Prologue

She watched as he stuffed his things in his worn old backpack with wide, misty eyes. She refused to cry. She couldn't cry. It would be showing weakness. She wasn't weak.

"Fang…" she whispered, reaching for him as he snapped open his wings to take off out the hotel window.

"Don't Max," he growled, sending her a chilling glare. "Don't try to stop me, don't do anything. Just let me go. Let me go."

That was it. She watched him fly off into the night, anger rolling off his every stroke. That was it. That was the end. She didn't make an attempt to go after him. She didn't try. She didn't do anything. She stood and watched and refused to shed any tears for her best friend who'd just turned his back on her.

It was like a reoccurring nightmare, playing over and over again in her slumber. No matter how she tried, how much she fought, the dreams of four years ago wouldn't leave her. It made her feel hypocritical, considering how long she had worked to push him from her thoughts. But he was never gone. His face, his smile, his eyes, his everything were always at the back of her mind, haunting her day in and day out. She hadn't dreamt of him in near two years; but that didn't mean she hadn't thought of him in that time.

It'd been four years since the night that stabbed her in the back over and over again each time she heard his name or saw his face in her dreams. She tried to move on, tried to forget, but she never could. He was in her mind to stay.

Of course, being distraught and heartbroken, Max packed up the Flock not a moment after their silent shadow had deserted them, and left. They flew for days at a time, until Max felt far enough away and was sure the heartache wouldn't follow. She didn't fully fill the others in on the reasons of why he left, just that he had and probably wouldn't be back. There was devastation for weeks, months even, before the Flock, minus their leader, began to heal and move on with their lives.

The five of them ended up in a rural part of Chicago, somehow managing to get enough money off Max's card to stay in a four bedroom townhouse and even enough money after that to buy decent furniture and new clothes. They hadn't even come close to maxing out the card, surprisingly, considering how much they spent and bought.

Max had just turned 19 and Iggy wasn't too far behind; he was still 18. Nudge was a hormonal 15 years of age and Gazzy was a happy-go-lucky age of 12 while sweet little Angel had recently turned a ripe age of 10.

Trying to blend in, they enrolled in local schools, much to Nudge and Angel's amusement. They didn't enroll all enroll as siblings. Max thought they should enroll under new assumed names, just in case. Max and Iggy, also known as Max and Kyle Cutler, enrolled in the local high school as siblings. Nudge, a.k.a Monica Reynolds, was enrolled in the local middle school while Gazzy and Angel, also Tyler and Angel Curtis, walked a few blocks to their elementary school down the street. Of course, Angel and Gazzy were the only ones in middle school now. Nudge had moved on up to high school with Iggy and Max before Max graduated.

Max, ahead of her class, graduated a year early and took online photography courses when she wasn't working at the only place of business within walking distance; the library. She didn't know what she was good at, besides kicking ass and biting sarcastic remarks so she bought herself a digital camera and signed up on the computer Iggy had bought. When she wasn't working, Max was either out taking pictures, reading or sitting in her room watching it rain. Since her co-captain abandoned the flight crew, Max hadn't been herself. She was snippier and quieter. When she wasn't either of those she was sleeping.

Her blonde hair faded into a soft brown, her eyes now a hollow, gray color. Her naturally peach complexion had slowly faded into a white, empty pale, with purple bruising under her eyes from lack of sleep. She'd always been thin, but not so thin as to you could visibly see her ribs every time she wore a skin tight shirt or a bathing suit. Her size two jeans and 'xs' shirts hung off of her slightly, making it looked like the clothes belonged to someone else. She tried her best to pull it together for the rest of the flock every day, but some days it was just impossible and she didn't do anything except sit in her room and stare out the window. Her wings hadn't been used since their final landing in Chicago and she never joined the Flock on their late night flights. It was as if she was a completely different person.

Iggy had graduated just a few months before Max's dreams started up again. He was valedictorian of his class and took night classes with his girlfriend, Rae Whitaker, on the fine arts of culinary skills and cooked something new for dinner every night. He met Rae when he and Max first started school and they had been dating for three years, just recently engaged. She knew about their wings, of course, even about all the gory details of their past, including the heartbreak of Fang's leave.

Nudge was a straight-A honor student and president of her sophomore class. She took special interest in psychology and journalism. She wrote about everything. She wrote more than she talked, which wasn't as much as before, but she was still the Nudge Channel.

Gazzy was currently on a two week suspension for blowing up a toilet in the boy's bathroom for which Max had to pay for; that and the giant hole in the floor. Instead of a scolding or a lecture, which he got both of from Max, Iggy gave him a high five and made him reenact it on an old Port-o-Potty in a deserted park. It wasn't so deserted after all and Max had a fit when the police showed up on her doorstep with a bill that made her head spin.

Angel was still Angel. She hadn't changed much in four years, but her maturity level was off the charts. Of course, the Flock's all were, but her level of thinking and understanding was unbelievable. It puzzled Iggy and Max to no end…not to mention frightened them a little bit, considering her abilities and all.

The kids and Iggy loved their lifestyle. They had a place to come home to, an actual home where they didn't have to worry about Eraser attacks or waking up in dark lab rooms and cages. For the moment, they felt normal and free to have a chance to be what the wanted to be, explore their options.

What warmed Max's heart the most was dropping off Angel and Nudge at sleepovers and seeing the smiles on their faces when their friends threw their arms around them, dragging them off to play. The kids had friends, normal friends that gave them that normal feeling and experience that they always wanted.

Max didn't really have friends outside of the Flock, besides Rae and Sandra, the elderly librarian that hired Max. She spent her time alone, alone with her thoughts and camera. When he left, she fell apart. She felt lost without her shoulder to cry on, her other half. She cried herself to sleep for over a year after that. After a year, she told herself no more; no more tears. It would ruin everything if she kept breaking down. She'd start wishing he was there; wishing his strong arms were wrapped around her, her tears staining his shirt. She wouldn't do that. It'd be like starting all over again, going back to rebuilding herself, putting up her walls. She had to stay strong for her family, for her life. She told herself she didn't need him, didn't want him. She told herself she was better off.

For now, that was enough.