‘You don’t need to tell me,’ I say. ‘I know all about what a pain she can be.’

Dee laughs. ‘She’s like a weapons-grade pain in the ass. We figured out to sic her on the bad guys, and she became a huge asset.’

‘Freaked out the human guards there until we came.’

‘Did you know she can be truly frightening?’

I nod. ‘Oh, yeah. I know that.’

‘Most of us had no idea. Totally blindsided us all.’

‘She’s one of our captains now.’

‘What?’ It’s hard to imagine my mother being in charge of anything.

‘Yeah. For real. What kind of a scary world is that?’

I blink a couple of times, letting that settle in. I admit that if there’s one thing I can expect from her, it’s the unexpected.

‘Your mom totally rocks.’ The twins nod like little bobblehead dolls.

‘Do you know where she is?’ I ask.

‘Yup,’ says Dee. ‘We should be able to find her for you.’

‘Thanks. That would be great.’

We step onto El Camino Real, getting ready to hop from car to car when someone yells into the night. It sounds like a fight coming from the grove on the other side of the street.

Paige is in that grove.

I break into a sprint, running as fast as I can into the woods.

Chapter 19

19

We race into the grove, chasing the noise. We’re not the only ones running through the trees. But I can’t see details, and everything looks like shifting shadows in the deepening night.

There are angry voices. I’m pretty sure hellions don’t talk, at least, not in human voices. I hope this is not the day that I find out otherwise.

Beneath the canopy of trees, a group of shadows raise and drop their fists, kick, and yell at someone curled on the dirt. As we near, I catch a glimpse of the dried skins of the locust victims. Some of them are wearing ripped clothes covered in dirt as if they recently crawled out of graves.

Fists fly and pound into the victim, who is simply taking it, grunting with each impact.

‘What’s going on?’ I ask as I run up. No one seems to hear me.

‘Hey!’ shouts Dee.

‘What’s going on?’ asks Dum in a hushed but demanding voice.

Several of the locust stung glance at us. They don’t stop their kicks, but one of them says, ‘It’s that bastard from Alcatraz. He did this to us. Created the monsters and fed us to them.’ He viciously kicks at the man on the ground. I can’t see any details, but it’s obvious they’re talking about Doc.

The twins must have reached the same conclusion. They jump into the crowd with their arms up. ‘That’s enough!’

‘The council has already said to leave him alone,’ says Dee, pulling a guy off Doc.