Page 58 of The Only Way Out Is Up

“Keep my family safe,” I say immediately. “Get them out of the undercity. Here, maybe.”

Her eyes twinkle. “Why stop at Malkuth? Bring them to Hod.”

Now it’s my turn to laugh, because this is obviously absurd. Her face goes serious.

“You could, you know,” she says. “I’d help you. Stars know I owe you enough. I can take you on as family retainers.”

“There’s three of us.”

She waves a hand. “Our house has so many bedrooms I don’t think I’ve even visited them all.”

“I—”

I stop, not sure what to say. Something about the idea makes me uncomfortable, and it takes me a moment to put my finger on why. In this imagined future we’d live on Hod, but we’d live at Ky’s sufferance. She’d be grateful now, yes, but how long would that last? What happens when Spike grows up?

It’s not that I don’t like Ky. I even trust her, as far as it goes. But life in the Heap has taught me the dangers of putting yourself under anybody’s thumb.

“I don’t think I could ask that much of you,” I say eventually.

“Please. You’ve saved my life a couple of times already. If you win the Ascent for me, you have no idea how much I’ll owe you. You could ask for my hand in marriage and I don’t think I could refuse.”

My cheeks flush. “Well—”

“That’s all assuming you don’t fling yourself into the unknown,” she says with a laugh. “But I suspect you have better sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know.” She finishes the last of her ice cream. “If you win the Ascent. The prize.”

“Money, right? And prestige for my sponsor.”

“And ascent. It’s in the name.” She shakes her head. “I keep forgetting you didn’t grow up with all this.”

I stop walking and turn to face her. “Explain like I’m an idiot, then.”

“The Ascent is a grand tournament, I told you. It starts here, but it runs through all of Above.” She licks a stray drip of melted ice cream from one finger. “Or so we’re told, anyway. In theory, the top two competitors win the right to keep fighting. Up Above. In the next round, or however it works.”

“They can…” I trail off, absorbing this. “Really?”

“That’s in theory. Nobody actually goes. You’d have to be crazy.”

“Why?”

“Because nobody has ever come back, obviously. Not even in pieces. Whatever the next fight is, it’s not something people survive. Why risk that when you’ve just set yourself up for life?”

Why, indeed? Why try to take the cap off the world and see how high it goes? What does it matter if the stars are really up there?

“What if you win the next fight?”

“Who knows? Probably there’s another one after that, and another, and another. Probably Above goes on forever.”

“It can’t go on forever. There has to be a top somewhere.”

“Maybe there is!” Ky sounds like she’s getting annoyed. “Who cares. You’re not seriously thinking about this, are you? I was making a joke.”

“I’m”—not, really I’m not. I have people here who depend on me. But—“just daydreaming, like I said. We’ve got a long way to go.”

“Right.” She brightens. “Ooh, next we have to try—”