Max

Today we hadn’t risked anything except the possibility of our new jeans shrinking up on us. My jaw set in disgust as I stalked past them, my stomach clenching at the sight of Brigid pressed against Fang like ugly on an ape.

“You must come have di

“Uh, I’m busy,” Fang muttered.

My eyes widened, but I kept walking and refused to turn around. That’s me: suave Max.

“Hey,” Fang said, falling into step with me. I looked at him. “We have to eat. Let’s you and me go into town. I’ll treat you to the best artery-clogging Hawaiian food we can find.”

My heart began thudding painfully inside my chest. I wondered if Fang could hear it. “You mean the whole flock?” I asked casually, trying not to shriek with tension.

“Nah. They can eat at the Officer’s Mess with Brigid and John,” he said.

I stopped and looked into his eyes, seeing nothing but my own reflection, as usual. “Just you and me?” I repeated, barely hanging on to my suavity by my fingernails.

His eyes were unreadable. “Yeah.”

“Hawaiian food?”

“Yeah.”

I was still grossed out by the Brigid display and wanted to coolly brush past him with a mild, “I’ll think about it.” But the combination of having Fang all to myself, plus fun food, was rapidly pummeling my self-respect into the dust. Then I remembered something.

“The last time we… left the flock, all heck broke loose,” I reminded him.

He gri

“This time they’re protected by the U.S. Navy,” he pointed out.

I laughed, relief flooding through me. “Well, okay. You got me there.” Oh, boy, did he have me.

41

WAS THIS A DATE? Those four words kept swirling through my mind, over and over, and it was getting to the point where I wanted the old Voice back, just for a change of pace, to hear someone who at least pretended to be rational.

Which I so wasn’t. The whole thing was like a dream. All I knew was that we were in Honolulu. There were festive streetlights and store windows everywhere, crowds of people walking past, many sailors in uniform, an ocean, kind of all around us, and…

Me and Fang. Holding hands and eating ice cream.

And the flock was safe on a giant naval base where you couldn’t even spit without hitting an antiaircraft missile.

If life got better than this, I didn’t think I could take it.

I wanted time to stand still, and not in the creepy, someone-injected-drugs-into-my-brain-so-time-has-become-meaningless kind of way but just… every second had weight. My skin was tingling, my brain was racing, and everything seemed extra whatever it was. Extrafun. Extrabeautiful. Extrayummy.

The hand holding Fang’s seemed to have three times as many sense receptors, and I hoped it wasn’t some new ability showing up. I was still worried about gills appearing.

This totally felt like a date.

And the beautiful part? He’d turned down Dr. Stupendous to be with moi. He’d dissed her and dismissed her, so he could eat kimchi and ice cream with yours featherly.

“Max?”

I suddenly became aware that Fang had said my name like three times. Now he stopped and looked at me. “Are you okay? Is the Voice back, giving you instructions?”

“Uh-huh. It’s in the middle of the crossword of the day.”

He smiled, and we kept walking.

“No, I was just spacing out,” I said, licking my ice cream. I had gotten a double scoop of mint chocolate chip and orange sherbet, two great tastes that tasted great together.

“Well, tomorrow we leap into action,” he said. “So, last chance to space out for a while.”

“Yeah. I just hope -”

“I know. I’m sure she’s okay. We’ll get there in time. And I promise to let you take her kidnappers apart all by yourself.”

He knew me so well. “Thanks. It’s just – it’s bad enough to worry about the flock. Is Nudge okay, is everyone here, are we together, are we safe? I can’t stand the circle getting bigger. I can only worry about so much before my head explodes, you know?”

He nodded. “You know I got your back. You’re not alone.”

I couldn’t speak for a moment, so I swallowed hard and cleaned up a drip making its way down my sugar cone. “Thanks,” I said finally. “I know.” Suddenly we were at a metal railing, looking out at water. “Oh! Is this the ocean?”

“It keeps cropping up. What with the islandness and all.”

Fang dropped my hand to put his arm around my shoulders, his warmth searing my skin through my jacket. I really, really hoped that I hadn’t suddenly sprouted a catrillion new nerve endings. Yes, it would make moments like this better, but the downside? Pain and torture would be a million times worse. Guess which one I was more likely to come up against?

I finished my cone, sucking the ice cream out of the hole in the bottom before I realized how tacky and ungirl-like that was. Oops. I wiped my hands on my jeans and looked out at the deep blue water, glistening with moonlight, knowing that somewhere my mom was being held captive beneath it.

Then I realized that despite everything, I felt… happy? Safe? Complete? I didn’t know what to call it. It wasn’t something that I was on familiar terms with. I just knew I didn’t want this night to end.

I mean, I did, of course – because when the night ended, we would finally, finally, finally go save my mom.

But besides that, I didn’t want this night to end.

“Max.” Fang put two fingers under my chin – I hoped it wasn’t sticky but wasn’t sure – and gently turned me to face him. “You’re a million miles away again.”

“Sorry.” Once more I cursed Jeb for not grafting the gift of gab into my DNA. Jerk.

“Are you too worried about your mom? Do you want to head back?”

“No,” I said, meeting his gaze. “No. I’m okay. Just – kind of overwhelmed.” I gave a little cough. “I don’t want to go back. I want to be here with you.”

Something lit in his black eyes. “Yeah?”

I nodded.

“So… you’re choosing me?”

Okay, if this is what falling in love feels like, someone please kill me now. (Not literally, overzealous readers.) But it was all too much – too much emotion, too much happiness, too much longing, perhaps too much ice cream…

I had to grip the metal railing hard with both hands so I wouldn’t throw myself over it, to streak away into the night, into darkness and safety. Tough it out, Max, I told myself – or maybe it was the Voice.

But it didn’t matter, because then Fang leaned down and kissed me, and I put my arms around him, right there in front of everyone, and kissed him back with everything I had.

And then, all heck broke loose.

Of course.

Because this is my life, right?

42

“I MISS HER, but… it’s kind of nice not having Nudge around being all goody-goody,” Gazzy whispered as they quietly shut the Quonset hut door behind them.

“How can you say that? I totally miss her.” Angel breathed. “Oh – guards ahead at two o’clock. Let’s detour.”

Iggy, Gazzy, and Angel pressed themselves into the shadows as MPs carrying rifles marched by on their rounds. When the MPs were out of earshot, the three bird kids hustled across the training field to the high fence, then nimbly flew over it and headed to the beach, well below any radar.

When they’d landed on the sand, Gazzy continued. “I miss Nudge too – a lot. But you know she was always the one who’d be like, ‘We better ask Max. Maybe we shouldn’t do this. Are you sure that’s okay?’ and stuff.” Gazzy had mimicked Nudge’s voice so perfectly that the other two, for a split second, expected to see her standing right there next to them.

“Well, Nudge isn’t here,” said Iggy, kicking off his shoes. “I wish she was, a