Kai fidgets with the pink wig we grabbed at a costume shop on our way to the airport. The flight attendant scans her boarding pass and takes another glance at Fleur’s ID. I hold my breath through what feels like an eternity, waiting to see if she’ll notice that Kai’s olive skin tone doesn’t match the fair freckled face in the tiny picture, or that the shape of Kai’s eyes is slightly more angular than Fleur’s. She hands Kai the passport and returns her boarding pass, and I hurry to catch up to Kai as she takes fast strides down the jet bridge onto the plane.

“Could you have been any more obvious?” I hiss in her ear as we maneuver down the aisle.

“I can’t help it. It itches. How does anyone deal with having so much hair?”

I push her toward our row. The sooner we’re in the air, the better.

She wedges herself into the window seat and I leave an empty seat between us. Arms crossed, I stare at the headrest in front of me. The flight’s already delayed thirty minutes, and I’m crawling out of my skin to get to Fleur.

“I don’t have cooties,” she says bitterly.

“Forgive me if I don’t relish the idea of spending the next twelve hours sharing pretzels with the girl who attempted to murder me.”

“I wasn’t trying to murder you. I was—”

I turn, following the direction of her gaze. A man’s standing in the aisle beside me, listening to our conversation.

“I think I’m in C,” he says weakly.

Kai turns to the window as I slide into the empty middle seat. We sit in terse silence through takeoff, my leg bobbing impatiently as the plane ascends.

“So what’s the plan?” Kai’s tucked up in the corner, her legs drawn tightly to her chest as she flips mindlessly through a magazine. The man in the aisle seat snores softly, his head tipped away from me. No one else seems to be listening.

“I get us into the Observatory,” I say in a low voice. “I find Fleur and Chill, and then I get them out.”

“Wow,” she says dryly, snapping a page, “sounds like you’ve got this whole thing figured out. I’ve gotta admit, I’m not sure I can handle the pressure. I mean, you may have overestimated my ability to contribute anything to the rescue mission.”

“I don’t need a spotter. I never asked for your help, or your protection. You came to me, remember?”