"I forgot the wedding cake," I said as Cyra Winter helped me into my dress. "I forgot that I'd need one. And I'm not going to be able to get one before next Saturday!"
Cyra finished doing up the fastenings along my back and came to stand in front of me again. She tucked her pink hair behind one ear. "You forgot that people have cakes at weddings?"
"Yes!" Realising that I was almost shrieking with panic, I lowered my voice again. "Do you think I can get away with not having one?"
"No. Come and stand out here so that I can have a proper look at you."
She opened the velvet curtain of the changing cubicle, and I followed her across the shop floor. Hologram dress samples were hanging around the room, allowing customers to examine the stock without fingering the real items. Cyra's robot was hidden away somewhere, adjusting another bride's dress before they came to pick it up in the morning.
I stood in the middle of the room, and Cyra crouched down in front of me to rearrange the skirt. "At least Alex remembered, sweetheart. I'm sure someone will be able to bake you a little one at short notice. Raise your arms." She checked that the bodice still fitted correctly. "How is Alex, anyway? Still excited for the wedding?"
"I think so."
She looked up. "Think so?"
"He doesn't always seem very interested in the details. Like my flowers. Or what napkins we're going to have at the reception."
"Last time you came in, you didn't care about what napkins you were going to have."
My face warmed. "Well...that's true."
The thing was, there were much bigger problems than napkins. Like the fact that Alex didn't seem particularly interested in the music or the menu. It had taken us forever to get around to buying our wedding rings, and trying to put a guest list together had been a nightmare. I hadn't even dared approach him about the timeline of the wedding day.
Was this normal for a groom?
"You're still frowning," Cyra said gently.
I gathered my fears up into one. "This is a forced marriage. We agreed to do the Trials after we'd spent just over a month in each other's company. Now we have to join for life -- but what if Alex doesn't want to? What if he's actually changed his mind?"
"He would be foolish not to want to marry you, sweetheart. Look at yourself again." Cyra took me by the shoulders and steered me back into the dressing room, where a full-length mirror was propped up against the wall.
My dress was traditionally white, hanging straight down to my feet with no train and no structure in the skirt. Long, lacy sleeves hugged my arms, and lace was overlaid on the bodice. That was it. Yet, somehow, with the material subtly outlining my modest curves and my dark hair curling damply around my shoulders, it looked divine.
"Last time," Cyra said, "you told me that he'd been asking you to reveal something about the dress. If that doesn't suggest he's looking forward to seeing you in it -- and marrying you -- what does?"
I turned, watching the skirt swish about my feet and reveal a glimpse of my white pump heels. "Yes. You're --"
"Before you know it, you'll have walked down that aisle and it'll all be over, and then you'll be starting a family! Once the little ones come along, they change everything."
I stilled. There was my problem. Children.
After the marriage, having children was the expected thing. Another activity to tick off life's to-do list. But I'd never felt a yearning to have them, and surely you needed something like that to hold onto once they'd arrived. When they kept you awake at night, took you away from your work, and gave you a million grey hairs -- well, how were you supposed to cope with that if you'd never wanted them in the first place?
I had my work, and I had Alex. I was happy with that.
Perhaps an integral part of me was missing. Whatever it was, it didn't run in the family: my mother and father had enjoyed parenting, and my older sister was desperate for children of her own.
The insistent buzzing of my tabphone stopped Cyra mid-children-speech. I turned to the pegs, where I'd hung up my leather jacket, and pulled it out of my pocket. Cassia was calling.
I rejected her request for a video call and selected the option for us to communicate via audio link only. No one but Nina had been allowed to see my wedding dress. It wasn't just Alex who I wanted to surprise.
"Hi, Ambie," Cassia said. "Is now a good time to talk about the post-mortems?"
"Sure." I'd be too busy watching Diaries of a Fiancée when I got home.
"I still can't tell for certain who was killed first. What I do know is that Iberia Mills had coffee and breakfast before she was murdered, which tallies with the recorded time you found on her coffee machine. Also, while I initially thought the killing blow would have been one of the wounds on her head, I now believe that it was one of the blows to her chest. Some of the strikes went much deeper than I thought. Technically, you're dealing with two deaths by stabbing."
"Stabbing?" I repeated. "Well, well. The murderer finally has an M.O. after all."
Cyra raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
"Ruby Beaumont also had a surprise," Cassia continued, "because she'd been stabbed in the back as well as the chest -- I didn't get to see for myself while we were at the scene. The depth and width of the wound suggests that it was done with the same knife."
