you to rescue ’em while you’re hungry, or rescue ’em when you’re not hungry?”
I stood there, thinking. It’s like she nudges you toward doing that, too.
“Better sit down. She doesn’t give up,” Iggy said, moving past me to another crate. His skinny knees stuck up like two triangles when he sat.
“We have doughnuts,” Gazzy said, folding his wings in. Their wings were like mine, folding not once like Ridley’s, but twice, to rest neatly on either side of their spines. It was a comforting sight to see; someone like me, for the first time, ever.
I sat.
“Okay,” said Nudge, handing me a doughnut. “Tell us about this complex.”
For the next twenty minutes I stuffed my face with doughnuts, then a bunch of dried fruit—like dried on purpose, not just old and yucky—then a little mesh bag of all kinds of nuts. Then a couple more doughnuts, not even all that stale.
In between mouthfuls, I drew them a map of the complex in the thick dust on the floor. I showed them how it looked when I flew over it, where the gates were, the few windows, doors, and how they were guarded. I drew the long walkway to the Labs and showed how the prison was kind of off by itself but not far away. In a tiny box in one corner of one building, I scratched out the main room and the little sleeping closet of the Children’s Home.
“That’s where you grew up,” Iggy said, rather than asked.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “There used to be a lot more of us, but now there’s only five. The last one we lost was Veil. You could sort of see through her, but she couldn’t pass through walls or anything. They took her like six months ago. She hasn’t come back. They never come back.”
“And now they’ve taken everyone else,” Gazzy clarified.
“Yeah,” I said. “Everyone but me and Clete. Me because I was… somewhere else, and Clete because he hid.” My face heated and turned pink as I thought about where I’d been, and with who. Kissing Pietro felt like a thousand years ago.
“And you got injured how?” Nudge asked.
My hand went to the C on my cheek, the flaming, red skin puffy under my touch. I told them about the Chungs and the Paters, Ones and Sixes, the street fights and the constant battle for pride and protection—one that the street rats like me ended up in the middle of, all too often. What I didn’t tell them was that I’d been sitting in a high-end tub, then been kissed by the Pater prince not too long ago. They didn’t need to know that. My blush got deeper. Nobody needed to know that.
“Okay,” said Iggy, standing up. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 34
I jumped to my feet. “Wait a second!” I said. “We don’t have a plan!”
“We’re going to go rescue Fang,” Nudge said, sounding surprised. “Then your friends.”
“My friends first,” I said, realizing that all my drawings and explanations had given them the only bargaining chip I had. They’d fed me doughnuts, and I’d downed them without question, happily giving away all my info while my brain drowned in sugar. I was a moron.
“Fang first,” Iggy said mildly. “Then he can help save your friends.”
I remembered the first look I’d had of the prisoner: strong and solid. If he was a decent guy, having him on our side to bust my friends out would be a good bet. But if he wasn’t… I shook my head. I was so down and out, this is where I’d landed. Trusting strangers.
“That prison is pretty solid,” I reminded them. “Fang is on death row. I mentioned the thick walls, the guards, the guns, right?”
“Yeah,” the Gasman said, sounding surprised. “Figure it’s pretty standard prison stuff.”
“And we’re just… going to go break Fang out?”
“Yeah,” said Nudge, smiling at me. “It’s okay, sweetie. We do this kind of thing all the time.” She pulled on the leather backpack. I noticed Gazzy had a larger, black backpack, and so did Iggy.
My stomach was grinding, all the doughnuts taking a turn for the worse as I realized these people were actually going to do this. Part of me hadn’t thought this was real. I’d totally expected to come here, meet a bunch of creeps who would blow me off—or worse—and then have to figure this out on my own. The idea that three strangers, grown-ups, would join me and help make this happen—it was a lot to take in. Of course, they