“Let me guess. ‘I’m the big-shot psychic and I know everything.’ ” Gazzy mimicked Angel’s voice perfectly, and Nudge giggled, then winced in pain. “Okay, Ange, don’t hold out on us. Go on, tell us what mysterious future awaits us in Russia.” He wiggled his fingers and made his eyebrows jump.
Gazzy had always been protective of Angel, but clearly some tension had been building between them. Angel was definitely not smiling. She crossed her arms over her chest but didn’t answer.
“That’s what I thought.” Gazzy snickered as he jumped off the chair with his find.
She stared at him evenly. “I know it’s hard when some of us are developing even more extraordinary powers and you’re still trying to control your hilarious toxic farts, but don’t you think you should grow up, Gasman?”
Gazzy looked at Angel in surprise. They were standing toe to toe now, blue-eyed mirrors of each other, and I was getting a little nervous—a threatened Angel is an unpredictable Angel. I looked at Iggy. He’d always been so good at neutralizing tension, but his jaw was set tight as he let it build and build.
“I’m the one who needs to grow up?” Gazzy said. His cheeks were flushed with anger. “First you were just loooving being Max’s precious little baby, and now you pull this ‘I’m the Chosen One’ crap every time you don’t get your way.”
“I know what I’m talking about!” Angel stamped her foot.
“Oh, are we going to have a tantrum now?” Gazzy taunted.
“Okayyy,” I said, and blew out a frustrated breath. “Let’s just all take a step back here. Ange, honey, I know you haven’t been sleeping. Maybe you just need some rest.”
“We’re all going to Russia!” Angel shouted.
“I’m going to the US!” her brother raged back.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Nudge said. “Whatever’s out there…” She glanced toward the door and touched a hand to her cheek, where the blood had soaked through the cloth again. “It’s not any better than where we were.”
“We don’t know that, Nudge,” Fang said. “If we catch these guys, things might get a lot better.”
“Maybe Nudge is right,” I said. “Maybe we should go back to the island for a while.”
“What?” Fang jerked his head around.
“What?!” Gazzy repeated.
Fang took me aside, keeping his voice low. “Max, how can you say that, especially now that we have a clue about what happened? You don’t think we owe it to those people to help them?”
I shifted uncomfortably. There is no purer form of humiliation than when someone you love and respect suggests you might be a self-involved jerk.
“Of course I want to help people,” I said quietly. “But we know there are people sick in Asia, too, and that’s a lot closer. And we know Pierpont stocked the vaccine in the caves on our island. Maybe we should try to find a way in again.”
Fang sighed and looked away.
I touched his arm. “I just think we need to figure things out before we make any crazy decisions.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Total said.
“Yeah, because the decisions she’s made have always been spot-on, right?” Iggy muttered.
I narrowed my eyes. “What’s that supposed to—”
“It means that maybe if you hadn’t insisted we stay on the island after the apocalypse, Dylan and Akila might still be here.”
“Watch it, Ig,” Fang warned.
But the words already hung between us like bullets aimed at my heart. I knew they were true.
“I…” I was remembering the bloodied sheet in the grave and thinking of the green sneaker as it had slipped out of my fingers. I couldn’t breathe.
“It was the best thing for us then,” Fang insisted. “We were protected. We didn’t know what else was out there.”
There were other things, too, deeper reasons I hadn’t left the island—things I couldn’t say aloud. When you fail at saving the world, it’s difficult to imagine facing the ruins of what’s left. When you blame yourself so completely, it’s hard to look for who might be responsible. And when someone claims your mom and sister are dead, it’s almost impossible to believe it without proof.