I’m about to tell Raffe we should go as soon as the guards move on when I hear my name. It’s not a voice I recognize, and I can’t tell who said it since no one is looking at me. Everyone looks busy having their own conversations.

Then someone else says my name on the other side of the hallway. Still, no one is looking at us.

‘Penryn.’

I see the guy who spoke. He has curly hair and wears a huge shirt that hangs on his scarecrow shoulders and a pair of oversized pants held up by a cinched belt. It’s as if he’s used to being extra large and hasn’t mentally adjusted to his postapocalyptic weight. He’s several people away from me down the hallway but still close enough to hear. I don’t recognize him or anyone around him.

‘Penryn?’ asks the woman speaking to the guy. ‘What kind of name is that?’

They’re not calling me. They’re talking about me.

The guy shrugs. ‘Probably some foreign name that means angel slayer.’

‘Yeah, right. So do you believe it?’

‘What? That she killed an angel?’

How did they know about that?

He shrugs again. ‘Don’t know.’ He lowers his voice. ‘All I know is that it would be amazing to have a safety pass from the angels.’

The woman shakes her head. ‘No way would they keep their word. How would we even know if they’re really putting a bounty on her head?’

I exchange glances with Raffe at the word bounty.

‘Some street gang could’ve just made this whole thing up to kill her,’ she says. ‘Maybe she’s one of their enemies or something. Who knows? The whole world’s gone crazy.’

‘I know one thing,’ says another guy closer to me. He wears glasses with a big crack on one lens. ‘Whether it was the angels or gangs or demons from hell who put the bounty on that girl, it ain’t gonna be me who turns her in.’ He shakes his head.

‘Me neither,’ says another man nearby. ‘I heard it was Penryn who saved us from that nightmare on Alcatraz.’

‘Obadiah West saved us,’ says the woman. ‘And so did those funny twins. What were their names?’

‘Tweedledee and Tweedledum.’

‘That can’t be right.’

‘I kid you not.’

‘Yeah, but it was the girl Penryn who told them to do it. She’s the one who got them to rescue us.’

‘I heard she threatened to sic her monster sister on them if they didn’t.’

‘Penryn—’

‘She’s a friend of mine,’ says one woman I’ve never seen before. ‘We’re like sisters.’

I lower my head, hoping no one recognizes me. Luckily, no one even notices us. As I make my way toward the door, I see a flyer taped to it. The only thing I catch as I pass are the words ‘Talent Show.’