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"So… that's it?" Agatha says after Veríssimo hangs up the phone. "You're going to Italy? Just" —she snaps her fingers— "poof?"
The old man's face settles into a mask of determination. "You're coming with me, Agatha."
"What? I—look, I'm sorry I mouthed off, I should've known it was a bad—you don't have to—"
"I'm not angry," he assures her. Agatha shuts her mouth with an audible click and stares. "You know more about the Other Side than any other agent. We need you close at hand if we want to have any chance against Kian."
Agatha worries at her lower lip and the uneven edges of her teeth are a familiar soothing texture. "Dude, I've never even left São Paulo."
Veríssimo looks her over. "Get ready, then. We're leaving tonight."
So that's how Agatha ends up the Guarulhos International Airport, which she googled and is apparently the largest on the continent, clutching the straps of her ratty old backpack and keeping as close as she can to Veríssimo without stepping on his heels.
She's a little bit proud and a little bit sad that she can still fit her entire life in her backpack, except the various artifacts from her ritual room that Veríssimo told her are too dangerous to take anyway. He barely acknowledges her now that they're here, too busy keeping the other agents swarming around them in the loop and making various short, mysterious phone calls.
Worst of all, Mia isn't here. She's not coming, apparently. Someone needs to hold down the fort in Brasil, and Agatha gets that, she really does, but she's still standing in the boarding line holding her pass so tight it's creasing around her fingers and feeling a little like she can't breathe.
She already texted Eduarda that she won't be able to chat for a while, and Mia's gotten plenty of panicked messages from her over the past few hours. She really should leave Mia alone; Mia has her own important things to do. Agatha just needs to grow up, right?
The airplane outside the enormous window is bigger than the rest, Agatha thinks, and she isn't sure if that's safer or less safe. It's probably big since they have to go all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, which Agatha has not even seen before.
The line starts moving. Agatha feels her chest tighten and brings her free hand up to the strap of her backpack. Don't smile. Don't talk to anyone. Not that she would be tempted to, but accidentally flashing her fangs in a packed airport would be one of the worst things she could possibly do.
She feels like she's going to be sick. Does she get airsick? There's no way to know. Oh, god, if she throws up on the plane she'll never recover.
Couldn't she have just stayed in the base? She holds herself back from asking Veríssimo that; it's too late now. She could've called the team in Italy. Or, they have Dante, surely they don't need her too. She's barely left the base since it was built, and she isn't ready yet.
Veríssimo's eyes are still set ahead, though, and Agatha keeps quiet.
"Agatha?" Veríssimo's voice is gentle, and Agatha risks opening her eyes to look at him. He looks exhausted, like always, but he smiles. "Do you want to open the window shield? We're at cruising height."
Agatha isn't sure what that means. She nods, though, and turns away from Veríssimo to the window on her other side—somehow she ended up trapped in the farthest seat from the aisle. The window is small, mostly oval-shaped, and covered with a plastic blind, which Agatha grabs by the handle and tugs shakily upward.
The sight outside stuns her speechless for a long moment. Far below them, a wispy cloud drifts by. A cloud. Below her. Even father beneath, impossibly distant, green-brown land meets the shining sea in a ribbon on the horizon. She can't pick out individual buildings or streets, the whole world reduced to a beautiful blurry map.
"Oh my god," she breathes, then turns back to Veríssimo with a broad grin. "Holy shit, are you seeing that?"
He nods, his smile warm and nearly impish. "I thought you might like it."
"Like it? I love it, dude, it's so pretty." She presses her face to the plastic, staring wide-eyed at the landscape spread out below. "How long did you say we get to be on the plane again?"