But I might not get a choice either way.
Andre’s eyes were pleading. “Please don’t fight me on this, Gabrielle. I can’t watch you die again. I won’t.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to fight you. But … you’re coming with me?”
Andre crossed the room until he stood in front of me. “We’ve already been over this, soulmate. Where you go, I follow.”
I was going to be on the run, but Andre would be next to me the entire time.
“I need to go talk to the pilot about changing course.” Just as Andre spoke, the jet dipped.
Our eyes met. Perhaps this was the normal turbulence. Perhaps it wasn’t.
Andre went to the cockpit, and naturally, I followed, grabbing the wall as the plane dipped again.
“What’s going on?” Andre demanded.
“We’re being ordered to land the plane,” one of the pilots said.
“Who’s giving the orders?”
“The House of Keys.”
In front of me, Andre’s body went rigid. “You are not to land this jet,” he said.
“Mr. de Leon, these are executive orders. I will lose my license if I don’t.”
“And you’ll lose your life if you do.”
I heard the man’s delicate swallow, I could smell the sweat gathering on his neck as well as that of the copilot.
“Sir,” the pilot said, “their orders state that if we don’t land the plane, they’ll shoot us out of the sky.
I doubled back to look at the pilot. Did I just hear him correctly?
A long silence stretched on. “Fine,” Andre said, “land the plane.”
I rubbed my face. I was going to die in a matter of minutes.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the pilot said.
Andre wasn’t listening. He strode past me, heading to the back of the plane.
I walked over to the couch and sat down heavily, resting my head in my hands. “Why does everyone think that killing me is the answer?” I said to myself.
“Because they are idiots.” Andre walked back into the cabin holding two canvas backpacks. “Here,” he said, handing me one of them, “put this on.”
I took it from him and eyed it warily. Now that I took a closer look, there were way too many straps for this to be just a backpack. Which meant …
“Is this a parachute?” I asked, standing up. Dread pooled low in my stomach.
He wrapped his hands around my upper shoulders. “Do you trust me?”
“You want me to jump out of a plane,” I stated. Only people in the movies jumped out of planes. Well, them and adrenaline junkies. But this was not comparable to skydiving. Not when we were up higher, flying faster, and people were after us.
Andre gave me a firm shake. “Do you trust me?” he repeated.
I blinked a few times, and then looked at him, really looked at him. “With my life.”
“Good.”
Andre glanced over his shoulder at the cabin. “If we stay in the air, you die. If we’re in the plane when it lands, you die.”
“No Andre, please don’t sugarcoat it,” I said.
His hands squeezed my arms tightly, his way of telling me to shut up. “The only situation where you live is if we jump.”
“Please tell me you’ve done this before.”
He nodded but looked away.
The jet dropped, and I grabbed ahold of Andre to steady myself. “Andre? How many times have you jumped out of a plane?”
His arms went around me, holding me to him. “Enough to tell you that you’ll be safe.”
“Will it hurt?”
“Compared to what you’ve been through? Not at all.”
That wasn’t exactly reassuring.
I took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Andre handed me a pair of goggles and helped me strap the parachute on. Then he pulled a pair of goggles over his head and fastened his pack on. Once everything was secure, Andre instructed me on how to jump out of a plane, how and when to release the parachute, and how to control my landing.
“I’ll be with you the entire time, so watch me for cues.” He glanced over his shoulder at the front of the plane. “Give me a second to check how high up we are. If there’s anything you want to keep, you better grab it now.”
He walked over to the cabin, and I scrambled to my bag to grab my wallet. As I did so, a letter slipped out. I was about to put it back in my bag when I caught sight of Cecilia’s handwriting.
Child of penance and pain,
Dealer of beauty and bane,
A coin’s been flipped,
The scales tipped,
Nothing will be the same.
Goosebumps broke out along my skin. It was the same letter Cecilia had sent me for my birthday, but the riddle had changed.
How was that possible?
“It’s time to go,” Andre said coming back over to me.
I shoved the card and my wallet in my pockets and followed him to the door of the plane.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I muttered as Andre worked on opening an emergency exit located at the back of the plane. From the glimpse I caught out of a nearby window, the land below us was dark, meaning it was either wilderness, countryside, or water. At least it’s better than certain death.
“Ready?” Andre asked, eyeing me.
I squared my jaw and nodded.
I might be wanted by the entire supernatural community and the devil, but they wouldn’t get me. Not yet.