Gali was intrigued. Artifacts always fascinated her, especially if they were old enough to have existed while generations of humans lived and died, lived and died, over and over again. To outlive centuries of people seemed like a miracle everyone took as commonplace.
“What’s the artifact?” she asked.
“I have no idea yet.” Oriak? flicked a ladybug off her sleeve and made a face. “But we could go check it out while we’re there if you want.”
“I do love a private showing,”Bonbon chimed in.
Oriak? lit up the way she always did when someone accepted a gift she was giving. “Anything for you, my favorite author.”
“You don’t even read my books,” Bonbon replied, laughing.
“I don’t see how that’s relevant.” Oriak? winked at her. “Besides, your books arescary.”
“Kinda the point, princess.”
Gali listened to them bicker and let the rest of her senses expand around her. The land underneath her was still strange and unfamiliar, but the park was a soft hum of life, and the clouds were waiting on the horizon, humid with rain. They would roll back in whenever Gali asked them to, and then their little world would be washed anew. For now,she stretched out on the blanket and smiled up at her friends, and they smiled back at her.
Predictably, Oriak? insisted on dressing Gali and Bonbon for the party.
“Don’t even think about arguing with me,” she’d said. “The stylist will meet you both at Gali’s loft.”
Bonbon had indeed looked like she wanted to argue, but Gali nudged her. “Just let her do this,” she’d whispered. “You know how happy she gets.”
“Ugh, fine.” Bonbon allowed herself a smile. “We probably do need the help anyway. God knows how fancy this party will be.”
By the time the night of the party rolled around and they were standing in front of the large mirror in Gali’s loft staring at their reflections, it felt like they’d left “fancy” somewhere in the rearview mirror. Bonbon did a small pirouette, her eyes wide and shocked as the woman in the mirror spun with her, a gold dress clinging to her body like armor. Her legs were miles long, smooth and muscled, with feathered gold sandals wrapped around her ankles. Gali reached out and touched one of the long braids cascading down Bonbon’s back, decorated with pearls.
“You look amazing,” she said. Bonbon’s makeup was metallic and avant-garde, dark eyes and sharp gold cheekbones, and her black hair was braided into whorls and loops close to her scalp.
“I feel like some kind of warrior in this,” Bonbon said, her mouth widening in a slow smile. Her lips were a deep burgundy, and a small diamond tooth gem shone on her upper left canine. She looked up at Gali, and her smile went even more radiant. “You look unreal, friend!”
Gali grinned and smoothed her hands over the shimmering dress she was wearing, a million glass teardrops that seized the light with a silk lining underneath. Musical chimes sounded as she moved, like an unearthly choir. If she didn’t know better, she’d have said whoever made this dress had whispered a spell into it. The copper coils of her hair werepinned up intricately at the nape of her neck, with sparkling accents winking through. Her eyebrows had been thickened, her lashes spiked and black with mascara, and her fingers were stacked with jeweled rings. She was too scared to ask if the gems were real because, knowing Oriak?, they probably were, which meant she had a fortune on her hands.
Bonbon’s phone rang, and she scrambled to pick it up. “Hello?”
“Are you ready? The car is outside.” Oriak? sounded brisk, no doubt in the middle of her father’s party planning.
Bonbon rolled her eyes. “I told you we could’ve driven ourselves over if you would just share the address.”
Oriak? burst out laughing over speakerphone. “Share the address? That’s so cute.” Her voice leveled out, deadpan. “Get in the damn car.”
Grumbling, Bonbon grabbed her things, and the girls headed downstairs. A gleaming black limo was parked outside with a chauffeur holding the door open for them.
Gali glanced at Bonbon. “Here we go,” she said.
There was something about the night around them, something that raised the fine hairs along Gali’s arms, something whispering just around dark velvet corners, smelling like the forests and running feet, an open and panting mouth. She took pictures of their looks to send to her cousins, then she and Bonbon climbed into the limo. Flutes of champagne were waiting for them, along with a crystal bowl of oysters nestled in crushed ice. Bonbon raised an eyebrow and lifted a glass as the limo pulled away from the curb.
“Here we go, I guess,” she echoed.
Gali grinned and downed her drink as they were whisked off into a spangled night.
2.
Galilee
Watching Oriak? walk through the halls of her father’s mansion was like witnessing a princess in the heart of her kingdom. Gali was in awe. Oriak? radiated wealth and power, reeking of a confidence Gali could barely imagine possessing. Oriak? simplybelongedthere, with millions of dollars’ worth of art on the walls and priceless rugs under her feet. Her hair rippled gleaming and dark down her back as she walked Gali and Bonbon through the sprawling house, and she was wearing an archival Mugler dress, carved for her body, with her collarbones gleaming above the neckline, her hips switching as she strutted. They’d left the main gala behind for a private viewing of the artifact Oriak? had been telling them about, and Gali was trying not to be overwhelmed. From the minute the limo dropped her and Bonbon off, the foreboding from Gali’s dreams had crawled back up her neck, and now the sheer scale of opulence around them was somehow making it worse. With every step they took deeper into the house, a headache seeped out from behind Gali’s eyes. Oriak? was talking, and Gali fought to listen.
“Dad’s got the artifact locked up in the east wing, like there’s some heist waiting to happen.” Oriak? paused, and her brow made a tiny furrow. “Actually, now that I think about it, Iwouldtotally try to steal it if I was a thief.”
