I readjust my sweatshirt, placing my phone in my pocket and checking my boot dagger. Ines glances nervously at the door and it occurs to me that it’s not only the guard we have to worry about, it’s the other Strategia.

Aarya pulls herself up into the ceiling and Ash pops his head down. “Ines, you next, since November is the tallest.”

The idea of being the last one in the bathroom hits me like a jolt of electricity. Ines quickly climbs the garbage can and I look over my shoulder at the door like it might bite me. She reaches out to take the pinecone branch and I reluctantly hand it over.

“Replace the garbage can in its original position,” Ash says, speaking quickly, and the instant Ines’s legs lift off it I pull it back by the wall.

“Now unlock the door and check the hall,” Ash continues, and the urgency in his voice tells me he dislikes me being the last one in the bathroom more than I do. “If all is clear, leave it unlocked and come over to me.” Ash positions himself so that his arms hang down into the room. “With a good jump, I should be able to pull you—” Ash stops talking and gives me a sharp look.

Women’s voices spill into the outside hallway, and there’s the muffled sound of a door closing behind them.

“Leave it locked,” Ash says.

“Don’t you dare leave it locked,” Aarya snaps back.

“Now, November, jump now,” Ash says in a commanding whisper, but I’m already running for the bathroom door.

Aarya’s right. Ash is trying to protect me, but if I leave it locked, the women will instantly know something’s wrong, and the guards will be after us in a minute, completely ruining our head start. I turn the lock and sprint toward Ash, launching myself into the air and grabbing his arms above his elbows.

He pulls me hard, sliding me into the narrow space along a metal beam so fast that I scrape my stomach. I yank my legs up, lightly kicking a ceiling tile, before finding a beam to brace myself on. The door cracks and Aarya slides the missing ceiling tile back into place, dropping it the last half inch so slowly that I hold my breath. And we all fall into complete silence. Ash continues to hold one of my hands as I balance on my stomach on the thin support beam. He pulls out his phone and uses the faint glow from the screen to show me the structure of the dropped ceiling.