Now

MONTANA

"We will not be going to that masquerade under any circumstances!" Sierra stops Calum mid-sentence, her tone panicked and her eyes widened.

Luke intervenes, his eyebrows furrowed with surprise. "Why not?"

"You know why not." She looks between us all like we have grown six heads each.

"I don't." Calum replies calmly, leaning against the balustrade of Sierra and Lukes massive staircase that leads to the upper floors, my body positioned in between his legs, letting the back of my head rest on his shoulder.

They had gone to see the Viper all alone and I tried my best to hide the slight frustration of him deciding to go without me, seeing as the threat was to my life and not anyone else's, I should be the one stomping around the city demanding answers with an unladylike rage. I briefly entertain that scenario, smiling to myself.

"What are you smiling about?" Sierra asks. "Are you all out of your minds? These people are criminals! God knows what goes on inside those parties. Have you never watched the movies? It's never a party, always some kind of exchange with spies involved." Sierra shakes her fingers in front of her face.

"No thank you!" She finishes off her rant, her hands resting on her hips. We all collectively stare at her in silence, contemplating whether she was joking or being serious. You could never tell with her.

"Babe," I say, already convinced we had to go to whatever this thing was going to be. I was intrigued to see why Calum looked so tense. What was it about these people that made him this way?

Sierra turns to me, "Don't babe me with that reasoning voice. This sounds very much like a trap to me."

"Darling, you don't have to go." Luke says, his voice only ever sounding that tender when directed at her. I momentarily wonder if Calum and I sound that way to others. If, unbeknown to the rest of the world, we had our own bubble where things worked differently.

"Like hell I'm going to send you idiots off alone." She rolls her eyes, walking away and leaving Luke to follow after her.

Calum and I remain in the silence of their receding footsteps for a moment, "Did Gia come to see you?" He kisses my temple. 

When he had walked in the door, the relief in the air around me was palpable. I made no sound before walking into his arms and he let me stay there without question.

"Yeah. She really is a god. I don't know what I'd do without her."

I turn in the circle of his arms as he nods, murmuring, "That's good."

My hand cups the left side of his face, tracing the smooth skin of his jaw. He had shaved this morning. "What is it? What are you not telling me?"

He smiles, squeezing my hips. "It was weird going back there today. I thought I'd left it all behind. But it felt so familiar, like I had never really left it in the first place."

"You're not that person now." I put as much conviction as I can behind my voice. "It's only a feeling."

"I don't think I ever changed. I just...abandoned it all together." He gets a distant look in his eyes.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing." He shakes his head slightly, "They just haven't forgiven me."

"They tried to harm us, Calum. I don't think their forgiveness matters at this point."

Calums eyes come back to to me, searching my face for a reaction I have yet to give.
"It isn't them. It isn't the viper."

———

"I don't understand why we need to go to this thing if Calum thinks it isn't them. Why does nothing ever make sense with men?" Sierra huffs, walking across her office between the racks of clothing. The house was quiet up here, the lights hanging from the high ceilings reflecting against the large windows like stars, giving the room a warmth that eases my body.

"I think he had a thing with her, this Viper woman."

Sierra pauses, raising her head from behind a rack to raise an eyebrow at me. "What makes you say that?"

"I can't tell."

"You can't tell or are you just being a jealous girlfriend?" She raises her voice over the clutter of hangers.

"I am not jealous!"

Sierra scoffs, "Please, you broke up with him because he was in bed with some girl he doesn't even remember."

"Are you my best friend or his?" I shove the silk pieces of fabric away from my lap and they fall limply onto the table I'm sitting on top of. I still wasn't sure if I had taken that decision with a clear mind and Sierra reminding me of it wasn't doing me any favours.

"Yours. It's why I'm trying to be rational here."

"More like calling me out on all my bad decisions." I take a sip of the coffee that's now gone cold in my mug, it leaves as sour a taste as my mood in my mouth.

"Are you angry with me?" She calls, her voice muffled. Sierra's office was a perfect circle but there were so many racks everywhere that you could disappear in it for five years if you wanted to.

