‘I agree, we do need to bring down Setrákus Ra. But first we need to find the others. The chances of beating him are far better if you are all together.’ Crayton had argued. I could hear the worry in Crayton’s words.

Eight stood firm, clearly believing we’re enough to take him. ‘My dreams have guided me to you all. And they tell me we can do this; we can’t run away, even if it is to find the others.’

Now Eight stands and stretches, revealing a bit of his stomach as his shirt lifts. He leans down and picks up a walking stick and twirls it in his hands. I can’t take my eyes off of him. It’s such a new and unusual feeling for me and makes me feel shy and excited at the same time. ‘So where do you want to go?’ he asks, looking around at all of us.

‘East coast, United States,’ Six says. She kicks the bottom of his walking stick as it swings by and it flips up and into her hand. These two are quite the comedy duo. Six throws the stick back to him and he makes a big show of diving and missing it on purpose. Their play looks a lot like flirting. I have to admit, it makes me jealous. Even if I  wanted to, I could never be this way with Eight, with anyone. This is just how Six is, easy. No wonder they’re having so much fun.

‘Okay, if that’s where you want to go, we have a couple options. A plane? Do we have enough money to buy tickets for all of us?’

Crayton pats his shirt pocket, nodding. ‘That shouldn’t be a problem.’

‘Great. We head back to New Delhi, buy some tickets, and we can be in the United States in a day or so . Or, we could be in the state of New Mexico in just a few short hours.’

‘We can’t all teleport,’ Six points out, drawing in the dirt with her toe.

‘Maybe we can,’ Eight says, a sly smile on his face. Six has drawn a circle and Eight reaches his foot over to add two eyes, a nose and a big smiley face. They grin at each other. ‘We just need to take a short walk, then it’s a simple matter of a giant leap of faith.’ He is clearly enjoying keeping us in the dark; I see the others nodding at him, so caught up in his confidence they forget to ask for any details. I don’t want to be the one to point out we have no idea what he has in mind.

‘Sounds a lot faster than a plane,’ Ella says. ‘And a whole lot cooler.’