The game lost a bit of its levity as he said, “It’s important to know who loves you, Marlow. At the end of the day, it might be all you have. With enemies around every corner and the world cracking at the seams, I have to say…you were entirely too hard on Fauna.”
***
The two-hour-and-ten-minute flight was too short to do more than watch a bad sitcom and pound two gin and tonics, if only because the taste of juniper reminded me of Caliban. Scuttling through crowds, idling at baggage claim, and then piling onto the curb took another thirty minutes.
Our final thirty-five minutes stretched in an extra-large rideshare from JFK to the Four Seasons before we were able to finally relax.
I led the charge across the lobby’s amber lighting and polished stone.
The concierge asked if we were in town for business or pleasure.
I’d been scanning the beige rock walls, the twenty-thousand-dollar couches, the oversized art, the bar, the windows, and the hidden pockets of the lobby for familiar faces, too occupied to respond to the concierge. This would be my third stay at the hotel. The second had been to rewrite the past, burying memories of clients with experiences that belonged to me alone. This time was a horse of a different color.
“We’re going to see Alessia Clovis,” Kirby said confidently. I wanted to be irritated with them for oversharing, but I’d be the pot calling the kettle a blabbermouth.
He appraised us carefully. “As supporters, or protestors?”
Priscilla rested an elbow on the counter. She gestured with the flick of her wrist. “What do you think?”
“Right.” He nodded. Maybe we weren’t supposed to judge books by their covers, but there was value in using context clues. “Well, I have you on the seventeenth floor, Miss Finnegan.”
I made a show of gently pouting. “No upgrades available?”
He began to shake his head while clicking between screens. Then he arched a single brow, eyes darting between whatever appeared on the computer and my face. I wasn’t enough of a liar to pretend it didn’t feel good. I smiled graciously.
“It appears we do have something on the forty-second,” he said.
“Oh, good,” I cooed. Nia and Kirby had long ago decided that Merit Finnegan was their favorite reality show. They’d informed me on more than one occasion that they felt like Jane Goodall with the gorillas when watching me slip out of my foul-mouthed, introverted shell into the public figure who’d get them into ritzy suites, free meals at omakase restaurants, and greenroom passes to hang out with our favorite comedian—one who’d turned out to be a jackass in real life. It had been a good reminder to never meet your heroes.
Nia, Kirby, and I were set to share a room. I booked Xuân and Priscilla the room across the hall.
“Will we be needing a third room?” Nia asked, eyes darting cautiously between the hulking men who remained unseen to the world around them. Azrames was hard at work, thoroughly examining the counter, the computer, and the concierge himself for any signs of maleficence. Silas had planted an arm on the counter, creating a barrier between the five of us and the outside world, like a shepherd with unpredictable sheep.
“Will guests be joining you?” the concierge asked, fingers hovering above whatever it was he might need to type.
Ever the petulant teenager, I rolled my eyes as I said, “No, unfortunately, everyone is already here. My friend was just wondering if we’d all…get along.”
He smiled as he handed over two sets of keys, and after an ear-popping elevator ride into the skyscraper, we’d plopped our suitcases around the suite and pressed our faces into the floor-to-ceiling windows as we looked down our noses on New York City like the gods we were. Three of us would share the king bed, while the couch in the five-star suite pulled out to reveal a second king. On any normal occasion, Silas and Azrames would return to their realms, sleeping in their respective beds. Generally, they didn’t have to stay in the human realm every second of every day. Life-or-death babysitting duty was not a part of the typical regimen. I was sure being trapped with us was every bit as uncomfortable for them as it was for us.
Finally, away from curious eyes and ears, Nia reiterated her question from the lobby. “These two are just, what, supposed to share rooms with us?”
“Nia, there have probably been angels, demons, gods, and fae around you for your entire life. You’re just seeing them for the first time. We’re safe with Az. I don’t just trust him with my life, I trust him withyourlives, and that’s saying something. Silas, however, is almost definitely a pervert.”
Azrames enjoyed the joke more than anyone else in the room.
Silas plopped onto the couch, spreading his arms over the back as he awaited the plan. Azrames joined him on the far end of the sofa, looking far more relaxed than his tense, angelic counterpart.
Nia remained unconvinced.
I said, “They’ll share the couch. Just don’t walk around naked.”
“Fuck it,” Kirby said. “If invisible things have been seeingme nude my whole life, why bother covering up now.”
Nia tugged up her sleeve and looked at the thin, plastic second skin that the tattooist had plastered there. She’d gotten hers on her inner bicep. Kirby’s was on their thigh. Xuân had gone for the back of her neck, whereas Priscilla had chosen the sternum, wanting to keep knowledge of the veil and its secrets close to her heart. Nia frowned at her arm.
“I know I said I didn’t want to go back, but…”
Amber streetlights cut through the dark silhouettes of skyscrapers as I looked at my friend. I knew this fear well.
