"It was an accident!" Kat said.

It had been an accident.

Friendly fire.

Hero hadn't expected friendly fire would explode amongst the Exchangers.

A blue laser beam had exploded from Kat's gun, then it had ripped through her eldest brother. Kat had fired. She had done it because a bellma had plunged its jagged teeth into her. Bellmas were similar to Earth bats, but they were worse.

"Do you hear me, Hero?!" Kat said, distressed as her arms stayed against the bleeding Hero Shame. "I shot you by accident! I love you more than I love Soy. I would never hurt you on purpose."

I know.

"Please don't die, Hero," Sydney said, holding the wounded boy's hand.

Hero had dropped his gun.

But he didn't drop his hatred for Lock Tannis, Bane Sinister, or the Freemans.

Where were the Freemans?

Despite their obvious hatred for Soynites, they hadn't arrived to ruin the Exchangers' time. Since their return to the gray building, the Exchangers hadn't seen any Freemans. It was as if the pale foes had let them have the place.

The Freemans had designed the building. The hall. Even though one Soynite rested against his loved one while wounded, the Freemans seemed absent from the base they had made. Hero doubted they decided to permanently let several teenagers and a kid have free reign over the building.

However, it was apparent one Freeman had unleashed the bellmas.

One bellma had caused a series of unfortunate events. It was why Hero's body pushed out warm blood as his sibling held him.

Hero, Kat, Macy, Sydney, and Everett were in the long hall. Shot, Hero Shame groaned as he bled. He loved the person who had shot him as he bled.

It had been an accident.

"No one is going to die," Macy said, as Kat stroked Hero's blond hair. Macy kneeled near Hero. "Someone I love definitely isn't going to die."

She pressed her hand against Hero's wound.

It healed.

Kat cried out, grateful she wouldn't be responsible for her brother's undeserved death. She kissed his hair.

"I love you, Hero," Kat said. "You're my best friend and my brother."

Hero moved onto his hands and knees, then he stood. Holes ruined his jacket and shirt. His blood was on those clothes, too. But he lived. He lived.

Macy used her clean hand to heal Kat's arm wound. The blonde's hands wore her siblings' blood.

Hero had been a person who lived on planet Soy, just like Kat, Macy, Everett, Sydney, Wade, and Zoey. Violence had erupted on the planet, the Soynites' home planet. The Exchangers had witnessed a disastrous massacre at the Ascend Museum, back when they hadn't been able to fit the blue jackets they wore in the present.

Vile Freemans had ruined the Ascend Museum. They had destroyed it.

As vile as the Freemans were, a non-Freeman could gain the right to sit on the Freeman throne. A good Soynite needed to kill Lock Tannis. If Hero Shame ended the life of Lock Tannis, he would order the Freemans to stop viewing the good Soynites as their enemies.

At the Ascend Museum, Hero, Macy, Wade, Everett, and Kat had been thrusted into Mitch Shame's care. During the invasion, Sydney had already been in Mitch Shame's care. She was the man's biological child. Hero, Macy, Wade, Everett, and Kat were not their father's biological children. Each of them had come from their own set of parents. Hero and Macy shared the same hair color as each other, but they were not biologically related. They had never been biologically related to each other. They would never be biologically related to each other.

Macy had pointed a Freeman dagger at Hero's face, but she was not the Exchanger who had hurt the teenager who could fly.

As for the Exchangers' latest ally, she needed to get back to her mother.

"You were so close to dying," Sydney said to Hero, no longer holding his hand. They hugged, separated. "Ironically, a Pale Monster didn't shoot you."

A blue laser beam had blasted through Hero's body.

Macy had healed him and real relief had flowed through the Exchanger boy.

"Sorry, Hero," Kat said, Hero's blood on her jacket. "The bellma bit me, and I got really scared, and the pain was so bad, and I accidentally shot you."

Hero, Kat, Macy, Sydney, Everett, and Wade had gone into the Freeman base. They had expected danger. Danger had rushed at them. Being shot by his sister had surprised Hero, but the pain was gone. The wound was gone.

"It was an accident, Kat," Hero said.

Hero got moving, walking toward his fallen backpack. He grabbed its strap that was closest to him, touching its whiteness. Hero put the backpack on.

The boy's jacket donned his blood. Two holes occupied the clothing item. But the fastest Soynite spaceship houses other jackets meant for the Ascend Museum employees.

