afeather.”
“How?”
“He angered me so much I lied aboutsomething.”
“What did you lieabout?”
“He asked if there was anythingup there”—I set my gaze on the skylight that gave onto Elysium—“and I saidno.”
The mattress dipped, and then a soft hand set on my arm. “It’s not as though you could’ve told him aboutus.”
“No. But I didn’t have to lie. I could’ve deflected his question by saying I believed in some higherbeing.”
Celeste didn’t speak for a while. Then, “So you’re giving up because he made youangry?”
“He made me lose control. I’veneverlostcontrol.”
“Recover the control but don’t giveup.”
I exhaled a short breath. “Did you miss the part about him not being interested in myservices?”
“No, I got that, oh moody one, but the way I see it, you sign off now, and you lose two more feathers, which will makeyou. . .”
When she started ticking her fingers, I supplied, “Eighty-four feathers away fromElysium.”
“He’s a Triple, so he’s still worth a hundredfeathers.”
“Great math skills, oh teenyone.”
She flicked my rib cage. “So how about you give it another sixteen feathers before throwing in thetowel?”
My eyes snapped wide. “You’re encouraging me to lose sixteen morefeathers?”
