Rosa traced a fingernail across Camila's neck, the nail hard as steel. Her pink lips curved upwards.

"You'd think being royalty would give you better instincts, but you're as stupid as a pig following a butcher," Rosa said.

"Who are you?"

"Rosa, obviously. Do you ever listen to me?"

Camila looked at her backpack. If she could just get it open, get a hand inside the front pocket, she'd have a dagger and a sense of power.

Rosa sighed. "Do you really want to fight? Now? I thought we were friends." She pursed her lips, snapped her fingers, and Camila's body froze.

It felt like she was a puppet. Her limbs belonged to someone else, her body, her free will had been taken away with a single snap of Rosa's manicured fingers. She concentrated on her little finger, glaring at it, tensing the muscles and trying to relax, to focus. The finger stayed as still as a rock.

At least she could still breathe. Maybe she could bite Rosa? Spit in her eye? Scream her to death?

"If you don't want to talk, I might as well just kill you already. It'd be a pity, though," Rosa bit her lip, thinking. "I do think we could be besties, if we really worked at it. You're just not putting in enough energy."

"Zora," Camila called out. "Declan." She glared daggers at the seat in front of her. Surely Declan and Zora had overheard the conversation, surely they were planning something-

"Oh, they're paralyzed."

Fantastic.

"I know! It really is. I'm so glad you like me, bestie."

"Can you- Was that-"

"Yes. And yes, I can read your mind. Your thoughts are so dull! All duty and family and blah, blah, blah." Rosa propped her elbow on the armrest, leaning closer. "Your daggers are in the front pocket, right?"

With Zora. Camila chanted in her mind, hoping against hope that Rosa could only see surface level thoughts. With Zora. My daggers are with Zora.

Rosa sighed. "Ugh. You're so determined. It's mildly insulting. Don't you ever get tired of bending over backwards for people who barely give you the time of day?"

"Paralyzing people is mildly insulting."

"Is it?" Rosa bent over Camila's legs, grabbing at her backpack. Her skin was cold, the bones of her shoulders and arms jabbing into Camila's legs. She unzipped the front pocket.

When Rosa sat back in her seat, she held a gleaming silver dagger.

"Dwarven steel? It's quite pretty."

"I'll let you keep it if you let us go."

Rosa examined the dagger's blade, smiling at her reflection. She tilted the knife back and forth, trying to find the perfect angle.

"But then I wouldn't have anyone to talk to." She peered at Camila with dark, golden eyes. "And I'd be lonely."

On the small television screen in front of them, a short video began to play, outlining the exits in case of emergency. The flight attendants walked up and down the aisle, stopping to check that tray tables were upright and carry-ons concealed from view. A man behind them asked for a plastic bag in a mumbled, faintly ill, tone.

"Of course!" The flight attendant chirped. "I'll be with you in a moment."

The engines whirred, the seats vibrating with power. Camila wanted to clutch the armrest, to reassure herself that she was safe, but her hands stayed stubbornly at her sides. Her body shuddered limply without her control.

"So are you planning on just giving Dragomir the Heart? That seems a little anticlimactic, don't you think?" Rosa tossed the knife up into the air. It spiraled once, twice, then plunged straight towards Camila's leg.

Camila inhaled sharply. Her eyes snapped shut.

The blow didn't come. When she peeled her eyes open, she saw Rosa holding the knife a bare centimeter away from her thigh.

"Oopsies!" She giggled.

"Is there a reason you're here?" Camila snapped.

"Ever heard of the term playing with your food?" Rosa winked. "Oh, don't be worried! I'm just kidding. Dragomir sent me. I'm here to help."

"Yeah. Paralyzing is really helpful." Camila tried to move her finger again. Maybe the spell would wear off with time.

The finger stayed stubbornly frozen.

"I know, you're sitting here and listening to me and I didn't even need to tie you up," Rosa said, with complete sincerity. "So, tell me about our team. What's everybody like?"

"Heavily armed, trained, and willing to kill."

