“But Kayleigh…”
“Is going to learn shortly that she’s been set up on a date with Matthew Strich,” interjected Silt, “courtesy of Skeletor himself.”
“What?!?”
“That’s beside the point,” I said, shooting Sofia a glare. I’d done what I could to make the dance better for Vibe. What the fuck did she want from me?
“Right.” Wormhole folded her arms across her chest in an eerie reproduction of Silt’s usual gesture. “Because all that matters is what you care about. You’re leaving, and you want me to help you get wherever you’re going.”
I swallowed. “Yeah.”
“And why exactly would I do that?”
Turned out sixty steps hadn’t been nearly enough.
“I don’t know.”
“Fucking hell, Boneboy. That’s your sales pitch?”
“Until ten minutes ago, I was taking a shuttle. This wasn’t part of the plan!” I turned back to Evelyn. “I don’t have any carefully thought-out arguments to convince you with. I don’t even know if you can help me, but the only other person I could ask is Caleb and he—”
“Hates you,” chimed both women.
“—can’t fly while carrying anything bigger than his own ego,” I finished. “But I’m not going to beg…” I paused. “Unless you think that will make a difference?”
“Where do you need to go?”
“Seriously? You’ll take me?”
She put her Glass aside and gave me a slow nod. “I won’t lie… I’m very okay with the thought of you not being here anymore.”
“Evelyn!” For someone still pissed at me, Silt was weirdly quick to come to my defense.
“He’s your friend, Sofia, not mine.”
Maybe that should’ve hurt, but even after all these months, I didn’t feel very close to Wormhole either. Having friends in common is a long way from actually being friends.
The Teleporter looked back to me. “Where do you want me to take you? It does matter.”
This was the moment I’d been dreading. I looked to the still-open dorm room door and lowered my voice. “The Hole.”
“The Hole? Why the fuck would you—” Silt turned to me, confusion vanishing from her broad face to be replaced by… something else. “Remembrance Day?”
“Or Reconciliation Day, as President Weatherly’s calling it. Yeah.”
“Your father?”
I nodded sharply, trying not to show the anger that rose up even at his mention. “Haven’t spoken to him in almost fourteen years. I’ve got some fucking questions.”
“Shit, Damian. I’m sorry.”
I didn’t know what she was apologizing for, but it didn’t matter, because Evelyn was already shaking her head.
“I can’t take you to the Hole.”
“Why not?”
“I can only teleport to places I’ve been. I’ve never been there.”
“But… you told Silt you’d take her to Texas.”
“After graduation, and I said I’d try. We don’t know if this is one more limitation baked into my power or if it’s just some sort of mental block. Either way, I can’t help you. Not yet, anyway.” She hesitated and then added, almost as an afterthought. “I’m sorry.”
There were no second-year Teleporters—third-years either, for that matter—but I was pretty sure there was a Flyboy or two. Maybe I could track one of them down and… convince them to fly a perfect stranger with a shit reputation all the way out to Black Hat prison…
Yeah, that plan had success written all over it.
“Fuck.”
“Hold on a second.” Silt had her own Glass out and was tapping its screen, a look of concentration on her face. “You and your family came from Flagstaff, didn’t you, Evie?”
“Yeah, when I was a kid. That was the longest week and a half of my life. Until this year’s exams, anyway. I swear the highway was more rubble than road. Why?”
“Because it looks like there’s a little town along what’s left of I-40 called Ludlow that you must’ve come through. It’s only forty-five miles from the Hole.”
For just a moment, I let myself feel optimistic. Then reality seeped in.
“Forty-five miles through the desert, Sofia. I’m not sure I could even survive that trip. I sure as hell couldn’t do it in a day.”
“Then it’s a good thing you won’t have to.” With a broad smile, Silt spun her Glass around and showed me what she’d found.
It was the route for the shuttle from Los Angeles. It would be making a brief pit stop in Ludlow the next morning.
“I could kiss you right now,” I told her.
“I’ll pass, not that you don’t look nice in your suit and all.” The smile morphed into the grin I was used to. “And freshly showered and blood-free, for once. What a catch!”
We both turned to Evelyn. This time, she was nodding.
“Ludlow. Yeah, I think I can do that. But it’s going to have to be soon, and I’ll need to come right back.”
I didn’t have a problem with either part of that, but curiosity pushed me to ask. “How come?”
“Because the dance is only thirty hours away, and with a jump that far, I’ll need every minute of it to—” She broke off with a blush, then shrugged. “You’ll see, soon enough.”
•—•—•
After that, things went quickly. Wormhole procured a water bottle from the depths of her over-stuffed closet, pulled out a pair of oversized pink sneakers that clashed horribly with her Academy greys, and excused herself for a trip to the restroom.
At first, neither Silt nor I spoke. I glanced around the dorm room she and Evelyn shared, learning more about them both in that minute than I had all year. Wormhole’s side of the room was pink. All of it, from the sheets and comforter she’d brought from home to replace the Academy bedding, to the flower paintings she had framed and hanging above her bed. Silt’s side of the room was almost shockingly stark by comparison. The only wall decoration was a black and white brush painting.
“What’s that?”
She glanced at the painting and then away. “The Rio Grande. Only thing between Brownsville and what used to be Mexico.”
I squinted. “Are there people in the water?”
“Yeah.” Her voice was quiet. “You’re not coming back, are you?”
“So they can kick me out? Why bother?”
“Were
