“That sounds accurate,” Regan said. “She said she hopes you have a happy birthday and that if you ever burn ten acres of desert again, she will personally make you replant it by hand.”
“I respect that,” I said weakly.
“You should,” Regan said. “She meant it.”
The laughter came easier after that. Maybe because guilt was easier to carry when people didn’t treat it like the only thing you were allowed to feel. The catamaran cut across the water, smooth and fast, the wind pulling the last heaviness of sleep from my body. Cabo rose behind us in cliffs and white buildings while the open sea spread ahead, glittering under the sun.
Edge tried to pretend he hated the birthday sash until Regan put one on him that said BIRTHDAY BODYGUARD.
He stared down at it.
Then at her.
Then at me.
“Absolutely not.”
I laughed so hard I had to grab the railing.
Regan tied it around him anyway.
Tarak took one look and said, “If you photograph this, I’ll deny knowing all of you.”
Amber photographed it.
The snorkeling spot was tucked near a rocky cove where the water shifted from deep blue to glassy turquoise. I could see flashes of fish before we even stopped, quick silver movements under the surface. The crew handed out masks and fins. Amber started asking whether any fish were “emotionally aggressive.” Tarak told her fish did not need her emotional labor.
Edge looked at the fins like they had personally insulted his bloodline.
“I’m not wearing those.”
Regan didn’t even look up from rubbing sunscreen on my shoulder. “Yes, you are.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I survived wars without rubber shoes.”
“You’re not going to survive me if you ruin this birthday by being dramatic.”
Edge put on the fins.
I stared.
Tarak stared.
Amber stared.
Regan capped the sunscreen, satisfied. “Good choice.”
I leaned toward Tarak. “Has she always been this powerful?”
“Yes,” he said. “We just pretend otherwise for morale.”
At the edge of the boat, mask in hand, I looked down into the clear water and felt something inside me go quiet. The sea below looked endless and harmless at the same time, bright with life, full of motion that had nothing to do with warrants or graves or ugly words painted in red.
Regan came up beside me. “Ready?”
