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A Seriously? I look at the boarding pass in nment, and wonder if Crayton chose this seat on purpose It could be a coincidence, but the way things have gone recently, I a believer in coincidences I wouldn’t be surprised if Marina sat down behind me in row seven, and Ella irls drop down besideeach person boarding the plane Being hunted, you are constantly on guard Who knohen the Mogadorians ht appear

Crayton will board last, after he’s watched to see who else gets on the plane, and only once he feels the flight is absolutely secure

I raise theshade and watch the ground crew hustle back and forth under the plane The city of Barcelona is a faint outline in the distance

Marina’s knee bounces furiously up and down next to adorians yesterday at the lake, the death of her Cêpan, finding her Chest – and now, it’s the first time in almost ten years that she’s left the tohere she spent her childhood She’s nervous

‘Everything okay?’ I ask My newly blond hair falls intoIt’s just one of ht hours

‘Everyone looks nor her eyes on the crowded aisle ‘We’re safe, as far as I can tell ’

‘Good, but that’s not what Iher knee She offersto her close watch of each boarding passenger A few seconds later, her knee starts bouncing again I just shake my head

I feel sorry for Marina She was locked up in an isolated orphanage with a Cêpan who refused to train her Her Cêpan had lost sight of e are here on Earth in the first place I’aps I can train her to learn how to control her strength and when to use her developing Legacies But first I’ to show her that it’s okay to trust me

The Mogadorians will pay for what they’ve done For taking so many e’ve loved, here on Earth and on Lorien It’s my personal mission to destroy every last one of thee too Not only did she just lose her best friend, Héctor, back at the lake, but, like ht in front of her We will both carry that with us forever

‘How is it down there, Six?’ Ella asks, leaning over Marina

I turn back towards theThe in to clear away their equipood ’

My seat is directly over the wing, which is co to acies to help a pilot out of a jam Once, over southern Mexico, I used ht, only seconds before crashing into the side of a h a vicious thunderstor the plane with an ih the storh a balloon

When the ground crew aze towards the front of the aisle We’re both i is okay, at least for now Every seat is full but the one behind Ella Where is he? I glance out at the wing again, scanning the area for anything out of the ordinary

I lean down and shove my backpack under my seat It’s practically eht it for me at the airport The three of us need to look like norh school students on a field trip That’s why there’s a biology textbook on Ella’s lap

‘Six?’ Marina asks I hear her buckle and unbuckle her seat belt nervously

‘Yeah?’ I respond

‘You’ve flown before, right?’

Marina is only a year older than I ahtful eyes and her new, sophisticated haircut that falls just below her shoulders, she can easily pass for an adult Right noever, she bites her nails and pulls her knees up to her chest like a scared child

‘Yes,’ I say ‘It’s not so bad In fact, once you relax, it’s kind of awesome ’

Sitting there on the plane, hts turn in the direction of my own Cêpan, Katarina Not that I ever fleith her But when I was nine years old, we had a close call in a Cleveland alley with a Mogadorian that left us both shaken and covered in a thick layer of ash Katarina , two-story bungaloas near the beach, practically in the shadow of Los Angeles International Airport A hundred planes roared overhead every hour, always interrupting Katarina’s teaching, as well as the little free tiirl next door named Ashley

I lived under those airplanes for sevendirectly over hosts telling me to stay awake, to be prepared to rip off my sheets and jump in the car in a matter of seconds Since Katarina didn’t let me stray far from the house, the airplanes were also the sound track of my afternoons