Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure (23 page)

Fang held me tightly, like he’d never, ever let go again, and we kissed for what felt like an eternity, for all of those
tense moments that had been building between us for years, and for every second we’d been apart. We kissed like we were inhaling each other, like we would live and die in this moment.

We kissed like the world was ending.

80

AND THEN, SUDDENLY, it was like the world really
was
ending.

Without warning, an explosion tore through my tree house, dangerously rocking the structure like an earthquake. Adrenaline overloaded my system and Fang and I scrambled to untwist from the hammock and ran inside. Our senses were hammered from all sides: Glass shattering. Wood splintering. Someone crashing toward us with the force of a tornado.
What on earth—

“GET OUT!” someone yelled at full volume. “GET OUT
NOW
!”

A tall figure emerged from the shadows, looking totally strung out and insane and desperate.

I nearly shrieked in fury. After ruining everything else, now he was ruining my perfect night with Fang.

“Dylan!”
I exploded at him. “What are you even
doing
here? On
our
island?”

“Max! Just give me a chance to explain—”

“A chance?” My mouth hung open. I could not believe what I was hearing. “How
dare
you. You went ballistic!” I yelled. “You abandoned the flock. And,
oh, yeah
, you TRIED TO KILL FANG! You don’t get anything, do you? There are
no more chances
!”

“But this is it!” Dylan persisted. “I
saw
something, in the sky.” His eyes were wild. “We have to get out right now!”

“No.
You
need to get out,” Fang said in a low voice. He stepped closer so that his face was inches from Dylan’s. “Now.”

Dylan didn’t flinch, but grabbed my wrist and tried to pull me toward the door. Fang shot forward, batting his hand away. Fang’s face was warped with anger, his body rigid and his wings spread wide. He looked deadly.

Things were spiraling out of control.

“Look, I know things haven’t been the best between us lately,” Dylan said, backtracking. “But you guys just have to trust me—”

“Trust you?”
Fang almost spit. “Why should we trust you?”

“Because I have always, always had Max’s best interests at heart,” Dylan answered. Fang scoffed, but Dylan continued,
his voice rising. “Because every second you stay here you’re putting her at risk—putting everyone at risk. Do you really want that on your shoulders? Don’t you care about her at all?”

“Enough!” I yelled, stepping between them. “Okay,” I snapped, pointing to Dylan. “You have sixty seconds. Start talking. Now.”

Dylan swallowed. “I saw something. In the sky,” he said, breathing heavily, trying to speak coherently. “I don’t know how to explain. We have to get to the caves, get all the kids out. Now.”

I shook my head. “It’s okay. We know about the plague and the 99% Plan. This place was built to protect us. We’re safe.”

“Even if no one else is,” Fang muttered from behind me.

“None of that matters!” Dylan shrieked. His eyes were wild, crazed. He looked like he was about to jump out of his skin. “This isn’t a plague. Not even close.”

I put a hand on his arm to try to calm him. After everything we’d been through, it still hurt to see him like this. “You… saw something in the sky,” I said gently, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “Did it have wings? Was it a jet? A flyboy?”

“No, nothing like that.” Dylan shook his head. “It’s something… big. And it’s moving too fast for me to clearly see what it is. But it’s headed this way.”

Fang walked to the window and peered out. I looked at him questioningly, but he shook his head. “Sky’s totally
clear. The leaves are still—there’s not even any wind. Are you sure you didn’t just see a shooting star, buddy?” Fang asked dryly.

Dylan’s eyes hardened, his jaw tightening. “It was no everyday shooting star.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, thinking.

I glanced back at Fang and saw his eyes flashing threateningly through his curtain of dark hair. He was rational to a fault. My
real
“other half.”

And then there was Dylan, in front of me, looking all broken and insane and like he really needed me.

“Do you not hear what I’m telling you?” Dylan asked in frustration. “Max, I was created to protect you.”

“Protect
me
?” I bristled. “I have spent years leading this flock, making split-second decisions based on well-honed instincts,” I growled. “You have been alive for, what, a minute? And you’ve spent the past few days having a well-documented meltdown. Now, after almost murdering Fang, you have the nerve to show up here, to insist that we follow you because something weird is about to just… fall from the sky?” I was hitting a fever pitch. “Who do you think needs protection more, Dylan, me or you?”

