“We would not have hurt the child, even if she is our natural enemy. Nor would we have hurt you, if it could be helped. Finn was killed by a male cat, and in exchange for that information, we also agreed to try to remove the female cats from your encampment before the true melee begins.” Melee?! Were these ninja birds? Green Berets with feathers?”

“A minute later, Jace landed where I’d fallen, and I helped him up. “You okay?”“Hell, no.” He actually wobbled on his feet and clung to me, his face whiter than a sun-bleached Texas sidewalk. “There’s a reason cats don’t have wings.”“Yeah, but at least we always land on our feet.”“Then why did I land on my ass?”

“Wow. What would you do if I said I was angry?''I would make fire rain from the heavens to smite your enemies with the flames of our shared rage.”

“If I love you more than you love me, I'm as good as dead. Yet I can't make myself take it back. I can't just walk away from you, because every time you pass by me without smiling, without touching my hand, or at least making eye contact, it feels like I'm dying inside. And I'm pretty sure that hurts worse than whatever Marc would do to me. Whatever your dad would do. Hell, Faythe, I'm pretty sure that never touching you again would hurt worse than the nastiest death Calvin could think up for me.”

“Will there be enough to go around, or must we compete for our kills?""Unfortunately, I suspect there will be plenty, but that really depends on how many of you are willing to come." And that's when I lost track of who was speaking. They called out from everywhere, having apparently forgotten I was even there."All of us!""We will all go...""It's only far...""Someone must stay with the children...""Someone must stay to hunt...""Then we'll draw quills. Feathers into the pile! The twenty drawn will go and fight!""Wait!" I had to shout to be heard. "Don't you want the details?"Kai frowned, one of the few birds paying me any attention. "No. We want the fight, and the feast.""No! I said there will be no feasting! It's a war, not a f***ing dinner banquet!" I threw up my hands in exasperation. Mentioning war to a Flight of thunderbirds was evidently like dangling candy in front of a class full of children! Ruthless, deadly children...”

“We need you to do some reconnaissance. A simple flyby over our ranch. All you have to do is count the cars and tell us how many men you see hanging around the property.”Kai shook his head without a moment’s hesitation. “Not even if you fed me your firstborn, still wet and screaming.”I blinked, but for a long moment, his words made no sense. Not the refusal. The part about cannibalizing my theoretical future child. “Well, isn’t that…gruesome? Who are you, Rumpelstiltskin?”Kai frowned, as if I made no sense to him. “No thunderbird would claim a name so senselessly flamboyant.”

“Even if they were willing to let you remove your Pride from the council's collective influence—and they won't be—there's a reason the council exists. We band together because there's strength in numbers. Because in its unperverted state, the council ensures representative government and a pooling of resources and ideas that benefits everyone.""Yes, but the operative word there is unperverted, and right now, you guys are operating under the thumb of the biggest power-pervert ever to swish his tail in the U.S. He's like Hitler with fur.”