A Map of Days (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #4)(110)

Dogface tossed up his hands. “What are they, idiots?”

“Of course they are, why d’you think Frankie was able to catch ’em in the first place?” said Wreck.

“Lose my telegraph number,” Angelica said, and stood up from her chair.

“Their tongues are just tired!” Frankie pleaded. “Don’t leave!”

Frankie started to beat Bronwyn with her baton and scream, “TALK RIGHT!”

Seeing that made me so furious that something jarred loose in my head, and I found my voice again and shouted, “STOP IT!”

Frankie turned, enraged, and came at me with the baton. She had to pass Emma to reach me, though, and Emma had burned through her wrist restraints without anyone noticing. Though her feet were still tied to the chair, she was able to lunge at the girl with the top half of her body and tackle Frankie to the floor.

Emma got Frankie in a choke hold, one arm around her neck and a flaming hand held beside her face.

“Stop, stop, stop!” Frankie screamed, wriggling and writhing. She seemed to have lost her telekinetic grip on Emma, and though she was trying mightily, she couldn’t get it back.

“Let us go or I’ll melt her face off!” Emma yelled. “I mean it! I’ll really do it!”

“Oh, please do,” said Angelica. “She’s such a pain.”

The others laughed. They seemed surprised, but not particularly upset, by the sudden turn of events.

“Why are you just standing there?” Frankie shouted. “Murder them!”

Dogface crossed his ankles and laced his fingers behind his head. “I don’t know, Frankie. This just got interesting.”

“I agree,” said Angelica. “For once, I’m glad I got out of bed today.”

Emma looked annoyed. “None of you cares if she dies?”

“I do,” the tutor said halfheartedly.

“You can’t do this to me!” Frankie shouted. “You’re mine! I caught you!”

I was starting to feel control returning to my arms and legs as well as my tongue. The girl’s spell had been broken. I looked at my friends, and I could see them beginning to move their limbs as well.

“I say we split them evenly,” said Wreck, and he drew a fat-barreled pistol from his waist belt and cocked it. “One each for you, two for me.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” said Dogface. He dropped onto all fours and snarled ferociously. “I get all of them.”

“That won’t work out so well for you,” Angelica warned him. Her cloud flashed bright white, then rumbled. What I had thought was smoke was really a storm cloud. “And don’t even think about using that fire on us,” she said to Emma.

“Nobody’s taking us,” I said. “Nobody’s buying us, either.”

“When the Ymbryne Council finds out what you’re doing, you’re all in serious, serious trouble,” said Millard.

That comment prompted a few raised eyebrows. Wreck stepped forward, his tone suddenly a bit more respectful, and he said, “You’ve misunderstood us. We don’t buy people. That sort of trade has been illegal for a long time. But we will occasionally make monetary bids to post bail for peculiars guilty of criminal offenses. If we like said peculiars.”

“What criminal offenses?” Millard said. “You’re the criminals.”

“Trespassing on Frankie’s turf,” said Dogface, and Frankie, who was too scared to talk, nodded vigorously.

“She trapped us!” Bronwyn said. “Drugged us with food!”

“Ignorantia legis neminem excusat,” said the tutor. “‘Ignorance of the law excuses no one.’”

“We post your bail,” Wreck continued. “You skip jail, then repay us with your service for a period of three months. After that, many people decide to stay on with us.”

“Those who are still alive,” said Dogface with a sly grin. “Our initiations ain’t for the faint of heart.”

“You, miss, are very talented,” said Angelica, taking a cautious step toward Emma and bowing slightly. “I think you’d feel right at home with my clan. We’re elementals, like you.”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Emma said. “I’m not going anywhere with you, and neither are my friends.”

“I think you are,” Dogface said.

There was a loud snap as Bronwyn’s ropes broke and she stood up from her chair.

“Don’t you move!” Wreck shouted. “I’ll shoot!”

“You shoot, I burn,” said Emma.

“Do what she says!” Frankie whimpered.

Wreck hesitated, then lowered his gun a little. Despite their tough talk, they really didn’t want Frankie to die. Or they didn’t really want to kill us.

Bronwyn went to Noor’s chair and snapped the ropes binding her.

“Thanks,” Noor said, standing and rubbing her wrists. Then she swatted her hand through the air and scooped away the blinding spotlight. It was still on, shining up in the catwalk, but now its cone of light stopped high above our heads. “There. That’s better.” She pushed her hands together, compressing the handful of light she’d collected, then tucked it into her cheek, where it bulged like a glowing lump of chewing gum.