“Of course. You can ask me anything.” She smiled at her oldest friend and sat up, giving Eva her undivided attention.
“What do you and Castor do when you have an argument?”
“Avoid each other until it’s absolutely necessary for us to speak.”
“Oh…But I mean, how do you become okay with each other again?”
Lila paused, suddenly understanding.
“You and Adrianna had anargument?”
Eva nodded, grimacing.
“It’s just that…I wanted to watch a performance at the open aether theatre, and she said it was a waste of time and that we shouldn’t be paying attention to such frivolous things when there are so many things wrong with our world. She actually said there’s somethingwrongwith Heaven.” She burst into tears. “So then I told her to take it back, and she…she yelled at me and went out the door.” A helpless sob tore from her throat. “I don’t know what’s happened to her lately. It’s like she’s a totally different person. We used to love going to the shows together. That was our thing, remember?” Her voice wavered, and she rubbed her arms as if to comfort herself. “Now she’s gone all the time, and I don’t know where she goes or what she does or who she’s with. She’s so secretive, and I don’t understand. I can’t evensensehow she feels like I used to. I just know something’s really off with her, but she won’t talk to me except to say there’s something wrong with Heaven. Does that make any sense?!” Eva flung out her arms. “We’ve always been happy here!”
She turned tear-filled, plaintive eyes to Lila, begging her to agree.
Unfortunately, Lila had no such confirmation to offer. She felt sorry for Eva, though. Her friend had always floated on the aether, but lately, she’d been tethered by invisible weights that dragged her mood down a little more each time Lila saw her.
Crawling over to the foot of the chair, Lila placed a hand on Eva’s wrist.
“Eva, thereissomething wrong with Heaven.”
“What?”
“But that’s no excuse for Adrianna treating you that way,” she added gently. “Do you want me to talk to her?”
“Um…no.” Eva shook her head. “I just wish things could be how they used to be.”
Lila took Eva’s hand in her own and squeezed it. She thought about Luc’s sudden reappearance and smiled sadly.
“You know, sometimes, so do I.”
One Aeon Pre-Great War
“I’ve been thinking about the plants.”
“Hmm?” Luc cracked his eyes open. A few moments ago, Lila had pressed him between her body and the obelisk with aggressive force, but now she’d stopped kissing him. She was frowning into the aether as they stood there.
An aeon had passed since they’d played with clouds near the Crescent Arch, but even for their graduation, Lila had her hair pulled tight into the single, unadorned braid that she usually wore over her shoulder. She was a fearsome thing to behold, with eyes dark as obsidian and dark brown skin with a glow of fire beneath it. Gold eye makeup glittered like sparks above her eyes, and her lips, too, had a touch of gold to them, smoothed across their fullness like the fine sheen on a sword. He often thought her lips were as cutting as a sword, though her voice was rich and warm, like fire in a kiln.
He’d rather kiss her, but hearing her voice was an acceptable substitute. What had she said? Something about the plants?
“The plants?” he prompted, confused.
“What if the plants were capable of reproduction?”
“What does that mean?”
“I mean, what if they were able to make more of themselves?”
“Why would they need to make more of themselves?” Luc frowned. “They only need to be created once. We’ll put them where they’re supposed to go.”
“I suppose so.” Lila shook her head. “Perhaps that was a silly idea.”
Was it? Lila never had ‘silly’ ideas.
Luc thought it over. He didn’t see how reproduction could be a bad thing. In fact, on some level, it would make it possible to bypass the Creator, which seemed treasonous, but was also intriguing.