His eyes were pleading, but I wasn’t moving. “It’s coming
now
,” he said. “Please.”

I sighed. “Dylan, just… go.”

“Fine, stay here. I’m getting the rest of the kids to the caves. I’m not having their deaths on my head.” Dylan sighed sadly. “I know you don’t trust me anymore, Max.
But I’ve never lied to you, not once, and though it might seem like I’ve done some questionable things, I’m not crazy. You have to know that everything I’ve ever done, I did for you.”

I cringed as he turned his back on us, his shoes crunching over the broken glass.

“And Max,” Dylan called from the doorway, “after I get everyone to safety, I’ll be back for you. Even if it means dying with you out here. That’s the only way I want my life to end. With you.”

81

“WHO DOES THAT guy think he is?” Fang exploded after Dylan was out of sight.

“Seriously!” I was as cranky as a wet cat and pacing furiously. “What the heck does he think he’s doing barging into my house”—I gestured dramatically—“in the middle of—” I locked eyes with Fang. He raised an eyebrow, and his smirk sent a buzz through my whole body. “In the middle of the night. Trying to freak everyone out?”

I yanked an upturned table back over and slammed the door Dylan had left open.

“Max,” Fang said cautiously. When I turned around, there was uncertainty on his face. “Do you think he might’ve really seen something? His vision is crazy sharp, isn’t it?”

“Oh, please,” I huffed. “It’s not that great. And I don’t know if he’s short-circuiting or what, but he’s clearly not the brightest bulb right now.”

Fang nodded and bent to right an overturned chair. One of the reasons Fang and I work so well together? He keeps his mouth shut when I’m in fire-breathing dragon mode. Unlike Blondie down there.

At that point, I’d almost gotten used to Dylan strapping us in for his own personal roller-coaster ride of highs and lows, complete with lingering nausea at the whole rotten experience. This, however, was on a whole new level.

I was made to protect you
, he’d said, his sea-blue eyes begging me to trust him, still full of that same fierce drive he’d shown when I’d taught him to fly, not so very long ago. But that dopey innocence, which had seemed almost endearing then, was nowhere in sight now.

I shook my head. I couldn’t afford to be sentimental. Not anymore. Sentimentality is for suckers. And a sucker, I ain’t.

Harden your heart.

Done. My heart is a freaking diamond. Only less glittery.

I bent to help Fang pick up the pieces of glass from the shattered window, and I couldn’t help staring down at the havoc Dylan was already wreaking on our little paradise. The place had gone from zero to sixty in minutes, and I watched as he herded dozens of hysterical kids into the ultra-secure underground cave system.

Abuse of privileges. Mom was gonna freak.

“Gazzy!” I shouted when I spotted him moving along in his bobbing gait. “Nudge!” Iggy was with them, consoling Ella as they hurried toward the caves. Even Total was barking anxious orders at Akila in their dog language. “You guys, he’s delusional. Cuckoo. There’s nothing to worry about!”

In the chaos, they didn’t seem to hear me.

“Oh, no,” I fumed. “This. Will. Not. Stand.” Making a mess was one thing. Hijacking my flock was another. “Wait, where’s—”

“Angel.” Fang pointed at the ragged-looking ball of feathery fluff zooming toward us through the trees.

She was sobbing as she crashed into my arms.

“Whoa,” I said, cuddling her close. “It’s okay, Ange. You’re okay.”

Angel shook her head, her soft curls framing her tear-streaked face.

“You guys have to get to the caves,” she said, hiccupping. “It’s coming. Dylan saw—”

“Yeah, I’m going to put a stop to that,” I reassured her.

“No!” she wailed, her blue eyes wide with fear. “Dylan knows what he’s doing. I saw things when I was in that lab, Max. Horrible things.” Her little face contorted, and my mother-bear instincts raged.
As soon as we get off this island
, I swore,
I am going to hunt down those sickos who hurt my baby.

“But we’re never going to leave here, Max. We can’t leave. You promised!” Angel cried, reading my mind.

I wiped the tears from her face and cupped her tiny chin in my hands. “It’s okay, sweetie. Deep breaths. What did you see in the lab?”

