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“I’m trying,” Brody said, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple. “But we missed another landing spot.”

“Another?”I squawked.

“Try, try again. That’s the name of the game.” Brody said something else, but the surge of propane drowned out his words. “Missing landing spots is very common,” he went on. “Happens all the time. Well, notallthe time. But often enough. It’s why they’re closing down this corridor. Too many homeowner complaints and, you know, the fire danger. Totally valid. It’s that time of year.”

“Terrific!” I sang. “This is all such helpful information!”

Talia tensed her jaw. She squeezed her champagne flute. For a second, I worried it might shatter in her hand. “Jesus fucking Christ!” she shouted into the sky, then jerked her whole self toward Ozzie. “I knew having you on the campaign would be a mistake, but I didn’t think it’d get us killed.”

“No one is getting killed,” Brody promised as we began to make what I hoped was a planned descent.

“Let’s all stay calm,” I said half-heartedly, and looked down to gauge our elevation. A family picnicked below. They were waving, or screaming, or something.

“You’re a fucking idiot, Oscar,” Talia said.

“Hey. Back off,” I said and snuck a glance at Brody, who was now sweating bullets. “Everyone’s over here doing their best.”

“You’re so fake, Gabby,” Ozzie said.

My heart thumped.“Me?”

“Yes. You.” Ozzie yanked off his aviators. “I’m so sick of your goddamn act. I respect Talia for being so straightforward in her disdain.”

“What disdain?”

“But you? You pretend you want me here, but you’re full of shit. I don’t know why everyone thinks you’re so nice. You’re not that nice!”

“Yes. Thank you,” Talia said. “I’ve been saying this forever.”

“You play the protective older sister, but you’re never up to the job when things count. Maybe youwerethe source for all the bad things said about me in that stupid paper.”

“What? That’s not true! I’m always on your side,” I said, eyes growing hot. “I stand up for you constantly!”

“Not true. You look the other way and let things... play out.”

“What are you talking—”

“Like, I dunno, when three masked thugs kidnapped me in the middle of the night?”

“Huh?” Talia said.

Thwap. We lurched forward, and I yelped.

“Did we clip a tree?” Talia asked, looking down.

“Looks like it,” Brody said, following her gaze. “It happens sometimes. Hey. Reach out. See if you can grab a squirrel. Ha!”

“This is not funny!” I said.

“Don’t worry. Your boy’s got this.” Brody blasted the propane, which I thought was supposed to make us rise, not descend, and I prayed our boy was locked in.

“You could’ve spoken up that night,” Ozzie said. “What did you have to lose? No one was shipping you off to Utah, that was for damned sure.”

“Is this about the boarding school?” Talia said.

“That whole thing was fucked up,” I said. “I agree one thousand percent. But what could I have done? I was a kid. I was only sixteen!” I was also on Dad’s shit list because a tree goat had arrived in the trash shoot two days before. Flare number four and yet another warning sign, given what would happen to Ozzie. “It’s not like I thought you were truly kidnapped,” I added. “Dad told me you were getting help and would be home soon, and I believed him. Obviously I had no idea that Canyonside wasn’t a real boarding school and I didn’t think you’d break any bones.”

“Nice of someone to acknowledge it.”