Hero's jacket was ruined. He could put on an undamaged one.

Mitch Shame was lost. His children could find him.

The late Boris Endman's granddaughter was lost. Hero could find her.

Where are you, Alice Endman?

With a purpose, the Exchangers had headed into a certain Freeman base for the first time. Before that, though, they had learned Boris Endman had died at some point in the past. Because of Zoey All, who was where Hero had left her, the boy had learned Theo Majestic had turned six children into Highs. It had occurred during the invasion.

Those six children, Zoey's stepsister being one of them, possessed the privilege of being Soynite royalty.

The Exchangers had possessed the privilege to escape the Ascend Museum in a quick spaceship. Their home, Zoey's new home, had been designed to move faster than all the other Soynite spaceships. A good man, Land Preachman, had fought to keep people alive when the chaos at the Ascend Museum happened. He had perished.

The massacre had turned living Soynites into dead ones. Land Preachman had failed to avoid that fate. Hero Shame's birth parents had failed to avoid that fate.

Mitch Shame.

Alice Endman.

Misty Windsore.

Ten Pure Soynites.

Hero was going to find Mitch Shame, Alice Endman, Misty Windsore, and ten Pure Soynites.

Kat held Hero's hand, touching him with care and love. Then she released it.

"Sibling bonding time is over," Everett said. "We have to get ready to bond with the Pure we're going to take."

"I doubt there's a Pure here," Kat said.

"Regardless, coming here wasn't a waste," Hero said. Everett moved his attention, started walking. "We met Zoey, who needs our help. Even outside this place, we learned that Boris Endman is dead. Also, thanks to Zoey, we know that there is a new generation of Highs. Whatever Soynites are here, we're going to free them. It doesn't matter if they're Pures or not."

With her right foot, Macy nudged the nearly headless bellma, the creature that had caused so much unwanted trouble for Hero and Kat.

Macy kicked it. But the animal with sharp horns and sharp teeth did not rise. It did not rise so it could bring more agony to the aspiring kidnappers in the hall.

"And we're going to find Wade, right?" Sydney said.

Macy approached the group.

"He's probably dead," Kat said. Macy set a hand on her shoulder. "Hero said that Wade was fighting a horde of Freemans. Our brother might be dead."

"He isn't, sister," Macy said. "Wade is strong. It's going to be okay."

Macy had prevented Hero's death. When he suffered a laser gun shot to the body, Macy had destroyed the wound. If only a great person had destroyed the wound a Freeman had given the beloved Boris Endman.

Thanks to Macy, Hero was okay.

"Hello!" a voice yelled.

Heads turned to Everett Shame.

He stood not far from the neighboring hall, which the Exchangers hadn't rushed through.

"We have a kidnapping to do!" Everett shouted. "Let's make it a good one! I want to give myself a rating of five stars!"

He moved into the neighboring hall, vanishing from view.

"Everyone, come here!" Everett shouted. "We're close to the prison wing!"

The Exchangers, Wade not among them, ran.

They joined Everett in the other hall, which was long, long like the one they had left. Connected to the hall was another hall, but Hero couldn't see its entire length.

Painted on the floor were Freeman words.

Prison wing

A red arrow below the Freeman sentence pointed at the connecting hall.

They were close.

The Exchangers were not far from the Freeman base's prison wing. After going into the building twice, they were going to head into the prison wing and free any Soynites imprisoned within it.

Perhaps the Freemans had imprisoned a Pure.

Hero's heart rate increased. The Soynite pistol was in his hand again, and he smiled.

"I'll take the lead," Hero said. "Good job, Everett."

Hero took the lead.

His siblings followed.

With confidence flowing through his unharmed body, Hero rushed into the hall, accompanied by his allies.

They saw enemies.

A white object landed near Hero's feet, then it erupted with sound and a flash.

White shrouded Hero's vision.

He couldn't see. He couldn't see. He couldn't see. He stumbled. A hand snatched his laser pistol, disarming him.

Someone bumped into Hero. A sibling, he hoped.

"Who is that?!" Hero said, but he didn't hear himself say it.

He groped the person, touching blood, then touching breasts.

One Exchanger was a female who had gotten Hero's blood on her jacket.

Kat.

Unable to see his surroundings, Hero put his arms around his sister. She couldn't see, he assumed. Just like him.

As Kat hugged him, Hero waited. He couldn't fight without normal vision. He couldn't fight without his hearing.

