Free Flying High by Annie Dalton Page A

they meant it too. I’ve never seen Mr de Winter like that before. He always seemed so—”
    “You don’t need to explain, believe me,” Brice interrupted. “You did the right thing. Now run back to Mr de Winter, and give him my message, OK?”
    But Lily still hovered, with an anxious expression. “Dave,” she blurted out, “why did she say you were Dom’s brother?”
    “Oh, Mel’s just confused,” Brice said smoothly. “Time-travel scrambles people’s brain cells sometimes.”
    I glowered but Lily seemed reassured. She rushed downstairs and a few seconds later I saw a little figure go racing through the dusk.
    “You can’t do this, Brice,” said Reuben in a low voice. “These people have been feeding off human misery for centuries.”
    I clenched my fists. “Yeah, and now he’s going to hand them History on a plate, so they can rip off everyone they missed first time around.”
    “You don’t know that for certain,” Lola said softly.
    I shot her a wounded look. I couldn’t believe she was standing up for Brice. Suddenly I was really upset. It wasn’t just Brice. It was everything.
    I remembered how I’d felt when I heard the bird singing outside the summerhouse. Humans had so nearly got their act together, but then they just had to mess it up, didn’t they?
    What’s the use of creating Heaven on Earth, if you don’t take proper care of it? What’s the use of a school for genius kids, if you let an evil family like the de Winters exploit it for their own sinister ends?
    They didn’t ban war at all , I thought miserably. The suffering is still going on. Like Brice said, it’s just out of sight . I buried my face in my hands.
    Brice’s voice was unusually tender. “You’re wrong about me you know, Mel. I might be a jerk but I’d never betray Dominic. I’m trying to save him, and I will. He’s got something they want, something they’ll do anything to get, even if it means letting Dom leave the Family.”
    “You’re crazy,” I said in a muffled voice. “These guys bamboozle whole governments. They’re not going to play fair with a kid.”
    “They will. If you’ll help me,” he said hesitantly.
    “Excuse me?” Lola blazed. ‘“Buzz off,’ you said. ‘I can take care of Dom by myself,’ you said. ‘You angel brats are so freaking superior,’ you said.”
    Brice rolled his eyes. “Give me a break, Sanchez. I can’t be seen in that house. They’ll immediately know who I am.”
    “How come?” I asked.
    “My mum’s there, isn’t she? She may not be the Mother of the Century but even she’d recognise her deceased eldest son.”
    I stared at him. “You mean that’s your actual face?” The words were out before I could bite them back. I felt my face burn with embarrassment.
    I’d always assumed that Brice had disguised himself as my bad-boy crush, purely to humiliate me. It never occurred to me this was how he actually looked in his lifetime.
    Without warning, Brice grabbed my arm. His energy felt comfortingly familiar and terrifyingly alien all at the same time. “Say you’ll help me, please.”
    “Hey,” said Lola. “Let her go, creep!”
    I felt Brice press something into my hand. “Mel, your job is to look after humans, not save history,” he said. “History’s just an idea. My brother’s real.”
    And he’d gone.
    I uncurled my fingers and found a wafer-thin piece of plastic, about the size of a regular KitKat. Brice had given me the time device.
    We looked at each other helplessly. I’m pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing. If we’d been human, all our troubles would be over. Unfortunately we were angels on a cosmic mission.
    “I can’t believe he did that,” Lola wailed. “That was so sneaky. It’s our one chance to get back home, and he knows we can’t use it.”
    For once, I disagreed with my friend. I had the feeling Brice had acted completely spontaneously. It was like he’d trusted us to do the right thing.
    “So now what?”