“That’s diabolical.”
“That’s efficiency, Mortal.”
They walked in silence for a while. Comfortable silence that didn’t need filling. Their hands swung at their sides, fingers brushing with each step. Brush. Swing. Brush.
Neither of them reached for the other’s hand.
Neither of them pulled away.
“Ramona,” Zara said eventually.
“Yeah?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“I know.”
“Are you ready?”
Ramona considered the question. The ritual. The severance. The end of the tether, the end of shared emotions, the end of Zara’s hand on her back and her warmth in Ramona’s bedroom and her voice first thing in the morning.
The end of everything.
“I don’t know,” Ramona said honestly.
Zara nodded, like this was the answer she’d expected. They kept walking.
They turned onto their street — the quiet, slightly broken street where Ramona’s apartment building sat between a laundromat and a pizza shop. The streetlight above them flickered, casting unsteady light across the sidewalk.
Ramona slowed to a stop.
Zara also stopped, turning to face her. The flickering light caught the sharp lines of her face, the curve of her mouth, the dark eyes that held Ramona’s gaze with an intensity that made her breath catch.
“Thank you,” Ramona said again. “For tonight. For everything.”
“Ramona—”
“And if tomorrow works, and I don’t get a chance to…” Her voice was getting thick. “You know, to say it?—”
“I know.” Zara stepped closer. Close enough that Ramona could see the way the streetlight reflected in her eyes, liquid gold and warm honey. “I know, Ramona.”
The air between them was charged again. That same electric pull, that same magnetic force that had been building for weeks.
Zara’s hand came up to Ramona’s face. Fingertips against her jaw, featherlight. Tilting her chin up.
Ramona’s eyes fluttered closed.
“Hey! Watch it!”
They both jerked back.
A group of college students stumbled past them on the sidewalk, loud and drunk and completely oblivious to what they’d just interrupted. One of them bumped Zara’s shoulder without noticing, laughing at something his friend had said. Another tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and grabbed Ramona’s arm for balance before stumbling on.
The moment evaporated like morning frost. Ramona steeled herself. This connection wouldn’t make the ritual easier, and letting Zara kiss her would only make her sadder in the long run.
Zara turned, and Ramona swore her entire body grew larger. One of the students fell to the ground, and his buddies helped him up.
“Sorry,” one of the students called back, waving vaguely. “Didn’t see you two there!”
