Chapter 66

I don’t mean to fall asleep, but I do. I wake up when the plane hits some serious turbulence. I sit up and look around. Bizarrely, Noah’s awake and Edam’s sleeping. He’s reading on some kind of e-reader, tapping his bottom lip with his index finger. I’ve never been able to study him without him reacting.

I like it.

His hair is overdue for a cut, a little shaggy over the ears. He’s heading into a world full of people who could snap him in half and he doesn’t even seem nervous. I trail downward with my eyes, from his intense face and striking jaw, to the base of his neck where his button-down shirt hangs open, showing dark, sun-kissed skin, and a knotted black leather cord. Even lower, his shirt’s untucked from his jeans, designer of course, and his legs are crossed at the ankle.

As if he can feel my gaze on him, he looks up from his book and meets my eye. A half smile and a nod of his head and I shift to the empty chair next to him. “How long was I out?” I ask.

“I’m not sure,” Noah says. “I just woke up myself. Did you sleep okay?”

“Your jet is great. Thank you so much for loaning it to me at the last minute. I’m sorry you’re missing school for this.”

“By this,” Noah says, “you mean so you can fly to Hawaii and fight your sister to either change the course of the world or die trying?”

“I guess that’s what I mean.”

“Why are you doing it?” he asks.

“Doing what?”

“Fighting her.”

“Well, she’s planning to kill everyone in your country that she can, so she can subjugate the rest.”

Noah throws his hands up in the air. “I get that she’s crazy and therefore the enemy. What I mean is, why are you fighting her yourself? There have to be other options. Not that I wanted you to marry that guy.” He jerks his thumb at Edam. “But at least you thought he’d win for you.”

“Sometimes it feels like my entire life has been on a collision course to this moment,” I whisper. “Does that sound crazy? Or unbearably arrogant?”

“A little melodramatic maybe, but that doesn’t mean it’s not also true.” Noah says, “But I still see other options. The world isn’t as black and white as you seem to believe it is.”

I’m supposed to be the sister who sees in gray, but maybe I’m oversimplifying too. “What do you mean?”

“You could run with me. We can warn my family and they can evacuate.”

“Could you live with all those people dying?” I ask.

Noah bites his lip. “It wouldn’t be our fault, but I guess not. Okay, I hate to say this, but why’d you change your mind about marrying the old man? I’d rather have you married to an ancient loser than dead.”

“So now you’re ready to support my idea, now that I’ve cast it off.”

“What changed?”

I tap my fingers on the little divider between our seats. “I don’t know, exactly.”

“He did something,” Noah whispers in Mandarin. His eyes meet mine and for a moment, it’s like he can see straight into my soul, reading all my secrets.

I shiver and reply in Mandarin. I have no idea who can speak it, but I know that every passenger on this jet speaks English. “No, he didn’t. He’s great.”

The corners of Noah’s mouth turn up. “Something made you doubt him. What was it? You don’t have to tell me, but I warn you, I’m a great judge of character, so I’m not surprised.”

I lean my head back against the seat. “I found out that he’s been in contact with his sister.”

Noah stares at me blankly.

“She’s the leader of a rival family.”

“Whoa,” Noah says. “Treason?”

I bob my head reluctantly.

“That is worse than I was expecting, by like a factor of ten.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of a mess.” Lark and Edam are the two people I probably trust most, and both of them are technically guilty of treason. “The thing is, evians are complicated. I’ll just say, I understand why he did what he did. If I’d been in his shoes, I might have done the same thing. Family gets fractured sometimes, because of the nature of who we are and what’s expected. It’s one of the things I want to work to repair if I. . .”

“If you survive.” Noah’s expression is grim.

I bob my head.

“How good is she? Do you have a chance?” Noah balls his hands into fists. “That came out wrong.”

“I appreciate that you ask real questions, never pulling punches.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Noah says. “I’m just struggling here, thinking you’re rolling the dice and hoping you can defeat her.” He exhales heavily. “Killing your twin sister seems so drastic, and maybe you aren’t seeing it because you feel backed into a corner. I’m good at helping people figure out how to tunnel their way out. If I were supposed to kill one of my siblings, I’d be tunneling as fast as I could the other direction.”

“I’ve done that for seventeen years. The harder I tunnel, the faster she pursues. You told me at the track meet that people aren’t all victims or Vikings, and that may be true for humans, but not for evians. . .” I shake my head. “Judica has terrorized me my entire life, and I’m done taking it. It’s time I try to stop her for once, and if I can eliminate the threat she poses to the world then I’ll be doing Alamecha a huge favor. I hope.”

“You don’t think she’s the strongest one anymore?”

“She is strong,” I say. “But Edam can beat her, so she’s not bulletproof.” I cough. “Well, bullets wouldn’t kill her, but you get my point. She isn’t invulnerable.”

“But you don’t trust him anymore, so you’re stuck taking the risk yourself.”

I sigh heavily. “It’s not that I don’t trust him, so much as that I need to do this myself. I’ve tunneled away from her for so long, Noah. At some point I have to stand up and fight back. I guess now is my moment.”

Noah takes my hand in his. “I don’t know her, but I’ve watched you, and you’re strong. Maybe the strongest person I’ve ever met. And you’re introspective. You don’t just press your will on people. You listen, you think, and then you act. That’s the right order, and you’ll figure out the correct move for you and your family when it’s time. I believe that all the way down to my deficient, unworthy human bones.”

His fingers against mine feel too good. I want to sink into him and let the rest of the world disappear, which means it’s time to let go of his hand. “And right now, I should eat. I’m starving. Even high end sports cars need fuel.”

“Message received.” Noah walks to the front of the jet and clears his throat. “Excuse me.”

