If they’d left me, I was dead: there was no way to fly home by myself. Not home, I corrected—but to Tetra. I could maybe—just maybe—return the way we had come. Or—I could totally miscalculate and end up running out of energy with nothing but ocean and sky all around me. I shivered. One near-drowning was all I needed for a lifetime, thanks.
I shook my feathers again, moved my wings up and down. Despite their recent soaking, they felt fly-worthy. I took a running jump off the spit of land, hoping I didn’t crash facedown on the rocks. I didn’t! I went upward, feeling new strength flowing through my veins as my wings carried me easily above the smoke and the chaos.
I looked down through the torn-open metal cage—there was a crater below with lots of bodies around it. Some of them were starting to move. And then I saw the Flock! They were gathered around someone in a hanging net. Oh, my god, that must be Max! I hadn’t killed Max! But why weren’t they setting her free? There was still one live attack chopper circling overhead!
CHAPTER 74
Max
“Are you real?” I gazed at Fang, reaching my own fingers through the mesh to touch his face, the unusual growth of stubbly black beard. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been barely twenty-one.
“Yep, and I’d love to prove it later, but right now…” he said, his voice grim. He looked up at Gazzy. “Speed it up! We’ve gotta split!”
I turned my head and saw the woman that Nudge had become without my witnessing it. She was beautiful, though tired, gaunt, her face smeared with ash. “Oh, Nudge!”
Tears ran down her face, streaking the ash.
“Gazzy, and Iggy—you guys—” I said, my voice choking up.
Then a new face joined the circle, the harsh face of a teenager who’d seen too much. My eyebrows came together as I took in the black hair shaved into a long mohawk, the tattoos, the piercings, the black eyes…
“Don’t you guys carry knives?” she snarled, pulling a long blade out of a sodden boot. In a second she had sliced the net open from my head to my feet—I almost fell out of it. “Better split,” she advised, and spit, picking some ash off her tongue. “They’ve still got some hell up their sleeves.” Then she pushed down with powerful wings, wings that were black on top and brown on the bottom, with white primaries at the tips.
I got tunnel vision and felt cold all over. “Is that…” I managed, and then I fainted, for only like the thousandth time of my life.
PART THREE
CHAPTER 75
Hawk
“No,” I said, not bothering to smile. The woman named Danae gave me a pleasant, confused look. This deep in the canyons of Tetra, people mostly used candles instead of electric light, so there was a warm, cozy feeling in this room. I could feel the steam wafting off the deep bath—but I had no intentions of going anywhere near it.
“I’ve put healing herbs in it,” she offered, like that would make me change my mind. “You’ve got some burns on the side of your body that could really use the aloe in that water.”
“No.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
Danae looked like she’d never had an unwilling bath-taker, and maybe she hadn’t. Until now. But I had taken a long, horrible bath in a cold, horrible ocean only like ten hours ago, and there was no way I was gonna dunk again.
“It’s nice and warm?” she tried. “And I have some nice clean clothes for you?”
I didn’t bother to respond.
A loud rap on the wooden door made both of us jump.
“For god’s sake, Hawk, take the goddamn bath!” Gazzy shouted. “You smell like a goddamn ox!”
There was silence for a few moments.
I jerked my head at the hooks on the wall. “You can leave the clothes.”
The last luxurious bath I’d taken had been in Pietro’s house. Both times I’d been injured; both times had been/were embarrassing and fabulous. Maybe that’s why I hadn’t wanted to get into this water; thinking about Pietro and our one kiss was just too hard. Still, I almost fell asleep in this bath. Danae was right. The hot water was nothing like the ocean, and the herbs were doing their work, soothing the burns from almost getting struck by lightning. But finally I got out, dried off, and put on the first clothes I hadn’t stolen.
“Where is she?” The voice was startlingly familiar, but I couldn’t place where I knew it from. Then my breath caught in my throat. Max.
Maximum Ride, my possible mother, the one I hadn’t accidentally blown up.
