𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 54

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"Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god." Athena was in Lilith's face. "My heart's beating so fast I think I'm about to have a heart attack."

If the fact that Athena clutched at her good arm with both hands so tightly it hurt had not awakened Lilith from her abstraction, this declaration certainly did the trick. Lilith took a closer look at her best friend and was immediately filled with panic. Athena's skin was flushed, her palms clammy, her body trembling. She was having a heart attack.

"What happened?" asked Lilith urgently, trying to reposition herself around Athena in a way that could provide support should she collapse. "Are you okay?"

Athena shook her head, but her lips, which she was pressing together as if with great effort, were widening despite her will.

With shining eyes and feverish excitement, she squealed, "He told me to call him Coriolanus!"

Lilith was a second comprehending, then relief washed over her, and she released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and relaxed her shoulders.

"That's brilliant!"

Her cry overshadowed another noise, preventing her from making out its nature. Knowing only that it emanated nearby, Lilith turned in its direction.

Archie.

How could she have forgotten? She had been talking to him just before Athena arrived.

"Be more dramatic, won't you?" he shot at Athena. "And you—"

Facing her so abruptly, and with an expression so uncharacteristically fierce, that she shrank back, Archie glared at Lilith. He seemed so livid as to be speechless. She watched apprehensively as his chest heaved, inducing dangerous bulges in his suit that threatened the survival of thread and buttons alike.

Finally, with an irritated huff, he jerked his eyes away and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Just stop believing everything you see," Archie muttered to the floor before stalking off.

His rapidly receding back triggered Lilith forward, but Athena tugged on her elbow.

"Let him go."

"Why? Do you know what's wrong?"

Something had to be. Archie never lost his temper for no reason.

"Whatever it is, you're not going to fix it by going after him now. Let him simmer down."

Athena made sense, so while Lilith loathed adding to the list of things she couldn't fix by going after people, she acquiesced.

"Was I dramatic?" Athena piped up. She looked so ashamed and so unabashed all at once, it was hilarious.

"What did you expect?" countered Lilith, chuckling.

"I can't help it, can I?" Athena gave an embarrassed laugh and held her face between her hands. They shielded the telltale blush but did nothing for the grinning. "I can't believe we danced! Oh, Lil, it was such a dream come true! I'm so happy, I could die!"

"Please don't," begged Lilith, dramatics or otherwise. "There's something I have to tell you. Have you seen Ollie?"

Easily identifiable by her sorceress-like get-up, Olympia was found waltzing with Hector Abernathy, which complicated things. Whisking her out of his arms at once would attract too much attention, so while Athena waited for the dance to finish, Lilith smuggled herself downstairs—the trio moving as a pack was likewise too conspicuous.

Pacing impatiently up and down the tiny closet where the chauffeurs stored spare parts and automotive equipment for basic maintenance, Lilith at last heard clacking of heels that weren't just her own. The door had been left deliberately ajar, casting a single sliver of light into the dim basement that would lead them right to her. As Olympia stormed in, fully outfitted in black, with her tall, exaggerated shoulders and the fabric of her high slit skirt rippling in her wake, she could not have resembled an evil enchantress going to war any more.

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