Gozen released Angel, and I immediately grabbed her, drawing her to me and holding her against my chest, feeling her trying to stifle her cries. We were still swinging above the ground, and the mesh wasn’t stopping the freezing winds from tearing at our faces, our jackets.

“Move them,” Gozen directed.

Whatever was holding us started moving slowly across the ice. I felt as if I’d been cold forever, had been surrounded by screaming wind my whole life. Inside the swinging mesh, I looked at Fang’s eyes, the only dark things visible in the endless, swirling whiteness.

Wait, he seemed to say. Wait, and when we see a chance, we’ll take it.

Part Three: MOON OVER MIAMI — OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Part Three

MOON OVER MIAMI — OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Chapter 60

60

HOLDING US OFF the ground inside a tightly woven metal net was about as effective as locking us in dog crates. Not infallible, but pretty dang close. Sure, we could move the net by shifting our weight around, but we were too far away from anything to hit.

After a while we stopped shivering and got sleepy again — welcome back, hypothermia! Just as I was groggily debating the merits of freezing to death before anyone could do something awful to us versus actually living, the thing carrying us began to roll up a snow-covered ramp. My eyes were burning, and my lashes were frozen with chunks of ice, but I blinked and squinted. We were going into . . . a building? A large, round, white building?

Inside I saw that it was a really big jet, designed to move troops or cars or something. So we were going somewhere.

“Max?” That voice . . .

The net released us, hard, onto the floor. Angel gasped slightly, but fortunately she was so out of it by now that the new pain barely registered.

In an instant I staggered to my feet, willing myself back to full consciousness. The ramp closed, and my eyes couldn’t see well in the dim light. I’d lost my sunglasses in the skirmish and was now practically snow-blind.

“Max!”

My heart sank, and I peered into the half-light. “Gazzy?”

Chapter 61

61

HALF AN HOUR LATER, we were thawed, reunited with the rest of the flock, able to see, and becoming very, very p.o.’d about being captives again. Yeah, pretty much business as usual for us.

“Where are we going?” Iggy asked. “Any clues?”

“No,” I said. This rear area of the plane, intended for cargo, had not been graced with windows, since boxes usually don’t give a crap about where they’re going. We were lucky it was slightly heated.