“Right,” she said. “The fitting.”

Allison beamed. “Come with me, and I’ll get you set up.”

Six followed Allison down the hallway.

“What other Cirque des Étoiles shows have you been in?” Allison asked.

“None,” Six answered.

Allison looked shocked. “Wow. You must be really good. They usually only let people understudy the principal roles if they’ve done at least a couple of the touring shows. What’s your primary skill set? No. Wait. Let me guess. If you’re understudying for Camilla, it’s probably aerial.”

Six didn’t know what that meant, but she nodded.

“Yes,” Allison said. “I’m getting really good at guessing just by looking at people. I mean, some of them are obvious. Like, if you’re under five feet tall, chances are you’re a tumbler. And the clowns are always easy to spot, usually because they look sad. You’re graceful and obviously really fit, so aerial makes sense.”

They came to a door, which Allison opened. “Welcome to Wonderland,” she said as they walked into a room bursting with color.

Everywhere Six looked there were costumes. And not ordinary costumes. These were covered in feathers and sequins, jewels and ribbons. Several people were trying on various things, while a team of people with scissors and tape measures swirled around them, pinning things and making alterations. Things were getting stranger and stranger, and making less and less sense.

Allison led Six over to where a group of three people were examining the bluish-purple scales on a bodysuit worn by a muscular man.

“He still looks too much like a dragon,” one of the men said with a sigh. “We need less dragon and more terrifying space lizard. Or whatever. Just make it work.”

“Devin,” Allison said. “This is . . .” She looked at Six.

“Jess,” Six said, pulling a name out of thin air.

“Jess is understudying Camilla,” Allison said.

Devin turned, gave Six a sweeping glance from head to toe and back again and said, “Did you fall in a mud puddle?”

Six looked down at herself. She’d been through a lot over the past couple of days, and did look pretty awful. But that was the last thing on her mind at the moment.

“I, uh, kind of got caught in the rain,” she fumbled.

Devin arched an eyebrow. “In Vegas?” he said. “It hasn’t rained here in like three months. You look like you not only fell into the fountain at the Bellagio, but then rolled in the street afterwards.”

“It’s been a long couple of days,” Six snapped.

“I’ll just leave you two to get to know each other,” Allison said briskly. “Good luck,” she whispered as she passed by Six.

Devin walked around Six, making vague noises. When he came back to stand in front of her, he said, “You look more like her than Camilla does. She’s not going to like that. And you have a better body. She really isn’t going to like that.”

“More like who?” said Six.

“Number Six,” Devin said. “You know, the role you’re understudying for? I know we don’t call her that, but everyone knows that’s who she’s supposed to be.”