For Darkness Shows the Stars

superior, but wasn’t it warranted? A group of estate-born Posts with fortunes that made every Luddite she knew drool with envy? They were important. It was a refreshing change to get that impression from a Post, rather than her sister.
    “And what they’re doing,” Olivia went on. “To go out as they do—to risk their lives to see if there’s anything at all left beyond these shores. That is the most worthy goal, isn’t it?”
    “More worthy than feeding people?”
    Olivia blushed. “No. Perhaps not. I know what our duty is. But I wish I wasn’t a Luddite, Elliot. I wish I could be an explorer, like them.”
    Elliot refused to be mean to the younger girl. It wasn’t Olivia’s fault that she was in love with Kai. It wasn’t her fault that she was fourteen, and carefree, and still fantasized about a world where she could run away from her estate and go exploring with the bravest boy she’d ever met. Once, Elliot had done the same. Once, she’d believed she could, that one day she and Kai would sail away and find the world that everyone else had lost.
    So now, she couldn’t resist asking Olivia, “What is stopping you?”
    “My brother, I suppose.” She shrugged. “I don’t think Horatio would let me go live in a Post enclave, at least not for another few years.”
    “Then do it in a few years,” Elliot replied, her tone growing short. She would not be cruel to Olivia. The girl was not to blame for Elliot’s situation, for her choices, for her heartbreak. Kai would hate Elliot even if Olivia Grove had never been born. “You’re free. Why shouldn’t you follow your heart’s desire?” Even if that desire included Kai.
    “A few years,” Olivia mused. “That seems too long to wait for—” She stopped herself, then looked at Elliot. “You must think I’m very foolish. A little girl with a crush.”
    Elliot weighed her words. “I think . . . I think if you mean what you say about wanting to be an explorer, that your wishes are valid. I think if you mean it, you should pursue it regardless of the actions of Captain Wentforth.” There. That was fair. And it was the most she could trust herself to say.
    “Thank you,” Olivia gushed. “Tatiana was telling me the other day what a fool I was being, and that everything I want is only because of him. And it is—but not in the way she supposes. Rather, being with him—or even near him—has taught me so much. It’s a new world out there. I can’t hide away on the estate. I can’t forget about it now that I’ve had a taste.”
    Elliot busied herself with setting out the last of the food. Part of her wanted to strangle Olivia, or jump off the cliff, or even just cry. But she couldn’t allow herself to do so, no more than she could allow herself any of the indulgences she was encouraging Olivia to take. Elliot would never forget Kai, nor the world of possibilities they’d once dreamed of. But she could never have it for herself, either.
    Kai was now busy teaching the Phoenixes their old game of cliffside chicken. He teetered on the very edge, arms outstretched, face upturned toward the sun. Something desperate and devilish woke inside Elliot. Now they had nothing, but once they’d had this. Once she’d given in every time. But she was older now. She’d taken bigger risks. Elliot stood, brushed off her knees, and joined him at the cliff’s edge. He could hate her now, he could resent her, he could never forgive her, but he would know what she’d become. She positioned her toes just a bit farther out than his and threw her arms out to the side.
    “Have you spent these four years practicing to beat me?” he whispered. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, but could not read the expression on his face. Was he joking? Teasing? Seeking to wound her again? He’d apologized today in front of the Posts. She’d thought it was to bury the hatchet with Gill and Dee. Was it to make amends with her as well?
    In the end, she kept her response neutral. “How do you know I didn’t used to let you win?”
    Kai wiggled his toes a bit farther out. Elliot copied him.
    “Enough is enough, you two,” said Andromeda, back on the blanket.
    Elliot felt wobbly, but she steeled herself and looked straight ahead at the horizon. Of course, it proved nothing. Her ability to stand on a cliff edge did not make her better than Kai. It did not make up for his words the previous evening, or his treatment of her for the past few weeks. It