“I saw trees falling over like dominoes. This place, coated in ash. The light comes first, then the sound. And you and Fang, blown out of the sky.” Fang’s dark eyes flicked to my face, but he didn’t move. “When we landed, it seemed familiar, but I wasn’t sure. It all makes sense now, though. Dylan is right—the sky is falling.”

It’s time
, the Voice inside my head said.
Listen to her, Max.

82

THE WORLD WAS ending, and we were in paradise.

I knew I should join the others, kiss away the rest of humanity, and spend the next fifty years snuggled up to my winged prince charming, finally free.

Fang and Angel were both studying my face closely. I shook my head slowly. I knew this was the decision that would define my life.

I just didn’t have it in me to die like a coward.

“I’m flying back to the States,” I said. “Now.” I stepped past them, out onto the limb between the tree houses. Below, the jungle was quiet, the leaves rustling softly. Except for a few small figures I could see at the cliffs in the distance, everyone was already safe in the caves. If I was
going to do this, if I was going to walk away from my flock, maybe forever, I had to go before I lost my nerve.

“What?” Angel looked horrified.

“Are you sure?” Fang asked, his face trusting and true.

I nodded, trying not to look into his eyes, trying not to think about what I was leaving behind. “If the toxin has been engineered like my mom said, there has to be an antidote. Or maybe Mark was lying. Maybe the contagion hasn’t been released. Maybe we can stop the psychopaths before they release the bug. But if it
is
released… Well, at least we can warn people.”

Angel shook her head. “Max, you don’t understand what you’re up against.”

“Look, it’s not like the odds haven’t been stacked against me before,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. “I always come out all right in the end, don’t I?” I didn’t say what everyone else was thinking: that it might actually
be
the end this time.

“Please don’t do this now,” Angel pleaded, reaching for my arm. “We have to get to the caves. Fang, tell her! We’ll be safe, I promise. Just come with us.”

Listen to her
, the Voice repeated.
Go.

I’d been obeying my Voice for so long, trusting whatever it said, even when it seemed to be mocking my existence. But I couldn’t do it this time. Not when the consequences were so major.

“I can’t, sweetie,” I said to Angel. “I’m tired of running from the unknown. If this threat is real, I’m going to face
it, whatever it is, with the rest of the world.” I looked at Fang, standing next to her.
I’m sorry
, I mouthed, my heart breaking.

But Fang walked out to the limb and took my hand. He brought it to his lips and, without taking his smoldering, coal-black eyes from my face, said, “I’m with Max.”

“Fang, no, you can’t,” I said. If this really was it, the end of the world, I couldn’t ask this of him.

“Yes, I can. We’ll fly back to face 99%,” he said, nodding at me.

I stared at Fang for a long moment. It felt like we were one person.

“I’m with you,” he repeated solemnly.

“But it’s not them!” Angel shrieked from the ledge. “Aren’t you listening? All the preparation Dr. Martinez and Pierpont and Jeb and all the other whitecoats did, poking and prodding and testing us, shooting us up with God knows what to make us immune—it was all totally pointless! It’s not coming from 99%. It’s coming from the sky.”

Fang shrugged. “Then we’ll face the thing in the sky. Whatever it is, we’ll face it together.” He gave my hand a squeeze, and tears streamed down my face.

“You’ll die here!” Angel cried. “You’ll both die, falling, just like what I saw.”

I looked down at her, not sure how to explain myself. “Angel, I was supposed to save the world,” I said quietly. I paused for a moment, realizing the gravity of that statement, and then stood up straighter, suddenly more sure of
myself than I’d ever been. “I was supposed to save the whole world—not just the ‘special’ ones, not just the ones who have the protection of some multibillionaire. So if the rest of the world has to die, I have to go down with them.”

I looked out across the row of abandoned tree houses with the pristine beaches in the background.

So long, paradise. It was nice knowing you.

Fang and I snapped out our wings and prepared for takeoff.

“Max!” Angel shouted. “Listen to me. You have to. I’m your Voice!”

83

I COULDN’T HELP but gasp. Then I quickly regrouped. I retracted my wings and shot her a supremely annoyed look. “You’re not serious,” I managed to say.