A few months ago, he’d made a very difficult decision. Even though his life had become frightening—just as Master George had promised it would—and even though he could’ve made it all go away with a simple toss of the first letter into the fire, he hadn’t done it. Some courage he didn’t know he’d had, some sense of duty and right he didn’t know was so powerful, had swelled inside his heart and given him the conviction to make an extremely hard choice. He remembered thinking of his little sister Kayla, and what he might do if her life were at stake.

And now, truly for the first time in his existence, Tick had a chance to risk his own life to save another.

The question posed by Master George so long ago popped back into his mind.

Will you have the courage to choose the difficult path?

Tick screamed Sato’s name and slammed the handlebars up and forward, bulleting the Windbike in a straight path toward the fangen. Toward Sato.

~

Sofia continued to fly the Windbike as crazy as she dared, swerving and diving and skyrocketing upward in an attempt to evade the countless creatures coming after them. Her head hurt from the effort; her stomach begged her to stop.

Behind her, Paul continued to shoot as many fangen as he could with his Sound Slicer, defending her as she drove. He’d slipped and almost fallen several times, but she had no choice but to keep flying forward.

She caught a glimpse of Tick streaking past her on his Windbike.

Alone.

Where was—

Before she could finish her thought, one of the flying creatures slammed into them from the side, driving its head into the engine of the bike. Sofia lurched, barely hanging on as the body of the beast flipped under them and fell to the ground.

She felt Paul squirming behind her to right himself on the seat. “What was that thing doing?” he asked.

Unfortunately, they got their answer a second later.

With a loud sputter of electronic coughs, then a low whine that sounded like a baby elephant caught in a trap, the Windbike quit working. Completely.

This time, Sofia and Paul screamed in unison as they dropped toward the ground far below.

~

Tick had halved the distance to Sato and his captors in a matter of seconds. Even though they could fly, the fangen were no match for the Windbikes when it came to speed.

Tick leaned forward, keeping his eyes focused on his target.

He tried not to think of what would happen if they suddenly decided to drop Sato.

~