I didn’t mention that I really liked her long hair. I loved pressing my nose into it and inhaling her scent. I’d really miss that if she chopped it all off.
Ava drew in a sharp breath, the idea of shaving her head totally forgotten. “You know what? I have a better idea! Let’s visit Hawaii!”
I frowned. “Great idea, pidge.”
“I’m serious, Charlie. We’ll break out of the Institute— tonight!” she cried. “We’ll go to Hawaii and hide away, where the Institute can’t find us. We’ll drink mimosas on the beach and spend every Saturday morning at the spa—”
Ava started talking so fast I couldn’t understand a word she said. Ancestors, I didn’t know how to deal with her like this.
“Pidge,” I pressed, but she didn’t stop talking. “Pidge,” I tried again.
She didn’t acknowledge me. She quickly switched from the topic of moving to Hawaii to what she was going to wear for next year’s Villain Ball. Nervousness flashed through her quickly, so fast it was hard to make sense of it through the bond. My heart rate increased the longer I listened to her.
“Ava-Marie!” I snapped. I jumped out of my chair and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her a little.
She went silent for a beat, and I didn’t waste any time getting a word in.
“Calm. Down,” I insisted.
She shrugged me off. “You think it’s dumb, don’t you?”
I didn’t know what part of it she was referring to— shaving her head, moving to Hawaii, the dress she’d been describing, or one of the other things I hadn’t caught.
I sat in the chair beside her but remained close enough to take her hand. “Take a breath, pidge,” I said gently. “You’re looking for a solution that isn’t there. I can feel your anxiety through the bond, and none of these ideas are going to fix anything.”
“I’m not looking tofixanything,” Ava objected. “And I’m not anxious!”
I frowned. “You can’t lie to me about how you feel, because I feel it, too.”
Oberi let out a high-pitched noise, as if agreeing with me.
“Not true. I feel great!” Ava countered.
“That’s good,” I assured her. “And I’m glad you do, but you have to see that these ideas are a bit irrational.”
“No,you’reirrational,” she teased, poking my nose. “You don’twantto go to Hawaii with me?”
I gaped at her. Shehadto see that we couldn’t, even if we wanted to. No one escaped the Institute.
“Maybe one day,” I finally answered.When we got out of this place… “But we still have the prophecy to deal with, and we both know the answers are here.”
“The prophecy doesn’t matter,” she responded in a flippant way.
I’d never heard that come out of her mouth before, so now Iknewsomething was wrong. “It doesn’tmatter? What’s gotten into you? The prophecy is the whole reason we’re here!”
“Oh my ancestors, can you like, just chill out for a second? I’m totally fine. I’m seeing things clearer thanever!” she cried. “Look, this is how it’ll go. I’ll shave my head as a disguise, we’ll dig our way out of the Institute using a spoon— it works, okay, I’ve seen it in movies— then we’ll go to Hawaii, and just like, hang out with the mermaids, and I’ll wear a cute shell bra, and we’ll run from the law, and it’ll besofun, and—”
Ava dissolved into a mess of babble that I couldn’t make out. Oberi started to whine. It was like she was in her own little world, and I didn’t know how to break her out of it.
“I’ve already snuck a spoon out of the cafeteria in my sleeve,” she gushed. “I’ve started chipping away at a hole in my dorm. It’ll be big enough for us to crawl through in no time, okay?”
I had to do something to stop her from attempting this ridiculous idea. She was acting like she was actually planning to go through with it, and with Ava being Ava, I knew she’d fucking try. Once she was caught, she’d be even more closely monitored by the Warden than she already was, and that couldn’t happen.
“What about Kallie and Marcus? We can’t just leave them,” I flung out randomly.
Ava completely pivoted at my suggestion, and let out a great gasp. “You’reright, wecan’t.We need to take my brother, too. And Opal, and Ivy, and I suppose you’ll want Chancey to come along too—”
“What does that mean?” I asked. Shit, she was on to me. Had she found out about the fight club?