There was a knock on the door, but I was already opening it. She, too, had been cleaned up and bandaged, her matted, rats’ nest of brown hair now untangled. We stared at each other.
“Phoenix,” she said softly.
“My name is Hawk.”
She nodded and swallowed. “The last time I saw you, you were five years old.”
“You missed all the exciting stuff,” I said with a sneer.
“Fang has… explained to me,” she said, her voice breaking. She put one hand over her mouth and shook her head, then tried again. “I didn’t know about anything that had happened until ten minutes ago. Fang told me.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Has he told you?” she asked.
I shrugged.
“I was dying,” she said simply. “I was bleeding out. Fang couldn’t carry both of us. We had a good, loyal friend, Rose Simmons. Fang saw her running toward you, there was no reason to think she wouldn’t get to you. She waved us away. Fang picked me up, we took one last look at you, and then we left.”
Her face was very pale and she was so skinny that her cheekbones jutted out and her shoulders were like right angles. For a moment she put a hand over her mouth again, then went on. “We thought it would be for two or three days. Long enough for Fang to drop me off somewhere safe where I could get patched up and then he’d be back for you. Two nights at the most, we said.”
“Someone told me to stand on that corner every day, for a half hour,” I said harshly. “You know when I quit? Like four days ago! When I met them!” I moved my head to mean the rest of the Flock.
Max’s clear brown eyes bored into mine. I saw depths of pain and hurt—the same things I saw in the rest of the Flock. “Do you remember a car accident?”
I frowned. Car accident? The sound of brakes shrieking, the heavy thump, the screams of passersby, a car horn blaring and blaring and blaring…
“Neither of us knew that Rose was hit and killed by a car, two seconds after we left,” Max said. “While I was healing up, I was abducted by McCallum. Fang went back to get you and found that Rose was dead. No one knew where you were. He searched the City of the Dead, and he waited by the corner for two days, but you didn’t come, no one who had seen you came—Fang lost both of us in two days.”
Well, okay, that sounded bad.
“Then he was framed for acts of terrorism in a different territory and was taken away. Put in prison until recently. The first thing he did after getting out was head for the City of the Dead, to find you.”
I actually didn’t remember the first few days after they left me on the corner. Their faces, voices, still didn’t seem familiar to me. But just a few days later I was sitting on a street curb, eating an apple core, and it suddenly occurred to me that I was supposed to wait on the corner. That was the first day I waited. So it could be true, that Fang came to look for me and I wasn’t there, couldn’t be found. It could all be true.
“Listen, Phoenix—you’re part of the Flock, whether you want to be or not,” Max said, her voice firmer. “So I want you with us, by our sides, no matter what.”
I tried to look bored but failed. “My name is Hawk. By your side, doing what, exactly?”
“Taking down one evil regime after another.” Max grinned, looking years younger. “It’s what we do.”
CHAPTER 76
“Will she get better?” The doctor, Mikaela, and I looked through an opening into a healing room. The hospital section of Tetra was weirdly big and super protected. As soon as
Max had left, I’d gone to check on my friends—because I might have found my mom and dad, but my friends were still my family. Ying, the doctor I’d met before, had pounced on me and insisted on cleaning up my cheek. I’d been braced, but she’d numbed everything, given me two shots, and then took out the thick black stitches. Instead, she’d glued the edges shut, and the whole thing was much smoother and less noticeable.
But now I was looking at Calypso as she moaned quietly, tossing and turning on a bed. Every so often she barfed. A helper caught it in a basin, then wiped Calypso’s face.
“Oh, yes,” Mikaela said firmly. “She, Rain, and Moke are all detoxing. I’m afraid it’s an unpleasant process, but completely doable. We’ve detoxed hundreds, if not thousands, of citizens.”
“She’s just a kid,” I said, my chest aching.
“Yes,” Mikaela said. “And like most kids from the city, she’s malnourished, needs other meds to keep her from getting sick, and is really small for her age.”
My face went cold. “I did the best I could. It’s not like I was stealing from a health-food store!”