I don't answer, tying my hair back from my neck.

"Bad decisions." I murmur to myself quietly. I have made so many of them, that sometimes, I wasn't sure if I ever made a right choice in my entire life.

Maybe Sierra was right, maybe we shouldn't go to this masquerade. I was curious to see who these people were but that didn't mean it was the right thing to do. It is bound to go wrong. But what be could be worse than wondering if you were going to be shot in the head or blown to pieces every time you stepped into a room?

My mother used to be relentless about my rebellion, my refusal to stick to one thing. She always said I would regret dropping things and moving on to something new. "Always on the move, that girl of mine. She needs to plant her feet on the ground somewhere before she runs out of land." I had once overheard her telling my aunt.

"Let her live her life. She has a good head on those shoulders, she knows what she is doing." My aunt had replied. How I wish I could have proved her right.

"You're mad at me." Sierra appears in front of me, holding up a hanger with what looks like a dress covered in white sheet paper.  I can see through to the fabric inside, the light catching the dark shimmer.

"What is that?" I whisper, suddenly short of breath.

"Are you mad at me or not?" She repeats, grinning.

"No, no, I'm not. Show me that." I hop off the table, reaching for the dress but she backs away with a jolt.

"Listen to me first," she waves her hand in front of my face to break my gaze away from the dress.

"I'm listening." I say exasperatedly even though the dress now has most of my attention. I could see it shimmering under the white sheets of paper, the signature maroon hanger telling me that it was one of Sierra's own designs.

"If you're only agreeing to go this masquerade because you think you'll meet whoever this Viper woman is, you shouldn't. This is a risk we are all taking."

She gets my attention now. We were all going into this, it wasn't just me and I was well aware of that.

"Does any of this make sense to you?"

She knits her eyebrows, lowering her arm. "What do you mean?"

I look around the room, searching for my words. "Everything that has been happening the past couple of months. Calum coming back to me, then falling off a fucking bridge, explosives in my apartment...more secrets about him that I didn't know, big secrets that he has kept from me. And now this, someone trying to get back at us? And for what? None of this makes sense to me." She gives me an empathetic look.

"I'm sorry if I'm not thinking rationally, if my motives seem to be driven by my jealousy. I don't understand what is going on, I understand nothing. I'm just here, trying to get through whatever is next. You know I'm never certain about things, but I usually know what I'm doing. But this time? I don't have the tiniest clue."

I wrap my arms around my body, a shiver has started to run through it. "I just want to make sure I don't lose anyone while I'm at it. Especially Calum. I can't lose him again, all right?"

Sierra looks at me for a long moment, her mouth a thin line of concentration. "Fine, all right. Then we'll need to attend this masquerade in style, won't we?"

I wipe away the tears making my eyes blurry as she gently slides away the sheets of white paper wrapped around the dress. It was a gown made entirely of a material that looked like marble but not, attached to a fabric that was barely there. It shone like the scales of a fish underwater in the night, a black so dark I was certain I've never seen this material on clothing before. The colour was what shocked me the most.

"The colour huh?" Sierra grins widely, reading my mind.

"Yes," I whisper breathlessly, reaching out to touch the material gently, afraid that it might dissolve and fall at our feet. It's smooth to the touch.

"It's very thin shavings of Onyx, which makes this dress one of a kind. Took me six months to attach it all."

"It's as though you attached actual fucking Onyx to a dress, unbelievable. This belongs in a museum!" I can't help but laugh with amazement.

The price tag on the dress had to be insane, Sierra shakes her head when I ask her who she's selling it to. "I made it for you, I can't think of anyone else... worthy enough."

I look between her and the dress, my heart filling with awe. "Me?" Is all I can muster to say.

"Yes, I was just waiting for the right occasion to give it to you."

"This masquerade is definitely not good enough for this dress."

Sierra considers this for a moment. "Yes, well, if we're potentially going to die at this thing, might as well die wearing something no one else has."

She hands the dress to me. "Now, go put it on."