His vision soon returned. His hearing came.

Hero and the person hugging him ended the embrace.

Kat's backpack was gone. Her gun was gone. So was Hero's. The other nearby Exchangers lacked their weapons.

Standing not far from them were several Freemans. Two of them wielded Strife daggers.

Hero couldn't use his power.

Sydney couldn't use her power.

Macy couldn't use her power.

In a different part of the hall, between the Exchangers and their destination, were dozens of Freemans.

The Freemans in the first row were on their stomachs. Each Freeman in the second row was on his knee. Each Freeman in the third row stood.

The Freeman mob near the prison wing kept their laser rifles aimed at the Exchangers.

While the several closer Freemans stood near him, Hero sneered. One of them, the tallest Freeman in the hall, held Kat's backpack. He grabbed her with his free hand, then scowled.

The biggest Freeman in the hall forced Kat to turn her back on him. He ran a hand along the back of her jacket.

"You Soynites were at the Ascend Museum," the Freeman said, speaking Soynite. "But you are all too young to have been employees there."

True.

"We're not," Macy said. A Freeman kept his laser rifle pressed against the back of her head, the dark barrel making contact with blonde locks. "When you pale morons attacked our home planet, we were at the Ascend Museum. Our biological parents were murdered. Sydney's mother was murdered."

"Mitch Shame, Sydney's father, adopted us," Hero said.

He took a shuddering breath.

"And Freemans took him from us," Hero said. "He was captured by your people."

The Freeman brute smiled.

Soynites smothered in misery gave Freemans joy. The Freeman standing in front of Hero was no different than the rest of his foul people.

"In order to find him, we need a Bloodhound's help," Hero said. "The price for that is ten Pures. Heaven's people need Pures."

"That's why you and these siblings of yours have brought us trouble," the Freeman said.

If Zoey had been told the information Hero had told the Freeman, Heaven's people would murder her. But Zoey didn't have to learn about the Exchangers' mission.

The large Freeman had learned. He had learned about Hero's mission. He had learned about the reason why the Exchangers were aspiring kidnappers.

He wouldn't report what he had learned to Freemans beyond the hall. Because the Exchangers were going to kill each Freeman in the area.

Ticking anticipation and constricting danger made Hero's heart hammer in his body, the same body that his sister Kat had shot. Hero needed Kat to live. All his brothers and sisters needed to live.

The Freeman dropped Kat's backpack, unsheathed a Strife dagger, then brought it near Kat's throat.

"Hero!" Kat shouted.

"Planet Soy was destroyed in a few hours," the Freeman said. "You all won't last that long. Kill them!"

Wade teleported.

He pulled his gun's trigger. The black laser rifle unleashed welcome red, tearing a hole through the huge Freeman's head.

The pale brute foe dropped the Strife dagger. As Macy ducked, preventing the Freeman behind her from shooting her to death, the huge Freeman released his hold on Kat.

Kat rushed toward Hero before embracing him.

With quickness, Wade dodged a laser. He fired twice.

The Freeman he had shot two times crashed against the Freeman the boy had shot first.

They morphed into smoke.

Macy lifted her laser pistol off the floor, then fired. Beautiful blue tore through the Freeman who had stood behind her, the laser ruining his face, brain, and skull.

As Hero and Kat hugged, he spotted his laser pistol. It sat on the floor near a Freeman's combat boots.

"I love you, Kat!" Hero said. The hug died. If they were fortunate, Hero and Kat wouldn't anytime soon. "Get to safety!"

Kat ran.

Hero rushed toward his weapon. The Freeman near it kicked it by accident, while he tried killing Wade on purpose.

Sydney jumped onto a Freeman, armed with a red dagger.

She buried the dagger's sharp red into the Freeman's big chest, tugged it free. The wound shoved out blood. Sydney stabbed. She stabbed. She stabbed.

On his stomach, a Freeman near the prison wing opened fire. His red laser missed Sydney's head by a few inches.

"Not my sister!" Hero said.

A laser from one of the on-one-knee Freemans almost tore through Hero's nose. He got on his hands and knees, gripped his pistol, then aimed. He pulled the trigger.

While Sydney stabbed the Freeman she had jumped onto, Hero's laser beam tore through a Freeman who stayed on his stomach. The laser blasted through the leg of the Freeman behind him. It blasted through more Freeman legs.

Sydney shouted as she stabbed her Freeman enemy several times, releasing a war cry.

