Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(51)

Alia lifted her head. “You do?”

“We try to keep up with the outside world.”

Alia flopped back against the pillows. “Yeah, well, here’s hoping I make it to argon.”

Diana heard footsteps on the stairs and tensed, preparing herself. Alia might trust Nim, but Diana couldn’t afford to.

The bedroom door banged open and a girl stormed through—though she was less like a girl and more like a human whirlwind. She wore open-toed boots that laced up to her dimpled knees and a smock dress that sparkled. The side of her head was shaved and the rest of her hair fell forward in a slick black sheaf that flopped over one eye. The other eye was black as jet and rimmed with gold, and her visible ear was studded with silver and gems all the way from lobe to top.

“I cannot believe you lasted all of what? A week in Turkey? I thought this was supposed to be the big adventure, Alia. The moment when you cast off your chains and—” The girl’s voice broke off as she caught sight of Diana standing by the window. “Sweet mother of apples.”

“Pardon?”

“Nim—” Alia said, a note of warning in her voice.

The girl strode forward. She was round cheeked, round shouldered, round everything.

“Poornima Chaudhary,” she said. “You can call me Nim. Or whatever you like, honestly. God, how tall are you?”

“Nim!” snapped Alia.

“It’s a totally reasonable question. All in the name of research. Your text said we need clothes.” Nim hooked her hand around one of the bedposts and muttered, “Please tell me this girl is less of a pill than the last one you forced me to hang out with. No offense,” she said to Diana. “But, excluding me, Alia basically has the worst taste in people ever.” Her one visible eye narrowed. “Are those bruises? What the hell happened in Turkey?”

“Nothing,” said Alia, fluffing her pillows and propping herself against them. “Boating accident. They had to cut the trip short.”

Diana was surprised at how easily Alia delivered the lie. But how many tears had Diana hidden from Maeve? Some sorrows had to be borne alone.

Nim crossed her arms, bracelets jangling. “You look like you’ve been crying.”

“The jet lag is just messing with me.”

“You weren’t gone long enough for jet lag.”

“I—”

Nim held up her hands. “I’m not complaining. Summer in this dump of a city sucks without you.” She cast Diana an assessing glance. “And you definitely know how to bring back a souvenir.”

Alia tossed a pillow at her. “Nim, quit flirting. You are here for style-emergency purposes.”

“Your life is a perpetual style emergency. So much money, so little chic. Am I right?” She turned to Diana. “Who are you exactly?”

Diana took in Nim’s bright, inquisitive eyes, her head cocked to the side. She looked like a sparkly, round-cheeked sparrow. “Diana,” she said, and smiled. “But you can call me Diana.”

“Are you going to help us or not?” said Alia.

“Of course I am. I love spending your money. But how did Jason convince you to go to a party?”

“Guilt bomb.”

“Typical. All right, my females,” Nim said, whipping out a measuring tape and flipping open what Diana realized was a computer on Alia’s desk. “Let’s go shopping.”

“We can’t go out,” said Diana, though she hated to dampen Nim’s enthusiasm. “We’re already taking enough risks.”

Nim pulled out a pair of green plastic glasses and plunked them on her small nose. “What’s that, now?”

“Jason’s being strict on security again,” Alia said hurriedly. “We’ve had some threats.”

“Crazy, right?” Nim asked Diana. “Can you imagine living on lockdown?”

“Come on, Nim. It’s not like I have that many places to go.”

Nim waved her hand dismissively. “Someday, Alia, we will have all the places to go and all the clothes to go there in. And don’t worry,” she said to Diana. “The shopping comes to us.”

They gathered around the computer on Alia’s desk—Nim at the keyboard, Alia and Diana huddled behind her—and the next hour was a blur of confusing talk and images flying by on the tiny screen. Nim knew a great deal about textiles and design, and apparently, she’d helped Alia shop this way before. She took Diana’s measurements, all while catching Alia up on how she’d spent the last two weeks, the course she’d just finished at some place called Parsons, and how disgusting the heat in the city had been.

Diana mostly listened and nodded, enjoying their chatter. Nim was a little like Maeve, but her cheer and boldness were somehow more vivid. It reminded Diana of the bright shelves of the drugstore, everything noisy with electric color, even the candy. You dance differently when you know you won’t live forever. Was this what Maeve had meant? There was something reckless in mortal joy that Diana liked. It held nothing back.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Nim said, looking up at Diana suspiciously. She pushed back from the desk in her chair. “You’re not silently seething over something I said, are you?”

Diana startled. “Not at all. Why would you think that?”