"That engraved cake knife. Ethan and Iberia..." I noticed Cyra starting to scowl. "Okay, thanks, Cassia. I have to go -- I need to take my wedding dress home. I'll see you tomorrow at my hen party?"
"Of course. You're going to love it!"
The call cut off, leaving me with a knot of dread in my stomach. I wasn't too sure about that.
"Cassia is your sister?" Cyra checked. "The one who's organised your hen party?"
"Nina is actually in charge of the hen party," I said. "But I think all three of my bridesmaids planned it, really."
"Oh, isn't that lovely?"
More like absolutely terrifying.
***
I returned to my flat not long afterwards with the dress -- although it was not actually my flat anymore, but our flat, because Alex had moved in with me. Located in a brownstone block on a quiet road just a few minutes from the police station, it stood as a tall shadow in the dark. I scurried inside and rode the lift up to my floor.
Faint voices drifted down the hallway when I opened the front door. I poked my head into the living room and saw Alex on the sofa with a mug of coffee, watching Diaries of a Fiancée on his tabphone.
"I'm back," I said.
He looked up with a smile. "Hello. How did that go?"
"Great." I crossed the threshold so that he could see the dress I was holding, hidden away in a white zip-up bag. "I have it. But no peeking."
"Hmm." His lips quirked a little more, his smile turning mischievous. "I'll try my hardest."
"If you look, I'll set Mitzy on you."
"Your threat is empty. Mitzy loves me."
That was true. Alex had once been wary of my cat, but he showed no sign of it now. The two had really taken to each other. In fact, Mitzy probably loved him more than me.
"Have you fed her?" I asked.
"Yes. I think she's asleep in our room. Your bag's in there, too."
Our room. I grinned. "Thanks. I'm just going to have a shower and then I'll join you."
I took the wedding dress through to our room and hung it up in our new wardrobe, trusting Alex not to look. Then I showered, dressed again in an oversized jumper and leggings, and swapped my contact lenses for glasses. Snuggly and clean, I padded back through to the living room with a yawn.
Alex was still watching Diaries of a Fiancée, and I curled up next to him. He repositioned his floating tabphone so that I could see the screen. Iberia Mills, Danielle Sharpe, Ruby Beaumont, and Jade Beaumont were squished onto it, giggling as they examined the bridal magazines I'd found on Iberia's kitchen table.
"What's happened so far?" I asked.
Alex groaned. "Nothing. They just read magazines and gossip. I don't think this is going to get us anywhere."
"But we should watch them anyway. There's still a lot about this case that doesn't make sense."
The women chatted about dresses, shoes, bouquets, confetti, veils, and rings. Hearing so much talk of weddings after a long day made my eyelids heavy. Perhaps I should have been feeling excited, but organising so much only stirred up stress. Although there was something niggling at the back of my mind; something else I needed to remember to do...
The voices in the background cut off.
"Amber?"
I startled and opened my eyes. Shit. I'd almost fallen asleep.
Alex frowned. "Sorry, you can nap if you want. I just wasn't sure if you were okay."
He put his tabphone down and slid his arm around my back, tucking me more firmly against him. A shiver passed over my skin, and I felt torn between snuggling closer and pulling away. "No -- I didn't mean to. We need to get through those videos. And I'm sure there's something I'm supposed to be doing..." Even as I spoke, my eyelids fluttered.
"You need a life that isn't just work and the wedding. You're running yourself into the ground."
I realised that my eyes had actually closed while he'd been talking, and I pried them open again. He was very warm and comfortable, which really wasn't helping. "I'll have a break after we've solved this damn case." I yawned, then unstuck my eyelids again. Groaning, I struggled away from him, trying to rub my face and poking my glasses instead. "Ugh, I'm not falling asleep!"
Alex's lips twitched. "I don't think you have much choice in the matter."
"No. I'm having coffee." I got to my feet and staggered across the living room. "Then I'm watching those stupid videos."
"Forget the videos. If you don't want to sleep, we should go out. When was the last time we did anything together that wasn't about the wedding?"
I couldn't remember. For the rest of the day, at least, I'd quite like to relegate our wedding to the pile of things I'd forgotten. That meant forgetting my to-do list -- and, I supposed, forgetting those videos. "Okay, let's go out. Where?"
"How about trying that new virtual reality experience on the high street? EarthC?"
"Virtual reality? You want to do something technological with me?" I folded my arms. "That's not going to end well."
I went back into our room to swap my leggings for a clean pair of jeans. Alex followed me, shrugging his coat on and leaning against the doorway. When I'd finished getting changed and I turned back to him, he was smiling smugly.
"What?" I asked.
"How many times have you opened that since you came home?"
