Chapter 3

Reading that on my screen, I almost laughed out loud.

I'd never once said I was going. They'd decided for me, and now they were pinning that on me too.

"You said it was voluntary when you organized this. So I'm voluntarily opting out. Drop it."

I sent that and left the group.

We'd already graduated. There was no reason for the chat to exist anymore.

The next day Hannah showed up right on time, and my mother and I sat down with her ourselves.

"The twelve ninety-nine covers round-trip airfare, visa processing, a guide with you the whole way, lodging, meals, and admission to most of the major sites. Your class doesn't have to think about a thing. Just follow the guide."

Her eyes got brighter with every page.

The last page was a stack of reviews from past clients, all of them real, most of them good.

The handful of complaints weren't about anything we'd done. They were the usual gripes anyone has about traveling in a group of forty.

I emailed her the file, she forwarded it to her class, and her phone started chiming and didn't stop.

"This is great. Everybody wants in. We can pay right now."

My mother and I exchanged a look, and she pulled out the parental consent forms.

Most of the class had turned eighteen after finals, but their parents were the ones paying, so looping the parents in was non-negotiable.

Hannah took the forms with her and came back three days later with the full payment and every signature.

I was walking her out when I spotted a familiar figure down the block.

Mason came straight at me, practically vibrating.

"Bianca just told me the agency's giving our class a free spot because we booked so many. Everybody voted to give it to you. You can come and it won't cost you a dime."

I could not work out what I'd ever done to these people that they needed me on that plane so badly.

It made me start wondering what else was going on that I didn't know about.

My voice went flat and cold. "I don't want it. I'm not going on that tour. Let it go."

Mason lost his temper. "How ungrateful can you get? Bianca saved everyone money. Not like you, ready to sell out your own classmates for a profit. You're getting Aurelia for free and you're still complaining."

It was never about the five sixty-nine. My reason was a lot simpler.

I didn't want to die.

Once you're on the other side of the world, who exactly is going to keep you safe?

"Your parents don't know you're going, do they? Come near me again and I'll tell them you booked a bargain-bin tour."

Mason's family had money, and he was their only child. They'd never sign off on it.

Sure enough, he went quiet.

After a long pause he said, "Fine, Riley. You'll regret this."

Hannah had watched the whole thing. "Why don't you want to go with them?"

"They found that tour online themselves. Five sixty-nine. I'd like to stay alive, thanks."

She laughed. "Five sixty-nine? They'll take everyone's passports and lock them in a shopping mall until they buy their way out. That's some nerve."

I didn't answer. Forced shopping was the least of it. The worse setups don't want your money at all.