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THE CODE WORD was Tumbleweed. It was the first word that popped into Bex's mind.
The memory was still a bit foggy, a rapid whirlwind of half-baked planning that Bex and Thea could interpret and predict between themselves. One moment, they were lying on their backs on the carpet, musing about the world and their lives, and in an eyeblink, they were running madly around their room to shower and change out of their opera clothes, devising a surreptitious plan that would change the course of the evening. There was no fancy tent, no war table, or her councilors around her to properly map out their next steps in precision. Just two teenage girls finishing each other's thoughts before they could speak it.
Bex exhaled shakily, her nerves sparking and firing. "You'll follow me at the—"
"Yep, and you're gonna try to get MJ to hand over the thingy." Thea was sitting on the edge of her bed, cross-legged and flipping through a small journal.
It wasn't a fancy tome encrusted with silver and rubies. Thea was sure she got it from the $5 bin at Best Buy but it was sufficient to house the spells she had developed. With her memory, there was no point to jot the incantations down but it never hurt to have a study guide.
Mid-yanking her camisole over her head, Bex froze and peered over the black lace hem to look at her indignantly. "And tell her that I've had a crush on her since freshman year."
Thea's eyes snapped up from the flimsy, lined pages she was persuing to nod in response. "Right, right, that too— oh, and please don't tell her one of your lame pick-up lines."
"For your information, I'm very proud of them and I think she'd like them too," Bex huffed. "Anyway, if she backs me in a corner, I'm gonna shout—"
"Tumbleweed," Thea finished, closing the journal shut and slipping it back into her carry-on suitcase. To cover her tracks, she had hexed it to appear like her physics notebook in case any curious hands should stumble upon it. For an ancient cosmic power that caused decades of generational insanity and trauma, Thea had to admit it was pretty handy.
Thea had explained everything to Peter. Still irked, Bex refused to talk to him but found satisfaction in the fact she passed Brad who was down in the lobby, with MJ by her side. The shell-shocked look on his face was almost enough for her to ignore the fact that Peter and Thea were lurking not too far away as she strolled down the bridge with the girl of her dreams.
The two were lingering in front of the elaborate archway, not quite crossing the bridge that joined the city. The Vltava River flowed beneath them and Thea found herself holding onto Peter's arm a bit tighter. She half-expected to see the Scorpion's Sons fleet lurking in the black waters but instead the street lamps reflected against the ripples like fallen stars.
