too far to cross. I shuddered a little bit, thinking of the things I’d had to do, wishing my kid hadn’t. The guilt swelled up from inside, heavy like a rock. I was surprised I could keep myself aloft.
And now I was doubting her, after everything she’d been through. I tuned in again to listen to her voice—a little husky, sharp as a knife when she wanted it to be.
“Nah,” she was saying, thinking out the answer to her own question. “McCallum would never share power with anyone else. So how did the Six manage to carve the city up? Why does McCallum let them have any power at all?”
I looked at her. “Point your toes,” I said. “Keep your body up and high, parallel to the ground, and point your toes.”
One black-eyed look at me. One blink. Then she pointed her toes, or as much as she could in her heavy black army boots.
“It’s about being as streamlined as possible,” I said. “Like a missile.”
“Uh-huh.”
Maybe I had been a bit abrupt. “Tell me more.” I went on. “You know this city so well. You know all the players.”
That earned me a “God you are so stupid” look. So my mom skills were right on track… and so were her teenager skills. Looks like I’d better stick to what I know best. Flying.
“Okay, this sounds like it’s not true, but it is,” I said. “But you go faster by taking long, deep strokes with your wings, instead of shorter, faster ones.”
Her face closed, anger erupting at yet another tip from me. “Gosh, too bad I didn’t have any goddamn parents to teach me all this crap when I was little!! Then maybe I’d know how to do it right!”
And with short, fast strokes, she zoomed away from me, from the Flock, headed for Tetra.
“Sweetie, I love you,” came Angel’s voice inside my head. “But my god are you a freaking idiot. Leave her alone, for god’s sake!”
“How can I leave her alone?” I screamed. “She’s a total rookie! She’s gonna get us killed!”
Angel was silent.
CHAPTER 84
When I finally dropped through the narrow gap that led down into the entrance of Tetra, I was in a totally pissy mood and felt ready to let that kid have it. Like, my childhood hadn’t been a picnic, you know? I didn’t exactly have anybody holding my hand, either. Basically it had sucked, then been awful, then terrifying and heinous, enlivened by little bursts of horrible! None of the Flock ever had parents, so where did Hawk get off acting like she was the only traumatized person in the whole world? Boo-hoo for the poor orphan!
I was stomping toward the quarters we’d been given when I ran into Angel.
“Please,” she said seriously, standing in my way. “Have some chocolate. I’m begging you.”
I opened my mouth to bite her head off, but she popped a piece of chocolate into it instead.
I hadn’t had chocolate in fifteen years, since the world had exploded. My taste buds blew up, that unmistakable scent of cocoa and fudge and chocolaty goodness flooding my mouth.
“Oah mah dod,” I said, chewing with my eyes closed.
“Listen,” Angel said, now that my jaws were practically glued shut with chocolate. “I hear you, about Hawk. No, she’s not a perfect puzzle piece in our little family. She’s not a trained sniper, she can’t swim, she’s not a great flier. But you said it yourself. She knows this city, knows the players. She’s tough, can fight, has a knife in her boot. You need to cut her some slack.”
I swallowed, then said, “Ange—what if cutting her slack gets us all killed? Believe me—she’s my baby. When we left her it tore my heart out, and I made myself sick, thinking about her, wanting her back, hoping she was okay and with Fang. But this is now, and now we have an important mission to do, a dangerous mission. You know that a weak link means people die.”
Angel took the other half of the chocolate bar and bit off a small piece. Her face wasn’t melting with pleasure the way mine had. I knew my words weren’t landing well with her, chocolate or not.
“I’m not saying she can’t be valuable,” I said more calmly. “She knows everything about this city. She can provide useful intel. She can stay hidden and help coordinate communication. Or something.”
Angel gave me the sideways glance that still made me nervous.
“She and Clete have important roles in the rally tomorrow.”
“Huh?”
“The rally,” Angel