Page 76 of Queen of Volts

Finally, he pulled away, his expression unreadable, and Enne was left with no better knowledge of his feelings than earlier.

“Charmed now?” he asked softly, and Enne would’ve scowled if not for the audience.

She said nothing, feeling terribly foolish, and she unwrapped a chocolate just to have anything to claim her attention other than him. Levi might’ve hoodwinked the reporters, but Enne knew him better, and so now she had her answer—that kiss had meant nothing to him. And the biggest fool was herself for ever imagining otherwise.

IX

THE STAR

“Before her death, Havoc’s final request

was to sign her own tombstone.”

Nostalgia. “Havoc Apprehended.”

Her Forgotten Histories

15 Jul YOR 8

SOPHIA

Delaney owned a powder blue car.

“Well, get in,” she told Sophia as she climbed into the driver’s seat. It had been over a month since they’d last seen each other, and though Sophia had little to fill her time except for naps, Poppy and Delaney had kept putting off their meeting to rehearse for their upcoming show. Only with Harrison’s inauguration tomorrow, they could no longer procrastinate.

“Neither of you own anything less conspicuous?” Sophia asked, eyeing the car nervously and chewing on a wad of taffy.

Poppy was reapplying her blush in the side view mirror. “Oh, if anyone is going to stick out on the South Side, it’s you.”

Sophia glanced down at her tall scarlet boots and licked her matching lipstick. She smirked. “This is my day outfit.”

“You look like you floss your teeth with the souls of men,” Poppy told her. “I mean, you look great. But I’m not sure the problem is my girlfriend’s car.”

Delaney flushed at the wordgirlfriend, though Sophia hadn’t realized they were anything else. “Is calling me that how you try to make me forgive you for crashing our meeting with Harrison?” Delaney asked Poppy.

She grinned slyly. “It could be.”

Sophia rolled her eyes. She liked the two girls, especially Poppy, but she didn’t fancy the idea of spending the day tagging along with their off-and-on bickering and flirting. She could be sleeping. And all the fresh air was giving her a headache.

“Maybe it would be better if we split the list,” Sophia suggested. The list of names Harrison had given them was long, anyway. Sophia hadn’t realized so many others in New Reynes had made a deal with the Bargainer. “You both can take the South Side. I’ll take the North Side.”

“Delaney will dump me back at home if you don’t come along,” Poppy told her. “So you’ve been vetoed. You’re coming.”

Sophia reluctantly slid into the beige leather backseat.

“I wouldn’t dump you back at home,” Delaney teased. “I’d dump you back at the theater. You butchered the choreography. The papers will start talking.”

“About how I’m grieving the death of my father? They might.” When Delaney winced, Poppy added, “This is why you should let me come. I need a distraction.”

It was one of those jokes that Sophia expected was true, and that didn’t make it funny—it made it depressing. Still, Sophia laughed, anyway. Her voice sounded raucous and hollow.

As Delaney started the engine, Poppy twisted around and told Sophia, “The gossip columns still think we’re rivals.”

“Wearestill rivals,” Delaney said, her grin returning.

“If you say so.” Poppy leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

Sophia crossed her arms in the backseat, fixing her gaze out of the putrid happiness in the car. Even in the winter, the South Side was a smear of pastels, like flowers petals crushed on parchment. It was nothing like where she’d met the Bargainer, a dirt crossroads in the sort of town that had three taverns but not a post office, a thousand miles from New Reynes. It almost made Sophia forget what they were doing. The dirty laundry around here was designer dresses and imported silk.