XXI
“That’s it, Odessa,” Valoria says soothingly as I put one foot into the air balloon’s basket the next day. “Come on. Now the other one.”
“You can do this,” Karston urges, extending a hand to me.
“I’ll give you a kiss if you hurry up,” Meredy offers, clearly afraid we’re going to be standing on the beach until well after dawn at the rate I’m going—and it’s not yet suppertime.
Devran yawns from inside the basket, looking bored, and turns away from me to gaze out over the crashing waves. I’m surprised he showed up. Valoria really didn’t think he would, yet by the time we dragged the bulky basket-and-balloon combination onto the beach, he was there waiting. I narrow my eyes at him. From the back, with his generous height and choppy blond hair, he reminds me too much of Hadrien.
“I just don’t understand why we have to do this so close to the water,” I grumble, knowing I sound like a child as I reluctantly tug myother foot out of the beach’s warm sand and put it, along with the rest of myself, into the huge basket.
Karston thumps me on the back and cheers.
“I feel like an apple waiting to be taken to market in this thing,” I sigh, now trapped inside the narrow confines of a basket that so resembles a farmer’s fruit-selling one. I glare at Devran, daring him to make fun of me for being afraid, but he keeps his gaze trained on the sky, watching the sun drip down a canvas of red and pink threaded with amber.
Meredy grins and pulls me closer to give me that promised kiss, taking my attention away from Devran, while Valoria—beaming at our display of affection—asks with a snicker, “And are you a sweet or sour apple?”
“Oh, she’s sweet enough, trust me.” Meredy laughs as she draws back slightly to watch Valoria light the flame. She must be able to feel me shaking from head to toe, because she keeps a protective arm around my shoulders.
“So, how is this supposed to work?” Karston asks eagerly, gazing upward into the colorful canvas balloon over our heads.
“I was wondering the same thing,” Devran remarks. There’s a dryness to his voice, as if he’s bored to tears, but a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth betrays the real reason he’ll barely look at any of us: He’s scared, too.
Unable to keep from smirking slightly, I try to listen as Valoria explains how the flame will cause the basket’s canvas top to inflate and carry us upward, and how she’ll control it. But when we begin to hover above the sand, I get too nervous to focus on a word of her scientific ramblings.
“I know you hate not being in control of everything for once,”Valoria says near my ear a moment later. “But you trust me, don’t you?”
“If anyone else said that to me, they’d be sailing out of this basket about now,” I answer sweetly, casting a glance at Devran. I hope I haven’t given him any ideas about tossing any of us out once we’re high in the air.
Grinning, Valoria tells me, “You’re in good shape if you’re making jokes already.” Gazing between me and Meredy, she adds with a gleam in her eyes, “Let’s take flight.”
As we begin to climb slowly, gently toward the few clouds in the watercolor sky, I realize I’ve left my stomach somewhere on the ground. I swallow hard to keep from being sick, but once Meredy guides me to sit on the narrow floor of the basket and put my head between my legs, I feel a little better.
For his part, Devran stands motionless, his back to us, silent as the water below even as Valoria leans in to speak to him. My shoulders tense. He could try to push her out of the basket when she’s that close. I don’t know that he would, but that’s the problem—I don’t know him. Valoria, seemingly oblivious to our sudden worry on her behalf, continues to chat away to him as the rest of us watch closely, ready to react at a moment’s notice.
She babbles away about some of her other inventions as Devran nods stiffly. She’s too fixed on tonight’s mission of getting him to find something positive in the new and unexpected to actually read his body language, but I’m not. I don’t think he’s buying a word she’s saying.
Our balloon climbs higher still, making my world feel so unsteady that I give up on watching Devran like a hawk. I don’t know how much time passes before Valoria says, “Odessa... you’ve got to see this. Please. If you can.”
“Come on. This is incredible,” Karston says, flashing me a reassuring smile. Excitement shines in his dark eyes, which look more brown than violet in the shadows cast by the sinking sun. Tipping his head back, he does his best wolf howl.
“You and Jax would be the best of friends if you’d realize how much alike you are,” I mutter, more to myself than Karston.
“What was that?” he asks.
“Nothing,” I say, grinning guiltily.
“All right. That’s enough stalling.” Meredy locks eyes with me and smiles. “You really shouldn’t miss this—if you’re up for it, of course.” She and Valoria both offer me a hand, while Karston steadies me with a hand on one of my elbows. Carefully, with no small amount of shivering, I stand and grip the basket’s edge.
We’re floating high above a flat, glassy sea. It’s like a mirror to the sky, reflecting each and every swirl of color, and it makes my breath catch in my throat.
Meredy, who by now is attuned to even the slightest change in my breathing, whispers just for me to hear, “That’s how I feel every time I see you.”
I don’t know how I got so lucky, or what she sees in me, but I’m sure that I need to stop worrying so much.
With effort, I pry the fingers of one hand from the basket in order to put an arm around Meredy’s waist. Meredy pulls Valoria away from Devran and into our embrace, I pull Karston against my other side, and together, the four of us take in Karthia as we’ve never seen it before: the sun-washed cliffs, huge and jagged, and the marble palace sparkling like a red jewel, like a crown for the hill it tops.
Giddy beyond reason, beyond remembering that we don’t want to draw too much attention to our adventure, we all start howling atthe sky. Up here, floating above the world like no one ever has, we’re untouchable. Invincible.