"Opened what?" I looked over my shoulder. "The wardrobe?"
"And you haven't noticed."
"Haven't noticed...?" I didn't know whether to be frustrated or amused as I pulled the doors open again. "Are you messing with me? The only new thing in here is my wedding dress!"
"The only thing that stands out is your wedding dress. Look closely at all those black clothes of yours."
"You wear a lot of black, too." I peered into the shadows at the black jackets, black jumpers, and black jeans. One shape was unfamiliar -- like one of Alex's jackets, but much thicker. I shoved everything along the rail so that I could look at it properly. "A coat?"
I tugged it out by the hanger. It was a duffel coat, short and hooded. I ran my fingers down the sleeves tentatively, but I couldn't see or feel any buttons. There were no electrodes tucked into the collar, either.
Alex crossed the room and turned me around by the shoulders. "It's normal. It doesn't have a single wire. You have to pull your hood up yourself."
"What hardship," I teased, running my fingers along the coat again. Thick, felted, soft. "This is perfect. Thank you."
"I don't want you getting soaked to the bone in the middle of winter again."
I pulled the coat on. Once I'd fastened the toggles, I rose on my tiptoes and kissed him. "Thank --"
He curved his hand around the small of my back, holding me in place. His touch sent a jolt of electricity through my system, and I tilted my head so that he wouldn't bump against my glasses, giving him better access to slide his tongue between my lips.
When we pulled apart at last, I grinned. "Well, that woke me up."
***
The main lobby of EarthC was a blank canvas. A glass desk manned by a robot stood near the back, and three neat hologram posters advertising different virtual experiences were aligned in perfect symmetry behind it. The room smelled of fresh paint and sawdust, but the atmosphere was hushed.
We approached the desk, and the bright blue eyes of the robot fixed on us. "Welcome to EarthC, home of Britain's first virtual reality leisure experiences based on the surface. Tonight we are offering dinner at a restaurant in the Alps, a real mountain range stretching across Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Switzerland, and Slovenia. The environment has been constructed to resemble the range in France during the 2010 decade. There are still a few tables left. Are you interested in attending this experience?"
Cities were all we had now -- dark streets and bright lights; pulsing clubs, neon pubs, and tumbledown joints in the shadows. To be able to just see the sky sounded too good to be true. Now we were also being promised an actual mountain...
"Fuck, yes," I said.
The robot's gaze swivelled to me. "I'm sorry. I do not understand."
Alex laughed. I glared at him, and he turned it into a cough. "She means that we are interested."
"Excellent," the robot said. "Please follow me. You will not be required to pay until the experience is complete."
We were led away from the desk, through the back of the room and into a vast, white hall. The robot pressed its hand against the nearest door. The glass glowed blue, then clicked open.
Inside was a box room with two bulky chairs, thick cables trailing away from them. More crept over the leather so that they were hanging against the headrests, thinning as they neared their ends. Electrodes were attached to the tips.
"Please sit down," the robot said.
I lowered myself into a chair, my palms sweating. The set-up looked a little creepy, and I had a bad habit of making electronics malfunction.
"When you are ready, please attach the electrodes to your temples," the robot said. "The restaurant closes in three hours. Should you wish to be removed before then, the command to exit is 'End simulation'. You will be monitored on cameras within this room in the unlikely event of a real-time medical emergency." The robot bowed stiffly. "Please enjoy."
Alex was already attaching his electrodes. When he'd finished, he took my hand and leaned back, closing his eyes. "I'm looking forward to this. See you in there."
I looked down at our linked fingers, hoping that we wouldn't be permanently joined together in the simulation.
Once I'd put my electrodes on, I tried to relax like my sergeant. But my vision fuzzed and faded as if I was passing out, and I was struck with the sudden and terrible feeling that this had been a very bad idea.
"Start simulation," the robot said.
***
Sound came back to me first, fading in like a film. Wind whistling over the land and the hoot of an owl. A machine with a throaty song crunching over gravel and the muffled thrum of music and voices.
Darkness crept over the scene before me, wrapping the world in a soft blanket. Only a few streetlamps shared its space, picking our environment out in soft, orange light.
Everything was covered in snow. It had been flattened down by boots and tyres right beneath my feet, but where it ringed the gravel, it stood thick and fresh, and it coated the roof of the chalet before us like icing. Decking ran across the front, bearing empty tables and chairs. It was the smallest building I'd ever seen -- a sugar cube in comparison to the skyscrapers of Socrico.
It made me uneasy, and I tipped my head back, looking for something familiar. But there were no metal pathways towering above me or swirling train tracks. There was just a sky: infinite, inky black, and filled with a huge circle and white pinpricks. The moon and stars.
