“Diana did just put you on your butt,” she said. “I’m pretty sure she can do it again.”
“You cannot make this kind of decision,” he said. “Go off with someone you barely know. You’re seventeen.”
“And you’re the guy who got drunk on eggnog last Christmas and danced to ‘Turn the Beat Around’ in Aunt Rachel’s wig, so stop acting like you’re in charge.”
“We agreed not to mention that ever again,” Jason whispered furiously.
“Jason, I’m doing this.” For the first time since the bomb had exploded aboard the Thetis, Alia felt like she was making a choice, not just being cast about by the sea. But the truth was that they needed Jason’s help if they were going to get to Greece in time. She reached out and took his hand, squeezing it tight, trying to make him understand. “Mom and Dad would want me to try. I know they would. You know it, too.”
She could feel the grief they shared around them like an unwanted shield, an invisible wall that separated them from the world. Sometimes it felt unbreachable, as if no one would ever know what they’d been through, what it was to have your world crack down the middle.
At last he squeezed back. “Okay.”
“What?” The word leapt from her lips. Jason never changed his mind. Mules could take lessons in stubbornness from him.
“You’re right,” he said with a sigh. “Mom and Dad would never hide from doing the hard thing. Not if it could save lives. We’ll take the company jet.”
“You have an airplane?” Diana said.
Alia suppressed a small smile. “This girl really wants an airplane.”
“Yes,” said Jason. “We can bring the security team as an escort.”
“You don’t know which of them may be trustworthy,” said Diana.
“We can trust the security detail from the penthouse. If they’d wanted us dead, we’d be dead. They’ve literally watched over us while we sleep.”
“I can protect Alia,” said Diana.
“Of course,” Jason said with a scowl. “A teenage girl protecting another teenage girl. Look, I appreciate what you did for my sister, but you’re basically a stranger. I’ll take it from here.”
“I can’t agree to that.”
“I didn’t ask. My team is former special ops. They’re the best in the business, and they’re nonnegotiable.” He turned back to Alia. “You want to go to the spring, my security team travels with us.”
“Fine,” Alia said, considering the implications of what they were about to do. “But Diana goes, too.”
Diana blinked, and Alia could see the surprise on her face. My mother doesn’t think I can handle anything on my own, either. Maybe they’d both had their fair share of feeling underestimated.
Jason narrowed his eyes. “Where are you from exactly, Diana Prince?”
“An island. In the Aegean. You wouldn’t have heard of it.”
“And you don’t find this at all shady?” he said to Alia. “A girl with a sketchy background happens to save you, happens to know about the Warbringer, happens to know about a spring that can mystically cure you?”
“Jason, she could have just let me drown. Like you said, if she wanted me dead, I’d be dead. And she’s nonnegotiable.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Fine. Get your things together. We’re moving you and your bodyguard to the penthouse. We’ll leave for Greece tomorrow.”
“We should leave now,” said Diana. “Immediately.”
“Do you have a jet?”
Diana crossed her arms. “No.”
“Then you don’t get to decide when we leave.”
“I can see why Alia left the country to avoid you.”
Alia winced.
“She did not,” Jason snapped.
“Let it go,” Alia pleaded.
“Just get your things together,” Jason growled, and stormed past Diana.
“Don’t forget the door—” A crash sounded, followed by a string of angry swearing.
Oops.
“He’s just as you described him,” said Diana. “Domineering, imperious, used to having his way.”
“He’s not really like that, not when you get to know him.” Diana shot her a doubtful glance as they returned to the bedroom to pack up their few belongings. “Okay, he’s exactly like that. But he wasn’t always.”
Diana tucked her leathers and the coils of her golden lasso into one of the plastic Duane Reade bags. “Thank you for not saying anything to Jason about my home. My people…You know they value isolation.”
Alia nodded. She didn’t really understand the rules of Diana’s world, but she owed Diana her life. Keeping quiet on some of the stranger details of her background was the least she could do.
“And thank you for insisting that Jason allow me to accompany you,” Diana continued. “I would have found a way to come regardless, but it meant a great deal to me.”
Alia twisted a braid around her finger. “Yeah, about that.” She took a deep breath. “If we don’t make it to the spring in time—”
“We will.”
“But if we don’t, I’m going to need you to kill me.”
Kill me. Diana wanted to drive those words from her mind the second Alia spoke them. And she’d said them so easily. Too easily, Diana decided. Alia was just frightened, shaken by what she’d learned. None of it would matter when they reached the spring.
Jason made a quick phone call and ushered them out through the hotel’s back entrance in case anyone was watching the premises. Diana could at least appreciate that he’d taken some of her warnings seriously.
The alley behind the hotel was pungent with smells Diana’s mind could barely make sense of—a rotting vegetable stink coupled with what she thought might be urine and human feces, all of it made worse by the summer heat.
They passed through the back of a cleaning facility, crowded with moving racks of clothing packed in plastic, the cloyingly sweet steam welcome after the alley. Then they crossed the street and raced down the sidewalk to another alley, where a sleek black car was idling.
“Hey, Dez,” Alia called to the driver as they climbed inside.
“Hey, Al.”
Diana noticed Alia didn’t correct the driver’s use of the nickname the way she had with her brother.
The air inside the car was crisp and fresh, and Diana allowed herself a small, contented sigh as the sweat cooled on her skin. She was surprised at how pleasant the vehicle was inside, spacious and dark as a cave, its black seats stitched with a precision that could never be accomplished by hand. Jason poured himself a drink from a bar tucked in the car’s paneling, and Diana watched the streets slide by slowly through glass tinted dark as smoke, the sounds of the street muted in a heavy, comforting hush. She inhaled deeply, breathing in the scent of leather and something she couldn’t quite identify.
“What are you doing?” Jason said abruptly. He was seated across from Diana, watching her closely.
“I did nothing.”
“You were smelling the car.” He turned to Alia. “She was smelling the car.”
Diana felt her cheeks color slightly. “It has a pleasing aroma.”
“It’s new-car smell,” Alia said, a smile twitching her lips. “Everyone loves that. And Jason is so uptight about keeping the car clean, Betsy never lost it.”
“Betsy?”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Alia insists on naming every car. How has Diana Prince, Origins Unknown, never smelled a new car?”
“They don’t drive where she’s from,” Alia said smoothly. “They’re almost Amish.”
“Amish with combat training?”
Diana ignored the jab. “Why can’t we leave for the spring immediately?”
“The annual board meeting for Keralis Labs is tonight, followed by the reception for the Keralis Foundation’s donors. We’ll leave as soon as it’s over.”
Diana sat forward, the appealing smell of the car forgotten. “You want us to stay in New York for a party?”
“It isn’t a party; it’s a reception. Our family is the face of the Foundation. And if we want to keep it that way, I need to be there. Alia should attend, too.”
“A public event?” Diana could hear her pitch rising, but she simply couldn’t believe what he was saying.
“It’s hardly public. It’s a private event at the Temple of Dendur.”