Mikaela remained calm. “Hawk, you’re a kid from the city. You, too, are malnourished and need other meds to keep from getting sick.”
“I’m not small for my age,” I pointed out.
Mikaela’s laugh sounded so… I don’t know—open? Like she knew she could just laugh and it would be okay? “No,” she agreed. “You don’t have antennas, either.”
“So is she a bug-kid, like I’m a bird-kid?” I asked. I’d always wondered.
“We don’t know,” Mikaela said, not sounding bothered by that. “I guess we’ll find out.” She laughed again. “Do you know why Moke is blue?”
“Something about silver?” I said.
“Oh, that would do it,” Mikaela said thoughtfully. “Talk to you later, sweetie.” She headed off down one of the tunnels that looked like striped, twisted clay. She was humming.
This place was weird. It’s like people were happy for no obvious reason.
“Hawk!”
I turned at Clete’s voice, amazingly glad to see someone familiar, someone I totally knew.
I almost ran to him, and he looked shocked when I hugged him.
“Boy, Clete, am I glad to see you!” I said, and his uncomfortable look made me remember why I never did this, never hugged him. I took a step back, but let the smile stay on my face. “It feels like I was gone for a week! What have you been doing?”
He said, “You seen Calypso, an’ Rain, an’ Moke?”
“Yeah. The doctor says they’ll detox okay. But it’ll take a while.”
“Yeah.” His face brightened. “They got real food here! An’ computers! An’ the people are nice, too. I like it here, Hawk.”
“What’s not to like?” I asked.
“I don’t wanna go back to the city,” he said, getting what I thought of as his “brick wall” expression.
“I don’t think you have to, bud,” I said. “I think we’re welcome to stay. Or at least, you and the other kids are.”
“And you?” he said, concerned.
“To be honest, I’m not sure what my plans are right now,” I said. Like, if the Flock actually really wanted me, if I wanted to go with them…
“Oh, really?”
I tensed, already knowing that voice too well.
Fang came up behind me, put one arm around my shoulder, and gave me a sideways hug. “God, your killer scar is much less intimidating,” he said. “And you’re so clean—I hardly recognized you,” he said.
“Look who’s talking,” I sneered.
He did look super different from the scraggly, dirty prisoner he’d once been. He’d shaved. His hair was dark and shiny. He smelled a hell of a lot better. I guessed I did, too.
“Speaking of plans,” he said, “I need you to come with me.”
“Why?”
“There’s someone you need to meet.”
CHAPTER 77
“Hang on—this place is a maze,” Fang said, frowning.
I couldn’t give him any shit, because he was right. Tetra was one cavern or tunnel after another. Sometimes we crossed through a thin strip of sunlight from an open canyon above, and twice we’d gone over a small wooden bridge that crossed a narrow stream.
“Where are we going?” I asked for like the fifth time. “Just stop and ask someone!”
He gave me his narrow-eyed glare, and I mimicked him. But the next person who walked by was in fact grumpily asked for directions. She also pointed out the small signs everywhere, saying where stuff was. But god forbid we should rely on those!
“Maybe some punk moved ’em all around—you don’t know,” Fang muttered as we charged down yet another tunnel.
“Yeah, can’t trust all us young punks,” I said, sarcastically.
Finally he stopped in front of a door, checked its number against the one written on his hand, and opened it. “Okay, we’re back,” he said, walking in.
I looked past him to see a large living room–type situation, kind of dark, as so many rooms here were. Max stood up, smiling at me, and I prayed this wasn’t some kind of family thing I was nowhere near ready for. Then I saw Gazzy sitting on a sofa, eating something. He waved at me.
“Come get some eggs and stuff!” he said.
Okay, then. I walked in and headed for a small alcove with a kitchen in it. Iggy—Iggy—was cooking? My head swiveled right and left as I looked to see if anyone else thought this was, you know, dangerous? But it was all business as usual with the circus bird-family!
I grabbed a plate and stood still as Iggy—Iggy—dolloped scrambled eggs (I really think they were real) onto my plate, and toast and the best bacon-flavored krill I’d ever had.