The legs in blue jeans stayed against the foe as she delivered pain he had earned. Yes, keep stabbing. Keep stabbing.

The Freeman enemy shouted as the eleven-year-old girl penetrated his flesh with her red dagger, the youngest Exchanger stabbing with wild rage.

Hero spotted Kat.

She grabbed two Strife daggers, then launched them into the neighboring hall.

Where was the third Strife dagger?

A boot slammed into Hero's side. A pale hand took his laser pistol and tossed it. The weapon struck Wade's back. He stumbled forward.

The Freeman forced Hero to stand, and he shoved the Exchanger against a wall. An exhale shot out Hero's mouth. The Freeman aimed his Strife dagger's sharp tip at Hero's chest, pointing it at his bare skin.

The hole in Hero's jacket didn't help. The hole in his shirt didn't help.

The Freeman would help him die.

A laser made the big enemy drop. The Freeman writhed on the floor, suffering from the wound a blue laser had granted him.

Kat.

She kept her laser pistol raised. Like her backpack, she wore her courage.

Hero, alive, nodded at Kat.

She nodded.

Kat had saved Hero's life, gaining her first Freeman kill in the process.

Fantastic.

With Sydney on his back, a bleeding Freeman collapsed. Sydney kept her knees against him as she searched for more enemies.

Macy grabbed the Strife dagger, then tossed it into the other hall.

Hero's power to fly resided in him. Again.

Red laser beams rushed toward the group, the Freeman mob opening fire with no mercy, because the Freemans close to the Exchangers were dead. The enemies no longer needed to care about harming their own by accident.

The Exchangers moved onto their stomachs.

Wade, next to Sydney, touched her hand. They teleported.

They now occupied the space behind the Freeman mob. They stood. Knowing what Sydney's power was, Wade swung open the door to the prison wing. He entered it.

Sydney launched fireballs, assaulting the dangerous Freeman gathering from behind.

Fire spread across the enemy horde, Freemans igniting as Sydney's pyrokinesis made what deserved to happen become real. Sydney went into the prison wing.

Freemans dropped their weapons.

They ran toward the Exchangers on the floor, burning. They ran toward each other, burning. They ran toward the walls, burning.

The Freemans in the hall burned. All of them, all of them burned.

Orange and red fire slammed against the gray walls, consuming what Freemans had worked hard on. After ruining planet Soy within a few hours, the Freemans' walls deserved to be ruined.

Burnt flesh's foul scent shot into Hero's nose. He sneered.

Freemans burned.

A few minutes went by.

Wade teleported into the hall, holding hands with Sydney. She extinguished the flames.

Hero, Kat, Macy, and Everett stood. Since Sydney's fire had ruined the area near the prison wing's entrance, the four Exchangers couldn't make their way to the door. The door had gone from red to black. Fire had ruined it.

As the bottoms of Hero's shoes pressed against hard gray, the section of floor near the prison wing's entrance didn't lose its dark color, blackened by Sydney's fire, scorched. Smoke rose from the floor's blackness, rising like smoke birthed from lifeless Freeman flesh.

Wade teleported closer to Hero, accompanied by Sydney.

"I'm going to teleport all of us into the prison wing," Wade said.

Wade teleported all of them into the prison wing.

Hero and his siblings stood in a long hall. Twenty prison cells were built into one of the walls.

A narrow window was built into each prison cell, giving each possible unfortunate captive a view of the gray wall beyond their cell. Each prison cell had a lever near it.

Bright light cloaked the Exchangers' clothes, their hair, the gray walls, the gray floor.

"Almost all of these cells are empty," Wade said. He pointed into the distance. "There's someone inside the one way over there. He's a Soynite. But me and Sydney don't know if he's a Pure."

Laser beam fire sounded, but no Freemans entered the prison wing. It seemed as if the laser beam fire had erupted on the floor above the first one.

"I don't think we're the only Soynites attacking this place," Everett said.

"But we are the only ones who came here to take a Pure," Macy said.

"I can hear all of you talking out there!" a voice yelled, shouting from within his prison cell, speaking Soynite, speaking with a Soynite accent. "Where's the boy and the girl who looked at me?!"

"Don't go over there," Hero said. "Everyone, get ready. Each of you, take out a syringe of Vamp. I'll do the same. Sydney, take out your notepad and a pencil. Write down information on the boy. I'm going to get my Pure test ball out."

