Page 42 of Winterveil

Jane shook her head. “He’s just thinking of his family. He has a little sister, you know. She’s only nine.”

Any efforts to humanize Julian were wasted on Klaudia. “Everyone has a family.”

“That’s my point. He might have a billion-dollar inheritance, but he’s no different from the rest of us.”

If there was anyone inclined to look at Julian favorably, it would be Jane. Klaudia could hardly begrudge her for it—her beneficence extended to everyone, whether or not they deserved it. But no matter how much Jane sympathized and Carter sucked up, Julian was light-years away from the rest of Valeran. They all had more in common with a minimum-wage worker than a billionaire; that was simple math.

At the dining hall, Julian and Mikhail were already sitting at their usual table. Before greetings could even be exchanged, Mikhail’s face lit up and he said, “So you’re liking the game.”

“It’s very intricate,” said Klaudia, at the same time that Jane said, “It’s so much fun!”

Mikhail grinned as Klaudia and Jane slid into their seats. “Does that mean you’re ready to play each other?”

Julian, who had been absorbed in his tablet, suddenly looked up. “The game has the capacity for PvP?”

“I’ll have to tweak the code a little, but I could get it up and running by tonight. It would actually help a lot if you played as many games as possible. I built a neural net, so the AI will evolve with human input.”

“Machine learning?” Jane frowned. “Our professors are always telling us not to mess with that.”

“It’ll be fine,” Mikhail assured her. “It’s just for fun. So, what do you all say? Tonight?”

Klaudia cast a glance at Julian, and found that he was already staring at her. His gaze was probing; behind his glasses, his green eyes were bright. Ever since she had helped him win the simulation, Klaudia had become more and more aware of him—the details of his perfectly patrician face, his subtle mannerisms, the muscles flexing and veins pulsing in his arms when he rolled up the sleeves of his jacket.

And Klaudia felt looked to pieces in return. Without taking his eyes off her, Julian said to Mikhail, “Tonight.”

Fifteen

Spring 2037

Rural Virginia

Giselle woke to the sound of birds singing.

No, she quickly determined. She was not awake. As she stepped through the sweeping fronds of a willow tree, the leaves tickling her face, she realized that she was dreaming. Sunlight filtered through the branches, spreading a dappled pattern on the forest floor. The forest? She had to be dreaming.

As Nadiya had instructed, she had put on the nodes before falling asleep that night. The skin on her temples was still red and irritated, but she had been so tired that she’d found it easy to slip into slumber.

Giselle parted the willow branches. The chirping of the birds, the soft, damp earth beneath her bare feet—all of it was familiar. It took her a moment to orient herself, to adjust to the glare of the sun, and then she realized where she was.

Before her, the lake glimmered like a coin. The surface rippled with the current and with the leaping of silver-backed fish. The mountains rose, blush purple, in the distance, their peaks wreathed in low-hanging clouds. Her chest knotted with homesickness. She knew this place.

The branches rustled behind her. Giselle turned around.

Nadiya emerged from behind the willow fronds. Her black hair was loose, sweeping around her shoulders. Giselle had never seen it unbound before. And instead of her leather jacket or her Valeran uniform, she wore an ankle-length dress, pale and gossamer. Briefly, Giselle was at a loss for words.

But Nadiya managed to speak. “What is this place?”

“We just call it ‘the lake,’ ” Giselle whispered. Somehow, it felt right to be quiet. “It’s a few miles outside Belle. I’ve been coming here since I was little.”

“No,” Nadiya said, joining her at the water’s edge, “I mean—how are we here?”

Giselle glanced around again, casting her gaze over the lake and then turning back to Nadiya. In the sunlight, her dark eyes gleamed like polished stone. She looked just as Giselle knew her. Solid. Real enough to reach out and touch.

“I suppose anything is possible,” Giselle said at last, “in a dream.”

“This is your dream, though.” Nadiya raised a hand to shield her eyes as she looked out at the water. “I think I’m just . . . visiting.”

“Has this ever happened before?” Giselle asked. “With the nodes?”