Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

School - What Could Be Scarier Than That: 49

After about half an hour, I felt like I'd worked most of the kinks out of my muscles. I knew tomorrow I'd be horribly sore, but right now was what mattered. I flew hard and fast, coasting on air currents whenever I could.

This time, I didn't look down.

An hour later, I was approaching the meeting place, praying that Nudge and Fang had waited for me.

I was two days late, and I wouldn't blame them for giving up on me, but I didn't want to think about the possibility that they had decided to rescue Angel on their own.

When I got close to the meeting place, I started circling big, losing altitude slowly while examining the ground, the cliffs, the shadows. Nothing.

I flew the length of the canyon, looking for signs, but was disappointed again. Panic made my throat tighten. I'd been so stupid.

Oh, God, what if they had never made it here? What if -

A shadow fell across me, and I glanced up, thinking, helicopter! But it wasn't - just a scattered flock of hawks above me, wheeling through the sky.

I frowned and angled myself upward. Several of the hawks were oddly large and misshapen. But they were flying right along with the others and seemed part of their flock. I squinted and focused, all the time gaining altitude.

My heart swelled - there were four way-too-big hawks, all right. Except hawks usually weren't quite as awkward as these four. And hawks usually didn't wear sneakers.

They had waited for me, all right, and they were safe. Relief and joy flooded through my body and soul. Now we would go find Angel, and then the flock would be whole again.

And yes, I did say soul.