“Can we snap a pic?” A pretty girl I didn’t know wedged herself between us.

“Sure,” Deena said.

Fake-smiling, we sucked in our cheeks, putting our arms around one another like we were friends.

“Chill party,” the girl said, walking away. “I’ll tag you.”

“I can’t live like this,” I said as soon as she was out of earshot. “Pretending to be happy. Pretending this is real so we can make other people feel small. Do you ever feel that way?”

Deena’s eyes were saucers. “Yes.”

“Yes?” I gripped her meager arm, my fingernails piercing her skin, trying to grab hold of the fleeting glimpse of my old friend. “Deena. Do you remember when we were little girls? Are you still in there?”

The fragment of emotion was gone as soon as it came.

“Calm down, babe.” She smoothed her fingers over my hair. “I have everything I’ve always wanted.”

I searched her dead eyes, wanting to smack her, to get a rise, any kind of reaction. “Deena?” I pleaded. “We used to be friends. I wish we could go back to the way it was before Intersection.”

“Ella, when are you going to learn that living in the past is pointless? We’re in the game now, and personally, I came to play.”

My heart broke for her, for me. For us. “There’s got to be more to life than influence.”

“This is as good as it gets,” she said. “Everyone wishes they were us, and you would, too, if you were an outsider. If this all went away, you’d miss it.”

I frowned.

Over her shoulder, a boat appeared. The riders were silhouetted against a meteor shower, so I couldn’t make out faces, but I recognized one of the figures as Adam. The other guy was a mystery. Probably someone handpicked from the line.

My eyes swept over the rest of the pretty people on the yacht. How am I supposed to know which one is him? What if Allard didn’t set it up?

Fear leaped in my chest, stalling my heart, and everything happened at once:

“Jump!” I heard a voice, clear as day, and it was almost like a furious wind physically threw me overboard.

The last thing I saw was Adam, his boat drawing up to the yacht, his blue eyes searching out mine—before—

Boom.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

March 20X6, San Francisco

“Are you nervous?” Rayelle asks, gluing the last silver rhinestone to the collection gathered under my left eye.

“I feel like an alien is going to punch its way out of my stomach,” I reply. “So, yes.”

“Same. I can’t believe our heists start today.” She exhales. “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. I hope I don’t screw up.”

“Me, too. What if the cameras recognize me as a Maker?” I take a sip of mint tea, hoping it will calm my uneasy stomach.