Hawk - James Patterson Page 0,75

to make them shine, I’d recognize those black wings anywhere. This was Fang’s face, visibly older, inches from mine, outside the net. Iggy, then Nudge flew down. The three of them supported the net while Gazzy tried to unhook it. I didn’t know how much time we had—not everything had been destroyed. The warden and the doctor had been in the courtyard, but I couldn’t see their bodies now.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I breathed, and then Fang gently put two fingers through the net and stroked my cheek.

I almost fell apart. This was a dream. A dream, and I would wake up soon, be in my rotten cell, and I just couldn’t stand it—

“I love you,” Fang whispered. Hot tears welled in my eyes. “I never stopped looking for you. I’m so glad we found you.”

Putting my mouth over my hand, I almost doubled over with happiness, with joy, and with fear that this somehow wasn’t real. I realized I was gasping with sobs, my chest aching. “Please be real,” I choked out.

CHAPTER 73

Hawk

Swimming is so forking hard, so much harder than flying. I saw the prison rock and paddled as hard as I could, but it was taking forever to draw close to the prison. Waves kept breaking over me, the waves that had looked so pretty from above. Now I hated them. In fact, I hated water. I never wanted to see another ocean.

“Ouch!” My paddling foot had hit something hard. A rock! The water was getting shallower. Then my other foot felt one, and soon there were enough rocks to walk over, all the way. They were slippery and I almost got my foot caught between two of them, but at least waves were only coming up to my waist instead of over my head. At last I was at the prison, standing on the tiny bit of earth that surrounded it. This must be the huge, boring backside of the main building. I stood for a minute, getting my balance, shaking water off my feathers and out of my ears—for whatever good that did, it was still pouring. But I needed to buy myself some time, time to think of what to do.

Had the Flock left without me? Was I abandoned—again? Should I jump into the action in the prison? Had they already rescued Max? Or… had they found Max’s body? The one I’d dropped a bomb on. Maybe Fang and the others had found her that way, and decided they were all better off without me blowing up people by accident.

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