Rosa snorted. "I know spells that would make your mind explode. Literally. Like, explode your head."

Camila itched to move. Rosa had frozen her with one leg draped over the other and her left foot was starting to go numb. The plane trundled forward at a snail's pace. Out the corner of her eye, she saw the open sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight, just an endless sheet of blue.

"How about we make a deal?" Camila asked. "You unfreeze my friends and I, we promise not to attack you, and I'll tell you what everybody's like."

"How about I play target practice with Zora's head and your dagger if you don't tell me what I want to know? Because that sounds way more fun."

"Fine," Camila growled. "What do you want to know?"

Rosa's eyes lit up. "Oh gosh, I don't know! Um, let's see." She rested her chin on her hands. "Oh! Declan or Alex?"

"Neither. There is such a thing as single and happy."

Rosa rolled her eyes. "Sure, that's nice. But like, if I was going to kill one of them, but I was going to let you choose which one, who would you let live?"

Camila considered not answering. She considered lying. But how could she lie to someone who heard her every thought? How could she act out when Rosa seemed perfectly willing to drive a knife through Zora's skull?

"Alex," she whispered softly. She couldn't see Declan—the seats were pressed tightly together—but she knew he was in the row in front of her. With his werewolf hearing, there was no doubt he'd heard her.

But she trusted Alex. She'd known him her whole life. And if Rosa's threat was serious, Camila would make sure that Alex lived.

"Really?" Rosa groaned. "That's boring." Idly, she tapped her lacquered fingernails against the armrest.

The plane lurched forward. The sound of the engines increased to a deafening roar. Camila's ears popped. If she squinted, she could see the massive patch of green spreading out below her. The rainforest.

She wondered where her parents were. Still at the Castle? Up north in a vampire stronghold? Maybe they were dead and Dragomir was manipulating her.

"How did you and Dragomir meet?" Camila asked. Maybe she could learn something from Rosa, a weakness, anything. She pictured her bedroom in the castle—the blue and pink walls, snow globes and old stuffed animals scattered across the shelves, the old oak bed—projecting it into the forefront of her mind.

Maybe it would hold off Rosa's mind reading.

"Don't you remember?" Rosa rolled her eyes. "He was my boyfriend! He cheated on me. We hate him."

"Ah."

"Yeah, tell me about it! It was with my best friend too. Classic move, right?" Rosa waited for a sign of acknowledgement. If Camila was able to control her body, she would have nodded politely. She tried to widen her eyes enthusiastically. "Yeah, it was in the Victorian Era, so it was really bad, because she was a virgin. And unmarried!"

"How awful."

"I know! Anywho, I was coming home from this dance, my corset practically crushing my ribs, and they're standing on the fucking front porch so the whole neighborhood can see them and he's sticking his tongue down her throat! Worst moment of my life. That's why I'm working with him. So I can kill him."

"You want to kill him?" Camila blinked. She'd assumed Rosa and Dragomir were on the same side, but apparently not.

"Well, rip him to bits, starve him, feed him to various animals, and then spread the pieces over the world. And then, I'll get some hapless mortal to stab the Heart of Catalina and he'll die."

Careful to keep any judgement from her tone, Camila asked, "And this whole thing, the Victorian Era, was a little over a century ago, right?"

"It's more like a hundred and fifty years, yeah. I'm fantastic at holding grudges, aren't I?"

"Um. Yes."

"Thank you!" Rosa reached into her bag. "Chocolate? I'll feed it to you."

Camila pictured Rosa forcing her lips open and jabbing a hard square of chocolate down her throat. "I think I'm good," she said.

"Well, you're missing out. So what do you say? Want to work together? We can bond over Dragomir's dead body."

Camila focused on the image in her head, bringing to life the flowery wall decals, the scattered sheets of paper spread across her desk, the way her toes sunk into the fuzzy carpeted floor. Maybe—just maybe—if she focused hard enough, Rosa wouldn't notice a lie.

"Sure." She did her best to smile with her eyes. "Let's work together."

Thanks for reading! *offers chocolates*

-Harley