There was that word again.
“Going to a real school, with other people?” Angel looked concerned.
“Holy frijoles,” Total muttered from under the table.
“You’ll start on Monday,” Anne said briskly, starting to gather empty plates. “I’ll pick up your uniforms tomorrow.”
Uniforms?
39
Without a word, I shoved my chair away from the table and stomped over to the back door. I yanked it open and jumped down the steps.
From there I did a running takeoff, snapping out my wings, feeling them push against the air filling my feathers. A couple of hard strokes and I was airborne, rising above the apple orchards, above the barn.
Once I was up high, I let the full range of my anger bloom. Taking a deep breath, I tried to remember how to fly really fast—and then, almost immediately, I was doing it, my wings seeming to move by themselves.
Let’s see just how fast I can get out of here, I thought grimly, and poured on the speed.
Running away never helps, said the Voice in my head.
“Yeah, well, flying helps—a lot!”
Fang was waiting for me by an open window when I got back. He handed me a glass of water, and I sucked it down.
“Gone a long time,” he said. “How far did you get? Botswana?”
I grinned wryly. “Just for a minute, before I had to turn around. They say hi.”
“How fast do you think you go?”
“Over two hundred,” I said. “Two twenty? Two forty?”
He nodded.
“Everything cool here?” I headed down the hall to my room, kicking off my shoes. The house was dark and quiet. My clock said one-thirty.
“Yeah. Wrangled Gazzy into the bath. Total fell in. Angel made Nudge change her mind about what book to read, and I came down on her.”
I looked at him. “Sounds like you’ve got everything under control.”
“I managed.”
I sat on my bed, not knowing what to say.
Fang sat down next to me. “Did you want to just keep going out there?” he asked. “Keep going and not come back?”
I drew a shaky breath. “Yes,” I whispered.
“Anne’s never gonna take your place, Max,” Fang said, his dark eyes on me.
I shrugged, not looking at him.
“Anne’s just a—depot,” he said. He seemed to be getting more, well, comfortable with me lately. “We can rest up, eat, hang out, while we plan our next move. The kids know that. Yeah, they like not having to run or sleep in subway tunnels. They like having the same bed every night. So do I. So do you. Anne’s been nice to them, to us, and they like it. We don’t get a lot of down days, where we can just chill. They’re enjoying the heck out of this, Max. And if they weren’t, it would mean they were so messed up they couldn’t be saved, ever.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“But they know who’s saved their bacon too many times to count. Who’s fed them and clothed them and chased away the nightmares. Jeb may have gotten us out of our cages, but you’re the one who’s kept us out, Max.”