Jaya smoothed down her flapper dress—a pale green number with fringey beads hanging off the ends—and adjusted her gold carnival half-mask. The fact that it covered the top half of her face made her feel a bit more cushioned from the world at large, as if it might help disguise the pain in her eyes. She’d paired her dress with tights and ankle boots, but she was still desperate to get on the yacht, where it would be warmer. The car service had dropped her off as close to the marina as possible, which was still too long a walk in the biting air. She wasn’t even sure why she was here when she could be ensconced in her room, eating ice cream and reading a book. Suddenly cozying up to Caterina didn’t seem that important. Jaya just wasn’t in a glitzy party mood. After what had happened with Grey and her fight with DE… she would feel more at home at a funeral.

Twenties-era music played energetically off Lake Rosetta. She couldn’t see the yacht yet; there were too many pine trees in the way. Jaya glanced down at her ruby pendant. It didn’t really go with her outfit, but she’d worn it out of some stupid sense of nostalgia for a time when Grey and she… Anyway. She frowned. Two more rubies had fallen, bringing the total to six remaining; fewer than half the original number. Were they falling faster now than they had before? And a thought crept into her mind—Grey’s eighteenth birthday was soon. But that was silly. The one had nothing to do with the other.

She rounded a bend and was completely distracted by the vision in front of her eyes.

Lake Rosetta stretched before her, dark and vast and milky with thin patches of ice. The yacht was a 90-foot behemoth, and it had been dressed up for the occasion. Small, intimate tables on the deck were covered in glittering gold tablecloths. Twinkling strands of lights hung from every spare surface. Guests—all in costume—milled about with coupe champagne glasses and long cigarette holders, giving the impression that they really had been transported to the 1920s.

Jaya climbed aboard the yacht, the musty scent of the lake air tangling with her clothes.

Caterina’s people had done a spectacular job. This dripping-with-lights-and-sparkles setup looked less like a gala and more like they’d time-hopped back to a plush speakeasy for twenties-era celebrities.

Jaya spun in a slow circle, drinking it all in, and came to a stop to find two lupine blue eyes watching her.

Grey