Witch and Wizard - James Patterson [62]
“Don’t you remember?” Whit said. “The prison, Judge Unger, the Matron, all the kids who escaped?”
“I do!” I said, trying to sit up. “Actually, I do. Most of it anyway.”
“You missed The One Who Is The One,” Whit said then.
“I did? How? When?”
“I’ll tell you later. What about Mom and Dad?” Whit asked suddenly, his face lit with concern when he saw mine fall. “What happened? Where are they? Wisty? What’s wrong?”
My eyes went from face to face until they came to Sasha’s. “Ask him,” I said. “He’s the one who lied to us. Mom and Dad were never in the prison. Sasha lied to get us to help.” Bitterness rose in my throat. “I’ll never forgive you!” I spat out.
It took a moment for Whit to process the betrayal. In a flash his expression morphed from disbelief to dismay to disgust.
“No,” Whit growled, his fists clenched. “Neither will I!”
Sasha never flinched. “Worse things have happened to me. Far worse. We needed you guys. This is a war against true evil. The ends justify any effective means.” Then Sasha gave us that cheery smile of his, and it was so, so sad. And creepy.
Then and there, I vowed never to let the “war” or anything else do that to me. “I should turn you into a slug!” I shouted at Sasha. “You used our friendship, and ruined it forever.”
“Take it easy!” Whit cautioned. “You’ve been out for hours. He’s not worth it.”
“She’s awake!” someone shouted, and I suddenly realized that all around me were hundreds of kids wearing, like, party hats and blowing noisemakers. Tattered paper streamers were draped everywhere. We were back at Garfunkel’s.
Feffer was sitting on a couch, eating what looked like cake off a paper plate. When she heard my voice, she jumped off and came to me, licking my face.
I got to my feet, shaky, starving, and a little light-headed. Janine, our leader of the week, pushed through the crowd, holding a soda and a plate of chocolate cake. Real cake! Totally pukka. I hadn’t had any in… it felt like a lifetime. I didn’t even use a fork. I dug into it, icing first.
“To the Liberators!” Janine shouted. Everyone around me echoed her words.
My face flushed as I tried to smile and shove more cake into my mouth at the same time.
“Everyone helped,” Whit said. “Here’s to all of you!”
Margo, the commando, was staring at Whit, who did look very heroic. “You two did the most.”
“So, for today, enjoy being heroes!” Janine said, but her eyes shone only on Whit. I knew he didn’t notice that she was totally crushing on him. My bro was clueless, as usual. That’s one thing I love about him.
Someone handed me a foot-long hot dog with everything slopped all over it, and I began to wolf down the frank right on top of the cake. Yuck, but also delish.
“Emphasis being on ‘today,’ ” Emmet clarified with a heart-stopping grin. “We don’t let anybody be heroes for more than one day, because it goes to their heads. Hero worship tends to corrupt. Or at least turn you into an erlenmeyer.”
“Understood,” said Whit.
“However,” Janine went on, “for going above and beyond the call of duty, you are hereby promoted to official rescue mission driver. We stashed the van in a secret hideout behind enemy lines, and it’s waiting for you next time we go raiding.”
“That death trap?” Whit said.
“That rescue vehicle,” said Janine. “We just heard from another group of kids in an abandoned mall. They need help badly.”
“Wha—?” I blurted, my mouth still full.
“They need help,” Janine repeated, as if that explained all of life’s complex mysteries… and maybe it did.
“Another mission?” Whit said, but I could see the gears in his mind turning. His eyes met mine, and I could tell we were both thinking the same thing: our parents were out there too.
“Well, okay,” I said finally, and Whit nodded.
Feffer nudged my leg, and I patted her. “Of course you’re going,” I assured her.
“And me,” said a voice up close to my ear.
Chapter 100
Wisty
I TURNED TO SEE Byron