A tall woman with black hair and dark eyes appears in the doorway. “Yes sir?”

“I was wondering what time it is?” he asks.

“New York time, or Hawaii?” she asks.

“New York.”

“It’s nine a.m. in New York,” she says.

Oh, no. I slept for almost eight hours and we land in less than an hour.

“Would you like breakfast?” she asks Noah.

“Please.”

I think about Edam and Lark, both of whom will be as hungry as me. “Can you make enough for eight people and bring it for me and Noah and those two?” I point at Lark and Edam, who are both lifting their heads, probably due to the sound of my voice. “And I’m guessing the others on the plane will be wanting food, too. Maybe just bring out everything you have in the back. We will replenish your stores once we land.”

Her eyes widen, but to her credit, she nods and ducks back into her area. I walk back to my seat and sit down, rolling my head one way, and then the other. We may not need to stretch, but it feels good sometimes.

Edam wakes up next to me, the muscles of his arms rippling as he shifts and then straightens. “Are you nervous?”

“Petrified,” I say. “And regretting every second of the time I had that I didn’t spend training. I’m an idiot.”

Edam puts a hand on my arm. “A lot of your preparation took place here,” Edam says softly, tapping my forehead with his index finger in an eerie echo of Alora.

“Thanks,” I say.

“Thanks for what?” Noah yawns.

“Not you, idiot,” I say. “I was thanking Edam.”

“Well, you ought to thank me for letting you guys just snore away. A lesser guy probably would have poked you.”

“I don’t snore,” I say.

“How do you know?” Noah smiles and raises both eyebrows. “By definition you can’t be sure.”

“She doesn’t snore,” Edam says. “No evian does.”

“Wait, since you snore, dear Coach Renfro, does that mean you’re partially human like me?” Noah smirks. “Or maybe extreme age brings that out in everyone, evian or not?”

“Stop it,” I say.

They both sober immediately.

“I must be in bad shape,” I say, “for you to back down so fast.”

“I couldn’t believe I sunk to his level,” Edam says.

Noah’s flight attendant shows up with an enormous tray of pastries, and another tray stacked up with bagels and cream cheese. Several other women pass out similar piles of food to the guards. Noah must be even hungrier than me, because he’s the first one to take a bite.

I slather a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and bite down. “Hey,” I say to Edam. “You aren’t tasting this stuff first.”

“It’s Noah’s people preparing it,” he says. “And he’s eating it with us, and he’s human, which makes him the perfect tester.”

“That’s true.” I take a bite, pause for a moment, and then grab my throat and pretend to choke.

“Oh please,” Edam says. “You’d have to do better than that to fool me.”

A thud behind us draws our attention. Noah’s convulsing on the ground. His face is red, and he isn’t breathing. Drool covers the bottom part of his face.

“Oh no!” I drop to the floor and open his mouth wider to check his airway, ignoring the fact that he’s biting down on my fingers. It’s clear, but he’s still convulsing. “Could it be poison?”

“It would affect him first.” Edam kneels down, trying to hold Noah’s flailing body still. If Edam’s worried, this is a real problem.

“Go call for help and ask them for a syringe,” I say. “An evian blood transfusion might help.”

Lark hops to her feet and rushes toward the front of the plane.

I lean over Noah again and check his eyes, but then the shaking stops as suddenly as it began and his eyes open. He reaches up, grabs my head, and tries to pull me down for a kiss. I slap him away.

“How was that? Convincing enough for you, oh great evian overlord?” He looks pointedly at Edam.

The laugh starts in my belly and fills my entire frame. “Oh man,” I say around peals of laughter. “He really got you, and right after you said I’d have to do better. A human!”

Edam rolls his eyes, but even he looks moderately amused. “I ought to strangle you, just so I have a baseline for how it looks.”

Noah smiles. “Princess needed to think about something other than her upcoming fight.”

Edam quirks one eyebrow. “Princess?”

“My nickname for her turned out to be accurate. I find that ironic.”

Edam coughs. “Let me get this straight. Your plan was to convince someone whose mother died from poison a few days ago that you’d been poisoned? As a joke?”

I sit back on my heels. I hadn’t thought of it that way, maybe because I found Mom after it was already too late. I wish I’d been there with her when she collapsed so I could have tried to do something. Or I could have heard her last words at least.

“I’m an idiot,” Noah says. “I’m so sorry.”

I shrug. I’m surprisingly not upset about his prank. He didn’t know, and I gave him the idea, what with mocking Edam about how he always worries about testing my food. “It’s okay. You didn’t mean any harm.”

I do want to be up and moving, though. “Edam, you down for a little warmup before we land?”

“Sure,” he says, “as long as we stick to hand-to-hand. Probably shouldn’t destroy Noah’s jet, at least not while we’re flying in it.”

Noah shrugs. “Like my yacht, it’s the worst one my family owns. Don’t stress.”

Don’t stress. I think about Noah’s admonition, and realize it’s an impossible suggestion. Judica’s planning to kill me and cement her rule by taking over China. It will shift the entire balance of power in the families, and if they’re scared enough, they might go down like dominoes. She might succeed in taking over the other families, but does it count as uniting them if she does it through brute force? It’s not like any of the deep-seated disagreements, jealousies, or bad blood will be settled.

Edam interrupts my reflection by launching a series of strikes. I counter each one almost without thinking. Which leaves me plenty of bandwidth to contemplate Judica’s plans.

The only way to truly unite people is to bring them together, not to shove them down into a hole. The only way I can prevent Judica from subjugating the entire world is to defeat her myself. Surely that will spook the other families enough that they’ll back off while I get Alamecha whipped into supporting me.

But how can I do that?