“You’re from the New York guild?” The girl’s blue eyes blazed against her dark brownskin.
“Iam.”
“Do you know a Fletching namedEve?”
“She’s my closestfriend.”
“Huh.” Laura crossed one leg over theother.
My skin prickled with wariness at her tone. “Why,huh?”
“Didn’t she tell you to stay away from theTriple?”
This time, it wasn’t wariness that made my skin crawl. “She warned me he ran the Court of Demons and that was the reason for his highscore.”
The dark-skinned girl pushed her kinky curls behind her ears, but they sprang right back out. “I know we’re not supposed to influence each other, but if you and I were best friends, and I’d already attempted to reform someone like Jarod Adler, I’d find a way to keep you from signingup.”
“She . . . she took himon?”
Laura shot me a wary look. “She didn’t tellyou?”
I swallowed, my heart banging harder than when Jarod declared me prisoner in hishouse.
“I shouldn’t have said anything. Please don’t tell the Ophanim,” Laura’s friend said. “I just assumed youknew.”
“I won’t tell anyone.” My voice soundedflat.
I tucked my chin into my neck and stared at my scarred palm, tracing the pale line with my eyes, watching it shimmer and blur as tears rose. If I didn’t get my weeping under control, I could take the place of the broken angel statue in Jarod’s fountain. I’d fill that basin up before day’send.
“Maybe you should get some better friends,” sheadded.
“Marie!” Laurahissed.
“What? It’s not a sin to giveadvice.”
“Your friend probably had a reason for not telling you about her time in Paris with Jarod.” Laura was trying to make me feel better about Eve’s betrayal, but her comment had the oppositeeffect.
Eve had urged me to select Jarod, because she knew he was an impossible sinner and wanted me to fail. It wasn’t jealousy that had made her lose a feather, butdeceit.
How could you do this to me,Eve?
I got up brusquely and speed-walked to my borrowed bedroom, the guild’s quartz halls closing in around me. The elysian sky beyond the glass-domed ceiling usually comforted me, but not tonight. Tonight, everything inside of me hurt. I kicked off my shoes after entering my temporary bedroom, forgetting Celeste wasinside.
Celeste who’d warned me Eve wasn’tgenuine.
I’d fought so hard to defend her. Disappointment made a sob lurch up my throat. I flung myself onto my bed. A minute later, the mattress dipped, and a soft hand touched myspine.
“Hey . . . what’s up?” Celeste soundedgroggy.
“I’m sorry for waking you,” Icroaked.
“Forget about waking me. What happened, Leigh? Did he hurtyou?”
I shook my head. “Not he.She.”
“She?”
“Eve,” Imurmured.
