And there was, of course and most of all, Talia to consider. If she hadn’t changed her mind about me, after everything.

The day before the ball, I’d twitched in surprise as Delilah dropped down to sit beside me, having snuck up on ghost-quiet feet; even Jasper hadn’t noticed her approach.

“It’s not just your hill, you know,” she remarked, a faint smirk tugging at her lips as she clocked my surprise. “Even if you’ve been bogarting it like a pro.”

“Sorry,” I said, huffing out a laugh. “Didn’t mean to make Lady’s Lake all about me. Even though, apparently, it sort of is.”

My cousin tipped her head, questioning. Ostensibly I wasn’t allowed to share my new status with anyone besides an elder, but honestly, fuck great-gramps Elias and all his stodgy-ass rules. Delilah was a Harlow, and if anyone deserved to know about the specifics of our tricky legacy, it was her.

This was where I could start changing the game for us, shifting the power dynamics that had always left us out.

“I knew it,” she said when I finished giving her a recap, thumping a fist against her thigh. “I knew Elias wasn’t just some two-bit scribe.”

“And you were right. Though from where I’m sitting, he’s not exactly hero-worship material, either. I’m finding myself questioning the wisdom of many of his calls.”

She gave a vague nod, like we were going to have to agree to disagree on that front. “So, what are you going to do now?” she said, turning to look at me head-on, and to her credit, this time I couldn’t detect any pressure or judgment swarming in her eyes. “Have you decided?”

“I don’t know yet,” I admitted, resting my chin on my knees, a faint but brisk breeze wafting over my cheeks. “I’m sorry, Lilah. I know this decision doesn’t affect just me—and I also know how major it’ll be for you, if I do decide to go. But there’s a lot of stuff in the air, still. So many factors in play.”

“Your work in the city, right?” she said, nodding sagely. “And obviously, Talia Avramov. Oh, don’t look at me like that, I do have eyes, Emmy. And even a functional heart. It’s clear she means something to you.”

“She does,” I murmured, my throat welling up. “And the work . . . yeah, that matters, too. So does Chicago, in the bigger picture. And then there’s my parents, and Lin, that whole other side of things. The side that makes me want to stick around.”

“I really do get it, you know.” She shook her head, a little wry. “I know what it’s like to want too many things at once. A very familiar mood, you might say.”

“You should be working at Tomes, Lilah,” I blurted out, with a sudden pressing urgency. “I mean it. Whether I stay or leave, you deserve to have at least that much go to you.”

“I’d like that.” The corners of her lips quirked up almost shyly, her glossy curls flicking in the wind. She put up a hand to comb them back from her face before meeting my eyes again. “Maybe . . . you could put in a word for me with Uncle James? He could use the help, but you know what he’s like. Always saving a spot for the apple of his eye. If you really mean it, Emmy, if you’re going to let me have Tomes . . . he’ll need your permission. To feel like he’s not stepping on your toes, giving you another reason to leave.”