Cal holds her composure through all the banter, barbs, and friendly teasing from Valance about her absences. Those yellow eyes, purer and less muddied in color than mine, glare death through the fire. I stare right back. Waiting just like she is for the break in the festivities. It comes when a simultaneous alarm squawks from every JOY on the rooftop.

Uneasy murmurs replace the previous conversations. Whispers I need not strain to hear. Seismograph alarms. Earthquake tremors. Utter nonsense- there haven’t been quakes since before the Creators.

But then a violent shudder runs through the entire city, shaking its way even up to our rooftop. Like some ancient leviathan chained beneath the city has suddenly begun to stir and cast off the surface world. Another seismic shudder comes quick on its heels, this one even stronger. Everyone stares as a wave of flickering lights pulses outwards from the Metro Blockhouse.

I make my excuses and head towards a quiet nest in the corner of the rooftop. I don’t have to wait long.

I feel Cal beside me before I ever hear or see her. A shiver goes through the back of my brain as my JOY’s neural link fades.

“It’s good to see you’ve finally decided to crawl out of the Vents, Cal. I thought you’d never be done hiding.”

She comes right up beside me to check out the view, hands in her pockets. “Not even a thank you for handing you a chance to be decent to your ex? Come on now.”

“It would be rude to thank you for tricking me at the gala.”

We both pause as another earthquake shudders through the Electric Town. Cal snorts under her breath.

“If you’re tired of deception, then let’s cut the games. Where’s the Mobiak?”

“Don’t you have more pressing concerns? You’ll blow your cover if you wait here much longer.”

“You’re awfully concerned about my wellbeing, considering how you had no problem nearly killing me a few weeks ago.” Her eyes narrow. “If you think you can still use Jolie as a bargaining chip, that card’s out of the game. I freed her on my way here.”

She’s cold to me in a way she’s never been before. Vicious, her patience evaporated now that the object of her nascent feelings is threatened. Standing beside me like we’re enemies, staring down at the city like it’d try to kill her too. One of those, I suppose, is true now.

I brush my hair to the side, letting the wind catch in my cloak. “There’s a better alternative for both of us than you blowing your cover tonight. Given your recent fascination with Tay, I’m sure you’d like nothing more than to have Valance’s eyes off your back- something that’s mutually beneficial for the both of us.” I look up at the Metro Blockhouse as the posters on its glass side shift. “You don’t even have to bring Tay to me. Nor do you have to stop her from believing you’re her friend.”

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“Just so you can keep the moth flying into the fire? I don’t think so.”

I chuckle. “And why am I the worse alternative to Gami or Valance? I didn’t instigate that fight at the gala, Cal. Or did you already forget which one of us buried a blade in Tay’s gut just a few weeks ago-”

A cold platinum blade slams to a stop a micrometer away from my jugular. Cal’s eyes burn up at me. A wild, dangerous venom in her eyes. Protective rage in her grit teeth.

“And I wouldn’t hesitate to do worse to you, Thane.” She growls like the safety of a gun clicking off. “You told me that I was the only person you trusted to keep you honest. I was the only person you trusted with the one thing that could beat you. I gave you plenty of chances to be honest. Time’s up, brother.” The blade pushes against my throat. “Where is the Mobiak?”

I shrug her anger away, not reacting to the blade’s cutting edge. “If I had to guess, I expect it’s hunting down Tay on Valance’s orders while you’re up here playing with knives.”

Her blade withdraws. She starts to turn back to the party when I catch her by the forearm.

“I’ve already lost Tay’s trust. I don’t want to lose yours too, Cal.” My voice cools. “We don’t have to fight each other. We’re not enemies. I’m not doing any of this for myself. I’m correcting a mistake. Making the best outcome out of the worst situation. This is for Tay’s sake more than it is mine.”

“For her sake?” Cal snatches her arm away with a laugh. “Don’t give me that drivel. You really are drunk on yourself.”

She strides to the edge of the tower, examining the power grid in the next lot over. Crisscrossing electric lines, massive conduits trailing like jungle vines into a dark and gaping hole that bridges the crust of the city. She’s so small against the gleaming metropolis beyond. But her shoulders have never been straighter.

“Let me tell you something, Thane,” Cal murmurs. “I make mistakes. Just as you do.”

She shuts off her Relic.

“But sometimes, I wonder where it was along the way that you forgot you were supposed to learn from them.”

Her hand draws a gleaming silver sphere from her pocket while her boots toe the edge. Calculating the suicidal math of the fall to the power grid.

“Maybe you really do think you’re still right. But maybe, just maybe, you only say the things you do because you’re afraid that someday soon you’ll start seeing what you really are in the mirror.” Her eyes narrow. “Someone no different than Dad.”

“Before you burn this bridge, I hope you know fully what you’re choosing.” My heart cools as I stand there watching her back, worlds apart. “It’s a long way down.”

Without hesitation, Cal replies, “She’ll catch me.”

She powers on the JOY and drops off the edge with an acrobat’s grace, disappearing into the storm like a seraph cast from heaven. In the blink of an eye, she’s dived thirty stories and flashed down into a vast air shaft in the center of the power grid, falling towards the undercity.

I watch for another moment longer before turning from the view and meandering back across the roof. Valance meets me with a curious eyebrow. She glances past my shoulder. “Where did Cal go?”

I shake my head. “To make a mistake.”