Awe washed over me. We were really on the surface.
I gave up on familiarity and drank in the sky, trying desperately to commit every star to memory. But there were too many of them, scattered carelessly across the dark blanket. I took a deep breath and tasted it, letting pure air wash over my tongue.
Alex entered my peripheral vision. I turned my head and watched him look up at the celestial lights, his eyes bright in their glow. A boyish excitement nestled there. For a moment, I wondered which was enchanting him more: the aesthetics of the world we were standing in, or how the designers at EarthC had made it.
Then he told me, his voice soft as he steered my shoulders around so that I was looking behind us. "This is beautiful."
And I saw the view.
The lower slopes of the mountain weren't distinguished in the dark, but the silvery light of the moon was enough to reveal the change in the density of the shadows. The ground rose and fell, tumbling into a black abyss. In occasional places, huddles of lanterns as slight as needles highlighted settlements. They looked so small that I could have scooped them up, and their quaint beauty gave me peace, smoothing the edges of my awe so that it felt comfortable against my skin.
I slipped my cold hand into Alex's. "This is magical. It feels so real."
"Let's make the most of it. Come on."
We walked across the slushy gravel towards the restaurant. The car park was filled with a handful of red, blue, and silver road vehicles, shining under the old-fashioned lamps like beetle shells. We put them behind us, ascended the frosted steps to the decking, and entered the chalet.
Warmth hit me in the chest, and my eyes were drawn to the crackling flames in the huge fireplace at the back of the room. Deep fur rugs were strewn across the wooden floorboards, and throws hung over the backs of the chairs. No detail had been rushed or forgotten: the flames crackled, and the air smelled faintly of wine and game. The guests who were already there talked quietly, and virtual waiters and waitresses served them.
Floor-to-ceiling windows lined the far side of the room, giving us another glimpse of the view down the mountain. One table tucked beside them was free, so we went to it and sat down without waiting to be shown. I shrugged my coat off. "I'm glad I had this out there. Thank you."
Alex smiled softly. "You're welcome."
A virtual waiter came to serve us. Alex ordered steak and champagne, and I copied him. His eyebrows rose as the waiter moved off. Normally, I avoided alcohol.
"It's not real," I explained. "So it doesn't matter."
"You might be seeing plenty of it again tomorrow. Is Nina still coming for the hen party?"
"Yes, I'm dreading it."
"Why?"
"Alcohol, excitement, and Nina? She'll make me do something humiliating. Or she'll do something humiliating, like hire strippers."
Alex's smile wavered. "I hope you're not going to have any strippers." He was only half teasing now.
"So do I!" I nudged him under the table with my foot. "Are you sure you didn't have any at your stag do last weekend?"
"Very sure. I have to say, I was surprised with Sebastian."
So was I. Then again, I had made a few threats...
"How was your appointment with Cyra, anyway?" Alex took my hand across the table. "As you've brought the dress home, I assume you like the alterations?"
Some of the tension in my shoulders loosened. What had I been worrying about earlier? Cyra was right. Alex was interested.
"It's perfect," I said.
"Are you going to tell me anything about it?"
"We've had this conversation before."
"Please?" He looked at me hopefully. "Just one thing?"
"Well..."
Two plates were put down in the space between us by a virtual human waitress. She unloaded our drinks with a smile, then vanished without a word.
Grateful for the save, I sat back and picked up my glass of champagne. It smelled faintly of freshly-baked bread. "That was quick."
"Well, it's not real." Alex raised his glass and clinked it against mine. "But real or virtual...here's to a very special date."
The steak and champagne tasted real -- and delicious. Once we'd eaten, Alex wanted us to go outside again to soak in the scene before we were removed from the simulation. We fastened our coats up tightly and took our glasses onto the decking.
We were the only people braving the cold, and although the chatter of the other diners had never been intrusive, it was nice when the restaurant doors shut behind us. I stood at the railings, and Alex positioned himself behind me with his arms on either side.
We said nothing for a long time, just listening to the hoot of an owl and breathing in pine needles and fresh air. My fingers quickly froze, and my cheeks were chilled. But as I tipped my head back and looked at the hundreds of stars, I decided that I wanted to stay there forever.
Eventually, Alex lowered his head so that his lips brushed against my ear. "I love you."
There was nothing else that the mountain wanted you to say more. I turned around in his arms and pressed my lips against his. "I love you, too."
I moved one hand up to his cheek and held him against me. He tasted of snow and stars, and I almost lost myself within him. Almost forgot my concerns about the wedding.
Almost.