Angel

50

I WOKE UP, feeling warm on one side and cold on the other. The warm side rested against Dylan, and the cold side faced the open desert, which was aglow in pink from the sunrise.

I decided to get the fire started for the others. I untangled myself from Dylan, feeling the usual embarrassment and confusion that I often had about him. But I’m great at not thinking about mushy stuff, so I pushed it out of my mind and scooted over to the fire. Automatically, I did a head count, like I’d done just about every day for as long as I can remember.

Gazzy, Nudge, Dylan, Angel, Iggy, Total… Ella?

No Ella.

I jumped to my feet and surveyed the area. No Ella. Her footsteps led away from us, but the desert wind was so efficient and the ground so hard and dry that her trail disappeared. I cursed under my breath.

“Max?” Angel said softly. “What’s this?” She pointed to the ground, where words had been scratched into the hard dirt:

I was meant to have wings.

Ella

“We should have hobbled her,” Total said, getting to his feet. “Or at least tied her shoelaces together.”

Then it hit me.

“Oh, my God! She’s going back to the facility!” I said. “Come on! If we hurry, maybe we’ll reach her before she finds those kids again—or before she gets lost and ends up frying herself in the desert. Let’s go!”

My team was mobilizing when my hip pocket vibrated. “This might be her!” I said, and flipped my phone open.

“Max?” said a voice, and my breath caught in my throat. “Don’t hang up!”

Numbly, I brought the phone down from my ear and closed it. Then I sat on a rock, my blood so cold that it moved sluggishly through my veins.

Nudge said, “Max?”

Dylan came and sat next to me and put his hand on my knee. I pushed it off. My phone rang again, the dull vibration sounding like a buzz saw in the silence.

“Max? Who is it?” Nudge asked. “What’s wrong?”

“My guess would be Fang,” Dylan said, his voice flat.

I looked up to see Nudge’s surprised face. Iggy, Angel, and Gazzy all looked at me sympathetically, like they expected me to wuss out.

My phone vibrated.

Gritting my teeth, I flipped it open.

“What,” I said tightly.

“Don’t hang up!” said Fang.

“In the middle of something here,” I said. “Is this important?”

“Only if you consider the end of the world important,” said Fang. “Which, I guess, usually you have.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Look, I’m in San Diego,” Fang said. “I need you guys to come here.”

My eyebrows shot up to my hairline. I still didn’t say anything.

Fang sighed. “Max. I know you’re mad. I know things are messed up between us. I know there’s no reason in the world for you to trust me or to bother coming here. And believe me, I’m not trying to mess with you or make you feel worse. I’m not playing games. But I’ve stumbled onto something huge. Something very bad. And I think we have only days to stop it. I wish I could do it by myself, but I can’t. I wish I didn’t have to ask you for help, but I do. Come to San Diego. Please.”

His voice was like salt being rubbed into my wounded heart. It literally made my pain worse. I couldn’t believe he was doing this. I tried to swallow, but I felt like I had a big rock in my throat.

I didn’t trust myself to speak. He was the only person in the world who could get to me this way. The only one. With horror, I felt that hot, prickly feeling behind my eyes that signaled tears were coming.

I’d cried more in the past year than I had in all fourteen years before. I was tired of crying. Tired of crying over Fang.

Dylan shifted impatiently in front of me. I looked up at his face and was surprised to realize that he felt a confusing mix of anger and hurt and caution. I had the power to hurt Dylan’s feelings. And I felt like I had no power over Fang at all.

I swallowed. “Oh, yeah?” I said, and congratulated myself on how casual I sounded.

There was a pause. Fang was speechless. Good.

“Yes,” he said finally. “Will you come? Will you bring the flock? I’m at the Crescent Bay Hotel, on Market Street, downtown. I can explain everything when you get here.”

“We’re pretty busy,” I hedged.

“Max, the Doomsday Group has to be stopped!” Fang said forcefully.

I sat up straight, my jaw dropping. “The Doomsday Group?”