The Renegade

Chapter 10

"His name is Truence." Aven said, a hint of anger and sadness flowing through her voice. Now she had my attention. I walked over to Fang and looked over his shoulder, my eyes widening at the picture he held.

There was a boy just like her, diving through the sky at the person holding the camera that took this picture. Long black hair masked his face as he lunged at the photographer, his clawed wing raised in a blur, coming down hard to strike at them. In the background I could make out the shape of Aven soaring down to join him. The picture brought a haunting feeling into the cave and I swear I could almost sense the boy's presence, and it was not a friendly one. Fang felt it too and stood up quickly, tense and ready for almost anything to happen.

"Where is he now?" He demanded, fiercely. Aven looked up to him with tear filled eyes that sank back down to the floor after sensing the angry glare Fang shot her. There they shut, letting the tears slip silently down her face. She wasn't going to answer. "Iggy, keep your ears open. We need to be ready for anything." He ordered.

I knew we couldn't trust her. The thought involuntarily slipped into my mind and although I did agree with it, it seemed kind of harsh. I looked at Aven again, it was the first time I've really had a good look at her. Her long pale brown hair was blackened in spots with dried blood as was her once white tank top and dark ripped jeans. Before when we had first 'met' her she stood only slightly shorter than me from what I could guess. She felt my gaze fall over her and raised her pale gold eyes to mine for only a moment before turning them away. Iggy was still beside her.

"Iggy," I called to him quietly. He recognized my tone and hesitantly came to my side. Fang soon joined him at my side.

"Max, we should get out of here." He whispered to me, his eyes averted to Aven's silent form.

"Yeah," I responded now almost hypnotized by Aven.

"I'll start to get our stuff together." Fang said and went about collecting what few possessions we had. I felt almost captivated by Aven's emotions, I could feel them, they were so strong. I walked my way quietly over in front of her and sat down. She turned her head away and seemed to brace herself for whatever I had to say.

"Why didn't you tell us about Truence before?" I asked, keeping my voice as free of emotion and expression as possible. At first I didn't think she was going to answer.

"He told me to never tell anyone about either one of us. We swore to protect each other if one of us was ever found." She said finally. Her eyes reddened from her tears and her eyebrows wrinkled in worry. "I'm sorry." She added moments later.

Sorry doesn't cover it, but she was just trying to protect him. Sounds like something I would do…I was stuck in my thoughts and lacked a response. For some reason, I felt like I didn't want to leave her quite yet. She still had something to tell us.

"Where is he?" I asked quietly, staying as calm as I could. She squeezed her eyes shut in pain and swallowed hard. Again she took a long pause before speaking.

"You don't have to worry about him." She whispered, keeping her eyes down. She fiddled with a small necklace around her neck as a breeze blew her pale dusty brown hair across her face. It was made out of two differently colored stones; one was pale blue-gray in the shape of a 'C' with hard sharpened points. The other was a dark shining black in the shape of a plus sign; it also had pointed edges and was attached behind the 'C'.

"Nice necklace." I commented casually. She jumped and took both hands off of it.

"Oh," She gave a brief smile, "Thank you… Truence had one like it only his cross was in front."

"Where did you get them?" I asked, this time honestly curious. She said she stole everything they had, so my guess was that it was pretty impossible to find two necklaces that are exactly the same except for one small difference.

"Truence… he made them for us." I let my brow fur in slight confusion. As if seeing this she continued, "You'd be surprised at how hard our claws are." She said extending her wing slightly, curling the small hand on it and showing me her claws. "For example." She said and slammed the hand down into the stone next to her. The motion made me jump and feel embarrassed as she slowly lifted her hand again, exposing a row of three-inch deep holes in the sandstone.

"Fang," I called turning away from Aven and starting over towards him. "I think we should stay." His eyebrows raised in his 'are you serious?' look. "Seriously, the flock hasn't had a good rest since…" I was caught mid sentence, I couldn't remember the last time we'd had a good rest! "Since forever! Besides we might be able to learn something about the School from her."

"She didn't even know what the School was." Fang pointed out bluntly.

"Yeah but just because she doesn't know about the School she might know something else…" Fang looked at me doubtingly. "Besides, the flock needs a good rest. It can't hurt to stay."

"We don't know where the other one is and, from what she did to me, I don't want to find him. Who knows how strong he is." Fang said. Truly, I hadn't even thought about Fang getting hurt when he was fighting with Aven. He rubbed his back lightly as he spoke.

"You're okay, right?" I asked, feeling a twinge if guilt about not asking sooner.

"Yeah," Fang responded quickly.

"Good. Aven said we didn't have to worry about him," I lowered my voice, "She cried when she said it. I think he's dead." Fang looked at me unsurely. "Why else would he leave her?"

"I guess," Fang said, sighing, "We've trusted your 'feelings' before. Why not now?" A small smile confirmed his hidden opinions. So the decision was final. We were staying. With Aven. And possibly Truence. Hopefully not.

Author's Note: (blows confetti everywhere) This chapter is posted to celebrate the release of James Patterson's next book in the series we all love: Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever! It will be out May 20th so go buy it!