After two days consumed almost entirely by rehearsal, Renday night finally came. The team sat outside the big tent, making their final preparations for the show. Grace stretched her arms and wings while she watched the others work. Holly was doing some final touches on Dax’s makeup, while Thea did…whatever she was doing on her tablet.
Jasper moved into a handstand. “Shame we haven’t had time to hang out at the carnival,” she said. “I mean, I know it’s run by a supervillain, but some of the rides look fun. We should come back one of these days.”
Grace raised an eyebrow. “Won’t the place get shut down if we succeed at stopping Ringmaster?”
Jasper laughed as she dropped out of the handstand. “Nah, there are plenty of rich people waiting around the buy this place up if the government seizes control of it.” She raised her arms back in the air.
Grace moved her gaze past Jasper to a nearby roller coaster in time to watch a cart fly through its loop. “Well, I’ve never been on a carnival ride, but if they’re half as fun as flying…”
“Well, I’ve never gone flying around on wings, so I’m not sure I can make a comparison,” Jasper said. She flashed Grace an upside-down grin.
Grace laughed. “Well, maybe I can take you on a real flight some time. In exchange for a ride on a roller coaster.”
Jasper sprang to her feet, her face flushed with exertion. “I suppose that’s fair.” She smiled, but something distant crept into her gaze. She turned and lifted her arms again.
Before Grace could think of something to follow up with, Thea picked up a smartsphere and groaned. “I grabbed the wrong sphere. I need the one with my light and sound program.”
“Just go grab the right one!” Jasper said as she came up from a cartwheel.
“I’m in the middle of running a debugging on my master tablet. I can’t—”
“I can grab it,” Grace said. “I’m not doing anything else.”
“It’s in the front pocket of the bag on my bed,” Thea told her.
“Be careful,” Jasper added.
Grace walked to the main building. She didn’t see anyone on her way to the team’s suite, and grabbing the sphere only took a few seconds. On her way back out, though, she passed a group of performers standing in the hallway. She ducked her head and avoided eye contact. None of them paid her any attention.
“Where are you headed, then?” a woman asked.
“Anywhere outside the Janus System,” another replied. “We haven’t decided for sure yet, but the company we’re going through has cheap fares to the Solar System, and we can pass for human without too much effort.”
Grace stopped. Hesitated. Glanced back. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said. “But did you say the Solar System?”
“Sure did,” the second woman answered.
“That’s where Earth is, right?”
The man next to her raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. You trying to go?”
“No. I mean, I don’t—I was thinking about going.” Grace nervously traced the edge of Thea’s sphere with her thumb.
“You want to come with us?” One of the other women in th group folded her arms. “The bigger our group, the better our discount.”
“When are you going?” Grace asked.
“Tonight.”
Grace looked down at the sphere in her hands. She was taking long enough as it was. The team was waiting.
Ringmaster was waiting.
Governor Starr was waiting.
Grace shook her head. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said anything—”
The man pulled a card out of his pocket and held it out to Grace. “If you do decide to go, this company’s cheap. Plus, I get a bonus for everyone I refer.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Grace took the card. “Thanks.”
Her hand tightened around the card as she walked away. Even if the fares were cheap, she had no money to speak of whatsoever. Jasper surely wouldn’t help her get to Earth until after they dealt with Starr. And despite how terrifying her new life could be at times, Grace wanted to help take down the governor in any way she could. It was what Kara’s endgame had really been, after all.
Kara had died trying to save Grace. The least Grace could do was see her mission through, even if it wasn’t exactly in the way she’d intended.
Grace dropped the card in a trash bin on her way out of the building.