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I envied her, truth be told. I envied anyone who could sit on a plane for hours on end without enduring an internal nuclear meltdown. Worse still was the fact that there were people out there whoenjoyedthis torture. Flying always reduced me to nothing better than a toddler, and I despised being stripped of control so easily.

The plane around us hummed and I squeezed my eyes shut as we hurtled down the runway. I counted until we were finally in the air, and I reached two hundred by the time Mia gently tapped my hand. I glanced down to find my nails digging small crescents into the leather and flexed my fingers before looking up at Mia.

“Sorry,” I murmured, reaching up and taking the headphones off. At cruising altitude, the sound of the engines was a lot more bearable.

Mia shook her head. “There’s nothing to be sorry for,” she said, quietly enough that I could just about hear her voice over the sound of the plane. “You hate flying. It’s not something you can change.”

I sighed, the breath rattling from my chest, and sank back into the seat.

“I know,” I murmured, letting my eyes slip shut. “I also hate that I end up like this. It’s fucking debilitating.”

“We’re all at the mercy of this thing up here,” she reminded me, and rather than terrify me even more, it gave me the tiniest bit of comfort. “Just because someone else might be better at handling flying doesn’t mean they’re any better. Nor does it mean you’re any less of a person just because you don't like flying.”

“Thanks, Mia,” I said quietly.

She offered me a smile. “I need to check in with Terry real quick,” she said, unbuckling her seat belt and getting to her feet. “I’ll be back in two minutes.”

I nodded and she walked to the back of the plane, the engines still too loud for me to hear her speaking to Terry. Not even a minute had passed before a soft ding echoed overhead, and Andy’s voice filtered through the plane’s communication system.

“Cabin crew, please be advised that we are heading into high winds,” he said, and my heart plummeted back down to Earth. “Turbulence expected.”

The little seat belt light flashed above the door to the cockpit, and all the blood in my arms and legs drained away. Ice crept in its wake, making it difficult to tighten the seat belt that was already fastened around my hips.

This time, all I could hear was the sound of my thundering heart, my breaths shallow.

Warmth curled around my right hand, and I peeled my eyes back open to find Mia beside me once again.

“You know,” she said conversationally, as if Andy hadn’t announced anything out of the ordinary. “When we get to Brazil there are so many things that we have to go and see.”

I could do nothing but stare at her, the panic inside me growing into a living thing that wrested the last of my control from my numb fingers.

“The first thing is going up to Pão de Açúcar,” she continued. “The last time you were in Brazil, you didn’t have any time to visit, and that’s literally a crime.”

“What about Christ the Redeemer?” I managed to whisper, my voice rough.

“It’s a giant statue of Jesus, Reid,” she deadpanned. “If you’ve seen it on TV, you’ve seen it in real life. Besides, it’s always crawling with tourists and you can never get anywhere near it.”

The disdain in her voice broke through the haze a little, and I wanted to smile. But the plane shuddered, and any coherence winked out. Terror ripped through my chest again, so much worse this time, as the plane dropped what felt like a hundred feet in the air.

“Fuck, fuck,fuck,” I whispered, if only to keep myself from screaming out loud. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing I was anywhere else just then.

Mia’s hand was warm and strong around mine, and she wrapped her other hand around mine, her thumb rubbing soothing circles on the back of my hand.

She’d stopped speaking, likely realizing that I couldn’t hear anything, until a soft melody drifted through the terror. I turned to her, watching as her mouth formed around lyrics I’d never heard before, unmistakably a lullaby. My entire body pressed back into the seat, I clung to every word, the Portuguese rolling off her tongue in a gentle lilt. Slowly, my shoulders loosened, then my back, the rest of my body following suit.

My entire existence narrowed down to her hands around mine, and the sound of her voice.

When I opened my eyes again, the plane had already landed.

Chapter 19

Home Sweet Home

MIA

Reidwassilentnextto me as we walked out into Galeão International, Terry close behind us. Somewhere inside of me, I’d hoped that Reid’s intense fear of flying had maybe eased in the years since she’d last flown. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. Phobias weren’t exactly things that could be tossed aside just because they weren’t being actively experienced. As much as I knew Reid hated her anxiety medication, as I watched her jerky steps I wished she’d taken at least one dose on our long flight to Rio de Janeiro.

“Terry,” I said, turning back to find him suddenly much closer at the sound of his name. “Has our security team collected our luggage yet?”