Katharine McGee - The Thousandth Floor

First published in the USA by HarperCollins Publishers Inc., in 2016

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by HarperCollins Children’s Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers ltd, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF.

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright © Alloy Entertainment and Katharine McGee 2016

Cover photographs © Ilina Simeonova/Trevillion Images (woman figure); Westend61/Getty (window); Hongqi Zhang/Alamy (cityscape); Shutterstock.com(woman head).

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2016

Katharine McGee asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008179977

Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780008179960

Version: 2016-08-04

For Lizzy

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication For Lizzy

Prologue

Avery

Leda

Rylin

Eris

Watt

Avery

Leda

Avery

Eris

Rylin

Watt

Leda

Avery

Eris

Rylin

Avery

Watt

Eris

Leda

Rylin

Eris

Avery

Eris

Watt

Rylin

Watt

Leda

Eris

Leda

Avery

Rylin

Leda

Avery

Eris

Rylin

Leda

Avery

Watt

Rylin

Eris

Leda

Watt

Rylin

Avery

Leda

Eris

Avery

Watt

Leda

Avery

Watt

Rylin

Eris

Leda

Avery

Leda

Watt

Rylin

Eris

Watt

Rylin

Leda

Eris

Avery

Leda

Rylin

Eris

Rylin

Leda

Watt

Avery

Mariel

Acknowledgments

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About the Publisher

November 2118

THE SOUNDS OF laughter and music were dying down on the thousandth floor, the party breaking up by bits and pieces as even the rowdiest guests finally stumbled into the elevators and down to their homes. The floor-to-ceiling windows were squares of velvety darkness, though in the distance the sun was quietly rising, the skyline turning ocher and pale pink and a soft, shimmering gold.

And then a scream cut abruptly through the silence as a girl fell toward the ground, her body falling ever faster through the cool predawn air.

In just three minutes, the girl would collide with the unforgiving cement of East Avenue. But now—her hair whipped up like a banner, the silk dress snapping around the curves of her body, her bright red mouth frozen in a perfect O of shock—now, in this instant, she was more beautiful than she had ever been.

They say that before death, people’s lives flash before their eyes. But as the ground rushed ever faster toward her, the girl could think only of the past few hours, the path she’d taken that ended here. If only she hadn’t talked to him. If only she hadn’t been so foolish. If only she hadn’t gone up there in the first place.

When the dock monitor found what remained of her body and shakily pinged in a report of the incident, all he knew was that the girl was the first person to fall from the Tower in its twenty-five years. He didn’t know who she was, or how she’d gotten outside.

He didn’t know whether she’d fallen, or been pushed, or whether—crushed by the weight of unspoken secrets—she’d decided to jump.