Rosa waited until the plane touched down in São Paulo to unfreeze them.

After four hours of sitting in the same position, Camila was pretty sure her butt was frozen to the seat. Her foot was numb, to the point where she couldn't feel her toes, and, as the flight had been full of turbulence, her limp body had slipped forward so her hips were on the edge of her seat. She'd forgotten how many times she'd wanted to itch her nose, adjust her hair, pop her ears, only to remember that her body was stiff and unmoving, a puppet controlled by someone else's whim.

Hate was a strong word, but Camila had started to daydream about punching Rosa's perky little nose into her skull.

She'd moved on to picturing the ballroom the night the vampires attacked. It was frozen in her memory, a perfect picture. Dancers spinning across the floor, lit candles tinting the room a warm shade of gold, the obsidian floor, the blue and violet skylights. She wondered if her theory was working, hiding her thoughts the way she desperately hoped it was. Maybe Rosa was just playing with her, letting her think her own thoughts were private.

I'm going to sleep with Dragomir.

Camila watched Rosa's face for a reaction. Nothing. She was babbling on about a time in the fifteenth century when she'd brutally murdered a pair of sheep. Apparently, it was a fond memory of hers.

Rosa sucks.

"And then, I reached in, digging around, really getting my hands in there. I found the small intestine and you would not believe how slimy it was! Just warm, wet, and filled with partially digested grass. Anyways, I found the small intestine and ripped it out. The spleen and kidneys too. Now, with that in hand..."

The key to murdering Rosa is in my front pocket.

Rosa didn't even glance down.

Maybe it was working. Camila mentally sighed, trying to picture the precise shape of the skylights. Was it a painting of the Moon Goddess? An ancient legend of her Aztec ancestors? She felt exhausted, searching every corner of her memory and clinging to what little power she had.

The plane rolled to a stop. The engines shut down. Camila heard passengers stretching, talking to their neighbors, shoving up their windows to peer out at the new city.

"Hey Rosa," she started.

"Ugh, fine. You're unfrozen until the next flight." Rosa rolled her eyes, snapped her fingers, and grinned. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Camila moved slowly, pulling herself into a more comfortable position, stretching her arms above her head. Her back let out a satisfied crack at the movement.

"The paralysis?" Camila would've given her left foot for a dagger. She had to play nice, she reminded herself. Rosa was dangerous. She smiled prettily, nodded, and said, "Very cool."

"I know! Do you want to know what I did with the sheep's organs?"

No. Goddess no.

Camila swallowed. "Yes. I'd love to." As much as she tried to put enthusiasm into the words, they came out halfhearted and uninterested. Rosa didn't seem to notice.

From the two hour layover in São Paulo to the grueling, ten hour flight to Chicago, to the thankfully shorter flight to Kansas City, Rosa talked. She was a stand up comedian with the subtlety of a bull, the talent of a rock, and the vicious instinct of a saltwater crocodile. She didn't seem to care if people listened to her and took their silence as a gesture of goodwill and enjoyment. Rosa had taken a specific liking to Camila and sat next to her on every flight.

They were unfrozen during layovers, but Rosa didn't let up even on the ten hour flight to Chicago. Camila managed to get in a few hours of sleep, interrupted sporadically when Rosa remembered something she wanted to talk about.

It was winter in Kansas City, a sharp contrast to the humid heat of the rainforest. Camila stumbled outside and the wind hit her with violent force, snow stinging her cheeks. She clenched her fleece jacket tighter around her. It barely made a difference.

Zora shivered next to her, wrapping her arms around herself. "Please tell me you have a plan."

"Why do I have to come up with the plan?"

"I'm the muscle. You're the brains. Figure it out."

"Hey," Alex passed Camila his jacket. He didn't shiver or wince at the cold, as if he wasn't bothered. "How are you holding up?"

She caught sight of Declan and Anders heading towards them, lugging a pair of pink suitcases the size of a small lion: Rosa's bags.

"I thought you weren't talking to me." Camila snapped, but she took the jacket. It was too big for her and the sleeves draped over her hands. She pulled the fabric close.

"Camila-"

Rosa, still wearing her sandals and sundress, beckoned them forward. "Quit dilly dallying! Honestly, you guys are the laziest royals I've ever met. And I knew Nero. You know, the guy who burned Rome? Actually, there was this one time-"

"We're coming!" Camila chirped, her voice high-pitched and too enthusiastic to be genuine. Quieter, she whispered to Alex, "It's fine. We just need to get the Heart and keep her from killing Dragomir until we get my parents to safety. Easy."

Alex shrugged. "We're pretty tough. I think we could take her."

"I just spent eleven and a half hours paralyzed in a shitty airplane chair. And she's not even angry. I do not want to know what she would do if she were angry."

"Neither do I, but I don't want to wait on her hand and foot for the rest of my life. Have you noticed any weaknesses?"

"Well, she lacks social skills, that's for sure." Camila took a step closer to him. The wind howled around them, biting at her ears and making it difficult to hear his voice. "Hates Dragomir with a passion? Too confident in her own abilities? I'll figure it out."

"We will. You're not alone in this."

"Yeah." Camila sighed. "We have to."

"Yoo hoo! I'm getting old over here." Rosa set her hands on her hips, glaring at them. "Andrew, could you move any slower? It's like you're trying to piss me off."

Alex frowned. "Am I Andrew?" he whispered to Camila. They hurried to catch up to Rosa.

Camila heard tense, whispered voices behind her. She glanced back. Anders had set the pink suitcase down and he and Declan were locked in a heated argument.

"Oh, fuck it," Rosa sighed. "He's asking for it."

Her fingers snapped.

Camila screamed.

And Anders' head exploded, shattering bits of brain and broken skull across the airport walls. His body crumpled to the ground.

"Now can we get moving?" Rosa snapped. She leaned towards Camila, her grin stretching from one cheek to the other. She winked. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Camila nodded numbly.

Thanks for reading!

-Harley