Justin’s smile faltered, but she’d spoken the truth. She was just as fascinated by that glittering, mythical country as the rest of her family, but completely relocating to a society so unlike her own was terrifying. Maybe she didn’t always like the way hers worked, but she knew it. It was comfortable. It was safe. Kind of.
Then she thought about the reader, that beautiful and miraculous device. What would it be like to be surrounded by things like that? What would it be like to go wherever she wanted? What would it be like to make her own decisions? Of course, that was presuming Justin’s sister would let her. Tessa wasn’t entirely sure how strict she would be.
“But I don’t know if I want to stay here either.” Her mother made some kind of strangled noise, and Tessa took a deep breath. “So…I’ll go.”
Justin smacked his hands together and whooped with joy. “You won’t regret it. None of you will. This is going to change your life.”
Tessa nodded weakly, unsure of what she’d just agreed to. Judging from her mother’s glare and red face, she suspected her parents would be continuing this conversation in private later. Her father would win out, of course. That was the way it was around here; the men governed the household. But not in the RUNA, she thought.
Her father, face jubilant, looked Justin over and beckoned him forward. “Come in and dry off. Get something to eat—and some water. You can spend the night, and I’ll have my driver take you back to Cristobal’s in the morning.”
That was too much for Tessa’s mother, and she stormed out of the room in a rage. Tessa quietly followed the men into the kitchen, mostly because no one seemed to notice she was still there. Her father walked on, but she daringly caught hold of Justin’s sleeve. He glanced down at her and grinned, still dashing even when wet and intoxicated.
“You made the right choice,” he told her. “As soon as you’re there, you’ll never want to come back.”
“But why would you do it? Whatever happened, I know you must have put up a fight to get me in. Why? Why would you do this for me?”
A little of that pride faded, and she saw a faraway look in his eyes. “Because your dad took me in when no one else would. And when he did, I was so sure of myself—and so desperate—that I swore I’d get back home someday. I promised him I’d get him back too—all of you. He took a big chance on me and would’ve done it without any payback. But I owed him. I still owe him. I couldn’t deliver all of what I promised, but I can get you in. That has to be enough for now.”
Tessa had never known any of this. “But why me instead of one of the others?”
That upbeat attitude was back. “Because you deserve it and can make the most of it. You’re smart—smarter than even you realize. You notice things no one else does, and I only know one other person that observant.”
“You?” Tessa guessed. Dashing, yes, and also confident to the point of arrogance.
“Exactly. See? That’s what I’m talking about. Keep watching the world, and you’ll go far. You couldn’t do that here, and I hate to see waste.”
Tessa studied him a few moments more. Maybe she really was as observant as he said, because she suddenly knew there was more. “What other reason? Why else would you try to lift me up?”
He smiled, probably at having his assessment of her confirmed further. “Because someone once did it for me.”
CHAPTER 7
FAIRYLAND
Tessa had never flown on a plane, and as she and Justin walked across the runway the next morning, she wondered if she could actually bring herself to do this. She hadn’t been able to sleep last night, and now, coming face-to-face with her transportation to Fairyland, her nervousness shifted to complete and total fear.
Justin, however, had other concerns.
“Do you know how primitive this is, actually walking across the tarmac?” He was smoking a cigarette, and despite his complaints, there was a swagger to his step. He’d woken up hangover free this morning, something her mother said could only have been accomplished through a deal with the devil. “You’ll see when we get home. There are Jetways to all the planes, and the airports don’t look like shantytowns.”
Tessa nodded. He’d been “enlightening” her all morning with tales of the RUNA, which he was already calling home again. She’d listened to his stories for the last few years, but there was something different about them now. Before, he’d been wistful, describing something distant and unattainable—almost exactly the same way her father spoke of the RUNA. Now Justin was already acting as though he’d never left and Panama was just some layover, rather than the place he’d called home for four years.
Two armed soldiers in gray-and-maroon uniforms stood stiffly at attention outside of the plane, but Tessa didn’t find them nearly as intimidating as the plane itself. Everyone in this city walked around with guns; she’d seen them her entire life. Nothing new there. The woman who emerged from the plane, however, made Tessa do a double take.