Each Exchanger carried a Pure test ball in their backpack.

The Exchangers kneeled, took off their backpacks, then started searching for what they required. As his brothers and sisters retrieved what they needed, Hero retrieved what he needed.

When they were ready, the Exchangers stood, each one carrying a Vamp-filled syringe. Hero also held a Pure test ball, the object blue, like the laser beams Soynite guns fired. When Pure test balls made contact with the skin of Pures, they turned red. Hero, who was not a Pure, didn't make the ball turn red.

"Open the door, Wade," Hero commanded.

Wade wrapped his fingers around the lever's length. He pulled the lever.

The prison cell door swung open. A boy exited. He wore a blue shirt and blue pants. He toyed with his Soynite pendant as he glanced at the Exchangers' faces. The liberated prisoner seemed to be sixteen years old.

He was muscular and tall, but not as muscular and tall as Wade Shame.

Like Hero and Macy, the freed Soynite sported blond hair and blue eyes.

"What's your name?" Hero asked.

"Able Brick," the freed prisoner said. Able Brick grinned, then pointed a finger at Hero. "You and your friends saved me. You're heroes."

Sydney wrote on her notepad.

If Able knew what Hero's intentions were, the former captive would not view him as a hero.

"These people are my adoptive brothers and sisters," Hero said. "Are you a Pure, Able Brick?"

Able nodded.

"I am," he said.

Hero went closer. He pressed the Pure test ball against Able's forehead. It became red.

Able Brick, the Soynite prisoner Wade had freed from Freeman imprisonment, was a Pure. If the Exchangers took him back to Heaven, they would have to kidnap nine more Pures.

Then a Bloodhound would find Mitch Shame.

"I have one Save, Able," Hero said. "Because of the nearby Strife, I can't use my power. When we get you away from this place, me and you will be able to use our powers again. I am Hero Shame, by the way."

Able smiled.

"Thank you, Hero," he said. His blue-eyed gaze landed on the syringe Hero carried. Purple liquid dwelled within, visible through the transparent surface of the syringe's barrel. Able's gaze lingered on the liquid for three heartbeats. "That's Vamp. Why do you have Vamp?"

Hero stood with a Vamp-containing syringe in his hand, as if he planned on injecting it into Able's bloodstream.

He planned on injecting the Vamp into Able's bloodstream.

It was an honest truth.

If Zoey All's theory was true, Theo Majestic had lied about not having children.

Hero didn't have to lie to Able.

"I'm going to tell you the truth, Able," Hero said. "You are going to be with us on Heaven."

Hero stuck the needle into a vein in Able's neck, then depressed the plunger. Purple liquid slipped into the Pure's bloodstream.

The Exchanger boy pulled the needle free. Able staggered.

Wade set his syringe on the floor.

While his conscious state died at a gradual pace, Able bumped into the wall, then fell toward the floor. Wade caught him.

"He's unconscious," Wade said, lowering Able to the floor. Everett grinned. "By the way, if I didn't develop the power to teleport today, all of you would be dead."

"I would be dead if Zoey didn't save my life," Hero said. "You're not going to kill her, Wade. The others sided with me."

Wade scoffed.

"Fine," he said. "But you're going to make sure she stays ignorant. If she finds out about our mission, all of us are going to be in danger. And we won't reunite with Father."

"Zoey is going to stay ignorant," Hero said. "We can even blindfold her. When we get to Heaven, she won't see it."

"We also have to make sure that she doesn't see him," Kat said, pointing at Able's unconscious body. She sat on the floor, then rested her head against the wall. "I hope all of the Freemans don't find us."

As her brown hair touched gray, Kat took a breath.

"I wish I was in my bed," she said.

"I know you're tired, Kat," Hero said. "But we still have a mission to accomplish. We need to get Able to Heaven."

Later, after helping the Exchangers hide Able inside the spaceship, Hero stepped into his bedroom. Zoey sat on his bed, her bare hands touching the blue comforter.

Zoey stood. She moved toward Hero.

When they were near each other enough, the two Soynites embraced.

"I'm okay," Hero said, closing his eyes. "I'm okay."

"I missed you, Hero," Zoey said. The hug stopped. Zoey placed a finger against his bare shirt, able to do so because of the hole in the boy's jacket and the hole in his shirt. "Did you get shot?"

Bane Sinister hadn't shot Hero.

Lock Tannis hadn't shot Hero.

