I flopped into my dining room table chair and looked around at the others. They were all crying—and personally, I didn't blame them.
Max tended to Gazzy and Nudge came over and crawled on my lap.
I hugged her and said, "Hey, Nudge, sweetie, I think you're getting a little big to be sitting on my lap."
She nodded and sniffling, wandered over to the couch.
Tears welled up in my eyes and I began to cry as well.
This just wasn't fair. Why did they rake Angel? Couldn't they have taken me instead? Why not take the leader—I mean one of the leaders—instead of the smallest disciple?
Fang glanced at me and I nodded.
Then it hit me—Angel had been taken back to our private hell—the School.
I grimaced and glared at the table, trying to hide my distress from the others, which was a task I had mastered after seventeen years of hard practice,
The others were all discussing Angel's kidnapping when Gazzy asked, "Where did they take her then, Max?"
"We know where they took her," Fang began. "That is, at least, Emerald knows, and we all know her instincts are always spot-on."
I glared weakly at Fang and then choked out the dreaded answer. "They took her back." I said simply.
"Back where?" Nudge asked, a little scared of me and what I was saying.
"To the School," I finished darkly.
Gazzy came over to me and scrambled onto my lap and I whispered, "We will get your sister back, Gasser. Mark my words. By Oz, we will."
He nodded and I closed my eyes, focusing on rescuing Angel and not avenging my best friend.
See, when I was twelve, they were eight of us—me, Yero—my best friend—Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel. Then, the day after my twelfth birthday, Yero disappeared and I never saw him again. Jeb didn't know if Yero was still alive, so for the past five years I have presumed my best friend to have been murdered by the whitecoats.
The whitecoats and Erasers separated me from Yero—not without a lot of screaming on my part and yelling on his part—and I wished and hoped that he would be returned to my side where he belonged. The day before, which was my twelfth birthday, he had told me he loved me and had given me a promise ring—I wear it all the time now, to remember my first and only love—my Yero.