Guess what!

After this, there's one more chapter and an epilogue. And then we're already on part three of the trilogy! It seems like yesterday that I began writing Becoming You and Me… okay, so it was in October, not that long ago, but still…

By the time we approached the School, night was had fallen. We were tired and hungry, but that didn't stop me from wanting to immediately charge in and get Gracie.

"No, Max," Fang told me firmly. "It's safer in the daylight."

"It is not!" I said indignantly, angling my wings so I turned to face him. "They're more likely to see us."

"But in the daytime, there's just a bunch of defenseless scientists. At night, they have security people," Fang said slowly, like he was talking to a four-year-old. "Let's wait until morning."

"And what do you suggest we do until morning?" I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest and looking below us at the huge, sinister building that held our daughter.

"Get some dinner and hunker down somewhere," he said easily, holding out a hand to me. After a moment of hesitation, I reached out and took it, and we started flying north. I closed my eyes to take in the exhilaration of flying at night with the person I loved the most, taking deep breaths of the cool, crisp air.

Thirty minutes later, we spotted a small town down below and descended into the woods behind it. We ducked into a small, mostly deserted burger joint for dinner and freaked the waitress out with our enormous orders. As we ate our first meal since breakfast, we didn't say much, because our mouths were constantly full.

"So," I said finally, after finishing my third burger. "Glad you took Gracie to school today?"

Fang sighed and put down the French fry he was holding. "Do you want to fight, or do you want to work together to save her?"

Well, the latter, but I still had some bitterness to get out. "Brigid probably figured she'd have to be creative about kidnapping Gracie. Bet she was pleasantly surprised when we brought her right to her."

"Max," Fang said, and something about his voice-- probably the fact that it wasn't sharp or raised, but broken-- made me look up at him. There was an expression of such pain and misery on his face that my heart actually ached. "I know I messed up. I've been beating myself up since we got the call from the school. So just… stop, okay?"

Then I felt terrible, watching the obvious hurt on his face, the hurt I had caused. He really did feel awful about what happened to Gracie, and I was just making it worse. "Fang, I'm sorry," I said, getting up out of my side of the booth and sliding in next to him. I wrapped my arms around him, pressing my cheek into his shoulder. "I really am. I was being a jerk." After a moment, I felt him relax in my arms and lean his head against mine. "We're gonna get her," I whispered, doing the reassuring for once. "We are."

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"This is too easy," Fang said the next morning, looking at the open window hovering in front of us. "Are you sure this is safe?"

I had the same suspicions, but the Voice insisted that the easy entrance was not a trap, but a bit of help for us. The only reason I believed it was the fact that the last time I was here, the Voice had told me the same thing, and it had turned out to be trustworthy. "The Voice says it is."

Fang sighed. "Alright, then. Ladies first."

I scowled at the sexist stereotype, but tucked in my wings and flew skillfully through the window, Fang right behind me. We landed in a room of cages containing every genetic experiment imaginable. It'd been so long since we'd been in a room like this, but it was still eerily familiar, sending a shiver down my spine.

"Which way?" I whispered, looking around the room for anything that looked like a security camera, laser, etc.

It took a second for Fang to reply, but then he said, "Neither."

I turned to look at him quizzically, but he was pointing at a cage not two feet away from us. Pale hands were gripping the bars, and when my eyes followed the arms up to the shoulders and the face, I saw my little girl.

Gracie's face was tear-streaked, the palest I'd ever seen, what with the olive coloring she'd inherited from Fang. After only a day at the School, her curls had become limp and flat, and she was not the bubbly child I loved so much.

"Mommy!" she shrieked, and I immediately shushed her, rushing over to kneel in front of her cage.

"Shh, shh," I whispered, reaching through the bars to close my hand over hers. "Quiet, sweetheart. Don't let them hear you."

"They're scary," Gracie whimpered, beginning to shake with sobs. Fang started messing with the lock as I bit my lip and tried to deal with not being able to hold my daughter when she was in pain. Let me tell you, it was killing me.

Suddenly, the whole cage jerked upward. Fang and I scrambled to our feet and stared, open-mouthed, as it rose in the air, being pulled by a thick black wire. The ceiling opened up, and my stomach sank as I realized that Gracie was about to disappear inside it.

"Nice try, Maximum," came a voice somewhere above me. "Maybe next time."

Does anyone else think the guy who plays Percy Jackson is hot?

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