Velli

I direct Lue to bring us to the only place in Division’s Hand we can access that guarantees our safety—my mother’s hospital room. Day two of my challenge, and we’re not doing well.

We burst in. My mom reads a book to Jeremy as he sits cross-legged and excited below her.

“Sorry to wake you. I know it’s like three in the morning—why are you up?”

“Oh, well, look at God,” my mom says. “We were up chatting about life and such. It’s so good having company. God brought you in time for Bible study. I was telling Jeremy first we had the Old Testament then the New Testament, where Jesus comes, then the Third Testament—the Wet Testament—the one that’s from after the Rain.”

“But we don’t like the third one,” Jeremy adds.

“That’s right, Jeremy!” my mom exclaims and turns back to me. “Look at God’s timing. He brought you here right on time.”

“Well, ‘Gooood’”—I drag out the word to shake her awake to the weight of my sarcasm—“just broke through our door at home.”

“We needed a new one anyway.” She shrugs.

“We can’t afford a new one. We can’t afford new anything!”

“Jeremy.” My mom smiles at him and moves the still-open Bible from her lap onto the bed. “We’ll continue this later.”

Jeremy nods and takes a seat in the corner.

“So, Velli, what happened, and who is this lovely lady that is not Dream?”

“Mom!”

“Hi, I’m Lue.”

Let the world be Dried to its core. I cannot take this. My mom then goes on to practically interview Lue, and Jeremy’s no better. He makes awkward attempt after awkward attempt to flirt with her. It results in a numbing, persistent ringing in my ear. I’m bound with idiots, and the ringing is the ticking of a bomb filled with confetti and dynamite destined to destroy me.

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Let it. Command me, and I can have the Old Soul meet you somewhere. I can request she kill you quickly. We don’t have to live.

Fate’s objections snap me from my poor mood.

That’s the thing though, Fate. I do have to live, and it’s that simple. I promised myself I would change the world, and people are counting on me, so I won’t let them down.

Awww, it’s going to happen someday soon. I see it. And it will hurt so much. You are going to die. Why not today?

Because it will happen someday, and so much good could happen between now and then. Before I die, I’ll make sure life was worth living.

I shush the crowd, and out of respect for my mom, I ask if Lue and I can sleep here tonight for our safety. With extroverted excitement, she agrees. I order more mattresses and bedsheets and pay the accompanying fee. I give the lady at the counter the money with trepidation, knowing how far behind I’ll be to pay Mom’s bill next month. All I can do is calm my nerves with reality.

It always had to be this way. No matter what. The deal with Prometheus or not, I would be close to financial ruin as someone who’s Cursed and with a sick mother. It always had to be tragedy or majesty. I’m doing the right thing by pursuing majesty.

Sleep does not come easy to me.

In the morning, I wake up earlier than everyone and plan. I’m not sure what it is, but it comes to me as simply as the answer to two plus two. I know how to get everything I want in one night. There are two singers, the LWLL—legends of Division’s Hand—who I bet I could trick into defending me from the Old Soul, all with the unknowing help of a certain sister to an Heir, Dream Tower. But I won’t leave my best friend out to dry. I’ll take her on a date.

I’ll take her on a date to see the sirenesque horror that is the LWLL Clique. She’ll rightfully be disgusted by it, put a stop to the show, create a small scuffle, name-drop Rose, and when they beg for mercy, I’ll step in and enter a Cognomen Oath with them. Simple enough.

I’m sure.

I discuss with my mastermind group and—hopefully temporary—roommates how to ask Dream on a date to the LWLL concert and leave out the more deceptive details of how I’ll use it. We all decide it’s best to be straightforward. I make a call to get Dream and me tickets to their concert. Then I call Dream and ask to take her on a date to said concert. I believed both the Old Soul and Wulf would kill me at one point. The insane energy I feel because I’m alive allows the words to ease right out of me, and by some miracle, Dream agrees. I’m casual about it and tell her to dress up, the place will be fancy. The rest of the morning, I spend planning a date.