“No.” Maddock scowled at her. “We stick together. All of us. Including Nina. We need her, and she needs us.” Maddock turned to me then. “You know how you get stronger and faster when degenerates are near? We call that ‘proximity strength,’ and it’s amplified in the presence of your fellow exorcists, which means we need every exorcist we can find.”

I stared at him, trying to take it all in. If they’d be gaining speed and strength from the presence of one extra exorcist, I could only imagine how much I’d be gaining from the addition of three. Four, if and when Grayson transitioned.

“If we help you get Melanie, we need to be sure you and your sister aren’t just going to disappear into the badlands,” Maddy continued. “We need to know you’re willing to risk as much for us as we are for you.”

I hadn’t actually thought out my next move, beyond stealing my sister back from the Church, but disappearing into the badlands by ourselves was not on the list of possibilities.

“Yes. We’re with you.” We had no one else in the world, and even with the bickering, they were already more of a family to me than my mother had ever been. “So…now what? I’ve never organized a prison break.”

We gathered around the small breakfast table—Devi stood as far from me as possible—and ate Reese’s bacon and eggs while we developed a plan.

“The uniforms will work as well for a rescue as for an escape,” Maddock said around a mouthful of bacon. “They won’t be looking for us in school clothes or at the press conference.”

“That’s because we’d have to be stupid to show up at the courthouse, where every cop in New Temperance is waiting to arrest us.”

I ignored Devi, and that was so much fun I decided to try it more often.

“They’re holding the press conference in the square outside the courthouse,” Reese said. “What can you tell us about the layout?”

The town square was almost identical to the courtyard at my school, but on a larger scale. “Um…There’re buildings on three sides—one is the courthouse—and at the center there’s a stone dais with leg irons for three, and room for hundreds to congregate in front.” And, of course, there was a giant television screen that could be set to show a news feed or a local feed, such as when they announced new Church positions or broadcast school ceremonies, like my third-grade Church creed recital.

“Any idea where they’ll be keeping your sister?” Devi asked as yolk dripped from her forkful of egg onto her plate.

“The police are headquartered in the courthouse, but I’ve only been in there once. Maybe Finn could do some recon and find out where the jail section is?”

Maddock stabbed his fried egg with his fork, and bright yellow yolk bled all over his plate like a sunshine hemorrhage. “He says he’s up for that.”

“There’s probably an entrance on the other side of the building, out of sight from the square. Fewer people would see us if we go in that way.”