“I’m encouraging you not to be a complete coward.” She shot to her feet and went back to unpacking her clothes that looked so small on the hangers, almost doll sized. Then again, Celeste was five feet nothing. “Did I ever mention how I looked up to you? And not because you’re a foot taller.” I wasn’t six feet tall—only five seven. “It’s because you don’t give up. So, don’t you start now.” She side-eyed me. “And if you need extra motivation, everyone back home expects you toquit.”
“What?” I sat up so fast my vision swam. “Who thinks I’m going toquit?”
“Everyone.”
Eve surely didn’t think I’d quit, so it couldn’t be everyone. Maybe, everyone minusEve.
“I’m hungry. Want to go grab breakfast? I heardpains au chocolatare real tasty aroundhere.”
I ironed out my annoyance that everyone was betting againstme.
“Did I make you mad? Your eyes just went Abaddon-black.” There was a lilt to her tone that made me think she wasn’t the least bit repentant for the anger she’d causedme.
My lips were squeezed too tight to allow words out. Jarod’s stupidly-long lashed gaze zipped behind my lids. I couldn’t go back there . . . Tristan would tease me, and Jarod would—Whatwouldhe do if I showed up on his doorstep again? Have his huge-bouncer-slash-bodyguard Amir toss me in alandfill?
The corners of Celeste’s eyes tipped in time with the ones of her mouth. “Will you have breakfast with me before you head back to NewYork?”
“What’s with thelook?”
“What look?” She feignedinnocence.
“The ‘cat who got the canary’look.”
She blinked as though she had no clue what I was inferring. “Whatever do youmean?”
“You came out here to make sure I didn’tquit.”
She dropped the weird look. “Because I wantyouup there, not Eve, not any other Fletching. And from what I saw at the guild party, so does Seraph Asher. So please, please,pleasedon’t giveup.”
I twisted my lips, remembering my fallen feather glimmering atop the blackmarble.
“I know I’m pushy, Leigh, but I want to see you succeed. Which you will. Youalwayssucceed.”
I was like a winged version of Tristan. As the image of a flying pit bull materialized in my mind, I almost cracked asmile.
“Promise to give your Triple another chance? Or sixteen chances?” Celeste watched me with such wide, hopeful eyes that Isighed.
I draped an arm over her narrow shoulders. “I won’t sacrifice sixteen feathers, but I’ll try one more time. Now, let’s go hunt down thosepains au chocolat. I’m going to need sustenance if I want to survive the comingday.”
“By the way, I snore,” Celestesaid.
I laughed. “Good toknow.”
Her chestnut eyes sparkled. I didn’t have siblings—at least, none that I knew about. We were tossed into guilds after our first celestial breath, so our true family wasn’t the one we were born to but the one we forged during our formative years. Some Fletchings deemed these relationships simple friendships, but there was nothing simple about the bonds woven in theguilds.
At least, not forme.
My relationship with both Celeste and Eve was deep and intricate, glossed by tears and whittled by laughter, the sort of bonds that would last as long as wedid.
Aneternity.
I squeezed Celeste’s small body against me. “Thank you for coming out here and kicking mybutt.”
Her frecklesdarkened.
“So, tell me about your mission now,” Isaid.
As she touched on the thieving boy, I wondered if Eve would’ve come had she not been busy with her own mission. And then, I wondered if she’d already succeeded, but stopped wondering and focused on Celeste, who was the onehere.