I’d ignored Max since I’d come in, ignored when she and Fang hugged each other for an uncomfortably long time, ignored when they both glanced my way, murmuring softly. Instead I sat down at a convincing wood-grain table and started shoveling chow in.
“Ooh! Hawk!”
I smiled up at Nudge as she hurried over and gave me a quick hug.
“Are you sure he should be cooking?” I whispered, motioning my head toward Iggy.
Nudge chuckled and whispered back, “Trust me—he’s a thousand times better than the rest of us.”
“Are you done?” Fang asked impatiently. “There’s someone we want you to meet.”
I took a last slug of coffee, looking at him. Something in me told me this was important; it was why he’d brought me here. But everyone in the Flock was already here—Max, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge.
I wiped my mouth with the back of one hand and stood up. They all looked expectant. I hadn’t noticed the slightly open door at the far end of the room, but now a small wolflike creature bounded out of it, mouth open to show its long, sharp canines.
I felt a quick flood of adrenaline, the way my hands tensed for action, the way my feet tightened for kicks.
It was coming straight at me, and no one was stopping it, no one moving to help me. Was this some kind of test? I’d never seen a wolf this small before, or this dark, nearly black.
“Stand down, Phoenix!” Max said sharply.
Shocked, I straightened to look at her, and the small wolf seized that moment to leap at me, landing so it could brace its fat, fuzzy paws against my knees.
“Hi! I’m Io!” it said. “An’ you’re Phoenix, but I’m s’posed to call you Hawk an’ I never met you before but you used to know my dad an’ he isn’t here right now he had to stay home and help Mama but he said I could come an’ this is my first mission only I’m s’posed to stay back and be careful.”
I stared down into blue eyes, seeing the pert, triangular ears, the ruff of fur framing a face. A dog’s face? A little dog’s face? Then it hit me: it wasn’t the dog talking. Oh, my god, I was so stupid. One of the Flock threw their voice to mess with me. Those asswipes.
A light, silvery laugh made me look up to see a teenager, maybe almost twenty, coming toward m
e. She was a good head shorter than me, with fluffy, light-blond hair that curled around her face. She wasn’t vidscreen pretty, but there was something about her that kept my gaze locked on her face.
“It was really Io talking,” she said with a smile. “And that was real bacon, not bacon-flavored krill, and this table is actually wood, not just wood-grain.”
My mouth opened to ask where the mics were, but then I realized that those had been thoughts—I hadn’t said any of that out loud.
The blond woman laughed again. “And yes, certain members of the Flock are often total asswipes.”
“Hawk, this is Angel,” Max said, coming over to us. “The last member of the Flock. More important, she’s the leader of our worldwide group—a group called Freedom.”
CHAPTER 78
“No, no—I want to hear,” Gazzy said. “Which ones of us are asswipes?”
I shook my head, embarrassed. “I didn’t mean asswipes,” I muttered. “More, like, you know, jokesters.”
“She meant asswipes,” Angel said, almost doubling over with laughter. “Oh, my god, you guys—if I wasn’t sure she was your kid, I’d be totally sure now after hearing her thoughts for two seconds!”
My face was red and burning and I didn’t know what to do. I felt a soft pat right below my knee.
“You know, if you sit on the sofa, then I could sit next to you.” Io started trotting to the long sectional sofa against the wall. Numbly I followed her and sat down. She was a little too short and chunky to make it up, so Nudge gave her a boost. She snuggled next to me and put one paw on my leg. “There,” she said. “Isn’t this nice?”
“Uh-huh,” I mumbled, looking at the floor.
“You don’t remember Total?” Max asked, coming to sit on my other side.
“Total of what?” I asked.
Io laughed a kind of doggy laugh. “Total’s my dad, silly! He told me all about you. He says you used to pull his ears when you were a baby.”
I had zero idea of what she was talking about. “So, Total’s a dog?” I asked Nudge, because she seemed the least nuts of all of them. “And he talks?”
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