“Try a Metropolitan Cosmopolitan,” Nox said, pouring a pink drink from a tall crystal carafe into a sugar-rimmed glass.
It smelled like the flowers in the islands, Ridley thought.
“Sort of a house specialty,” he added.
“Big house,” Ridley said, sipping from the glass. The sugar rush was intense. She could feel her heart pounding, so she put down the glass.
She needed a clear head tonight.
Nox shrugged. “Big? You could say that. It’s called the Met.”
“The museum?” Even Ridley had heard of that one, and she went out of her way to avoid museums or any place where people stood around looking at things other than her.
He nodded.
Rid picked up the glass and put it back down again. Nervous? Am I nervous? Is that what this is?
She cleared her throat. “Where is everybody?” They had come straight from a side entrance to a service elevator, and until they had reached the rooftop, Ridley hadn’t seen a person except for the occasional security guard.
Nox sipped from his glass. “Let’s just say I gave them the night off.”
The view from their table was breathtaking. Puffs of green trees were still visible in the fading light, even with the concrete jungle rising between them. Ridley understood why Sirens throughout history had been drawn to this city.
“This is beautiful,” she said, feeling very small. It was a new feeling, and she filed it away. There had been so many new feelings lately.
He shrugged. “It’s a beautiful city. I don’t know why I spend so much time in the Underground, when it’s so incredible up here.”
“You love Sirene.” She smiled at him, pushing the conversation where it needed to go.
“I do.”
“Why?” She tried to sound casual.
He studied the view carefully, as if it would disappear the moment he looked away. “I love all my clubs.”
“Because they’re Dark?” She looked at him. Like the Siren in the photograph? The one you named the club after?
But she didn’t say it. Not yet.
A man like Nox Gates wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t come clean that easily. Not to a Siren he barely knew—and certainly not about his connection to another Siren.
Nox studied the view. “No. Because they’re home. Something I never had.”
Ridley smiled, almost involuntarily. “You and every other Dark Caster in the world.”
“Does it feel like home to you? New York?” He looked back at the city. “All this beauty?”
Ridley made a face. “Not so much our apartment. Or my job. Or the subway. Let’s see—yep, those are the parts I get to visit.” She laughed.
He didn’t. “There are others. Let me show you.”
This is it, she thought. “Show me what?”
“New York, the way a Siren is supposed to see it.”
Exactly. “A Siren? How would you know?”
He didn’t say anything.
Ridley shrugged. “You know, I think I’ve probably seen enough New York for a while.” Not too fast. Make him work for it.
“You haven’t seen anything.” He touched her hand.
She pulled it back, startled by the feeling of his skin on hers. Watch it.
He smiled. “One day. Just one. I’ll be a good boy, I promise. Then, if you still want me to, I’ll bring you back to your friends and demand that they forgive you.”
“You think they care what you think?” Her face clouded at the thought of what was going on back in their apartment. You think they’re my friends? She put down her glass.
“Of course they care what I think. Everyone does.” He smiled.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Ridley said. “If anything, they’re scared of you.”
“Like I said.” He shrugged. “They care what I think. Does it really matter why?”
“It does,” Ridley said, and she realized as she said it that she meant it. “It’s taken me a long time to figure that out, but it does.”
Nox raised an eyebrow. “You don’t say.”
Rid kept her eyes on the skyline in front of her. “It’s nice to have people care what you think and laugh at your jokes. And notice when you say things, and when you don’t.” She smiled at him ruefully. “At least, it was nice.”
Don’t get distracted, she told herself.
“Just one day?” Nox pressed again. “Let me show you.”
“One day is a long time.” Rid hesitated. “A Siren’s view of New York?”
He nodded.
“That’s it?” Just a day? Was that all it would take to unravel the mystery that was Lennox Gates? Wasn’t that what she wanted?
Ridley thought about the unanswered rings when she’d called the apartment earlier. Necro was hurt. What if they needed Ridley? What if there was something she could do?
It’s not like they want me back. It’s not like they’ll let me back. They won’t even pick up the phone. And at least this way I could get him to open up about the Siren in the photograph.
“One day. I promise.” Nox crossed his heart playfully.
“And no trying to trick me or game me into staying?” Ridley looked at him, crossing her arms. She’d made and lost a bet with him before. She wasn’t going to make that mistake again. “No house rules? No party tricks?”
“Nothing underhanded at all.”
War, she reminded herself. Answers. The Siren in the photograph. That’s why you’re doing this.
The way he smiled, she felt like she could trust him.
And the way she fell for his smile, she felt she couldn’t trust him at all.
As Ridley crawled into the massive circular bed that night, she stared at her phone. Still no calls. Not even Lena was picking up tonight.
No calls… and no friends.
Nothing.
Necro and Floyd and Sampson didn’t want to have anything to do with her.
They didn’t, and Link didn’t.
It was bound to happen. It had only been a matter of time. Ridley had always known it.
You couldn’t fight destiny. Not when destiny was just another door slammed in your face, whether you deserved it or not.
Not when destiny was just you sitting alone on the curb, whether you wanted to come inside or not.
Frustrated, Ridley pulled the covers around her.
But this isn’t just about me. Necro could be really sick. Black blood. That’s some bad mojo.
She had to try.
Even if no one cared, and even if no one wanted her to.
This time, Ridley let the phone ring over and over. Then she called again. And again. She counted the stars overhead until the ringing stopped and her cell phone ran out of power.
By then, she was asleep and dreaming of curbless streets and cracked stone walkways—of smiling mothers and endlessly open doors.
CHAPTER 26 
Back in Black
Looks bad. Worse, even. You think there’s some kinda hex on her or somethin’?” Link was wide-eyed, staring at Necro as she lay on the bed. He looked horrified.
Lucille Ball, circling him, looked even more so.
Floyd scrambled to her feet to look at the wound. She nodded. “It looks way worse than yesterday.”
“Bigger. Blacker.” Sampson nodded. “A hex would be my bet.” He examined the wound more closely. “I’m guessing the blade that did this was Charmed. And that the cut isn’t what’s making her sick. The Cast is. All it would take would be a nick.”