Hero's sister Kat had shot the Exchanger. But it had been an accident. Kat wouldn't shoot her brother on purpose.

"Yes," Hero said. "Kat shot me, but it was by accident. A bellma bit her, then she panicked. She opened fire, then the laser beam went through me. Macy healed me. She can do that. Wade can teleport. He gained the power to do it earlier. The Freemans were going to try killing us, then Wade showed up. It was heroic. But I knew we were going to get out of that situation alive. Hope is always with us."

"And you're with me," Zoey said. She grabbed Hero's hands, her own hands warm and soft. "And I'm sorry you can't fly with Boris Endman."

Hero would never fly with the deceased and gone Boris Endman, a former Soynite High, the former Soynite High Hero had appreciated the most. No matter how many Freemans Hero killed, their deaths would not give the Exchanger the power to fly beside an alive and well Boris Endman.

The boy had flown through a gaping hole in the Freeman base's wall. He had carried Zoey. Hero hadn't dropped her when he was airborne.

A Freeman had shot a bird when Hero still flew.

Hero had shot a few bellmas.

He didn't know how Boris Endman had been killed, but the teenager knew there was a possibility the murder weapon was a gun.

Kat had shot Hero. Yet here Hero was, holding hands with Zoey All, both teenagers safe, not dead.

No one had shot Kat.

Did an awful person shoot Boris Endman?

Hero stroked the back of Zoey's hand with his thumb, savoring the welcome affection.

"I can find his missing granddaughter, at least," Hero said. "I'm going to investigate Alice Endman's kidnapping. I know a lot about the Endman family. I'm going to find out what happened to Alice."

Investigating Alice Endman's kidnapping would be better suited for Hero than the other Exchangers.

The universe lacked Boris Endman.

Boris Endman had lacked his son's daughter. Perhaps the man had never reunited with his only grandchild.

A person had kidnapped Alice.

Hero had kidnapped Able.

Everett had smiled after the unconscious Able's back greeted that prison wing's hard floor. There was a chance he had smiled because he had come closer to reuniting with his father.

What would become of Hero Shame?

His brown-haired sister had shot him, and he had almost died due to that gaping wound. If Hero had died from the injury, he wouldn't stand in front of Zoey and hold her hands, which was what he did in the present, the now. Hero and his fellow Exchangers had survived. They had survived the Freeman base and the Freemans.

Macy, whose hair was blonde, could be a Majestic. She could be one of Theo's children. Interesting events had happened. If Hero's sister was a Majestic, if she was one of Theo's possible children, that would be interesting.

What would become of Macy Shame?

Hero had known her for almost his entire life. They were sixteen years old. The invasion had exploded into reality eleven years ago. Hero and Macy had been five years old when they met each other inside the Ascend Museum. The Exchangers had never been the museum's employees. They wore the blue jackets meant for the Ascend Museum employees to wear, but they had been too young to work there at the time of the Freemans' brutal attack on Soy.

Hero's Soynite pendant rested in his pocket. It had been there when Kat shot him. Zoey wore no pendant.

The Exchange and Zoey stopped holding hands. Hero walked. When he was close enough to a wall, he put a finger on the photograph displaying his father.

The strands of hair attached to Mitch Shame's scalp were dark blond. Like Sydney's. The man's eyes were blue. Like Sydney's.

The Exchangers had their own eleven-year-old, biological daughter of their adoptive father.

Here in the fastest Soynite spaceship, every Exchanger would love to reunite with Mitch Shame, their father, and Exchanger Sydney Shame was the man's only biological child. Her siblings needed to keep her safe. Until Able was not their responsibility, the Exchangers needed to keep him safe.

Able, their first kidnapping victim, one of ten Pures the Exchangers needed to deliver to Heaven.

Hero turned to Zoey.

"And Wade and the others aren't going to kill you," Hero said. "But strange things will happen. I need you to know that. When we put a blindfold on you, don't question us."

"Of course," Zoey said. "You and the others are with me. I'm with you."

"You're one of us now," Hero said, as if Zoey had become an Exchanger. "I'm glad you're with us, in our home. We're going to get you back to your mother. And the invisibility bracelet is still here. Your mother isn't going to be mad at you."

Zoey held onto her arms. She turned her back on the boy who could fly. Hero had moved through warm air with Zoey in his arms, and the girl now held onto her own arms.

"When we see my mother, try not to make her mad." Zoey said.