“The baroness?”
“Her real name’s Donna. She likes the weather down there.” He shook his head and muttered to himself, “She takes a couple opera lessons . . .”
“Are you letting me go?”
“Normally, a good word from my sister would only be enough to get your death sentence commuted. But you got friends in interesting places.”
“I do?”
He slapped shut the view-hatch. A key turned in the lock and the door opened. We were standing a few feet apart, nothing now between us. Then he stepped aside, and there, striding down the hall toward me, was Miss Peregrine.
For a moment I thought I was dreaming. And then she spoke.
“Jacob. Come out of there at once.”
She was angry with me, but her face was so etched with the pain of worry and her eyes so wide with relief that I knew she would open her arms when I ran to her—and she did, and I hugged her tight.
“Miss Peregrine. Miss Peregrine. I’m so sorry.”
She patted my back and kissed me on the forehead.
“Save it for later, Mr. Portman.”
I turned to Leo. “What about my friends?”
“Waiting in the loading dock.”
“And Noor?”
His expression soured instantly. “Don’t push it, kid. And don’t ever come back here. Helping my sister was your get-out-of-jail-free card. But you only get one.”
Leo’s men escorted us down the hallways, through Leo’s club and the kitchen, and out to the loading dock. In the weak light of dawn I saw Emma and Bronwyn waiting, and beside them the white shirt and gray slacks that I knew belonged to Millard. When I saw them whole and standing and unhurt, the shudder of relief I felt was almost like a chill. I hadn’t realized until that moment how dimmed my hopes had become.
“Oh my bird, thank the birds,” Bronwyn sang, clasping her hands as Miss Peregrine and I approached them.
“I told you he’d be fine,” Millard said. “Jacob can take care of himself.”
“Fine?” Emma said, going pale as she looked me over. “What did they do to you?”
I hadn’t seen a mirror in a while, but between my busted nose and other injuries, I must’ve looked fearful.
Emma hugged me. For a moment it didn’t matter what had happened between us, it just felt good to have her in my arms again. Then she hugged a little too tight, and pain ricocheted across my cracked ribs. I sucked in my breath and pulled away.
I assured her I was okay, though my head felt like a balloon that was about to pop. “Where’s Enoch?” I said.
“In the Acre,” said Millard.
“Thank God.”
“He escaped that horrible diner,” said Emma, “then called your house and told Miss P everything that had happened, and they tracked us here.”
“We owe him our lives,” said Millard. “That’s something I never thought I’d say.”
“You can catch up on the way back to the Acre,” said someone with a French accent, and I turned to see Miss Cuckoo standing near the exit with another ymbryne. She wore an electric-blue dress with a tall silver collar, and her expression was flat. Neither she nor the other ymbryne betrayed any trace of happiness at seeing us.
“Come, there is a car waiting.”
Leo’s men watched as we walked out, their eyes and guns trained on us. I thought again of Noor, and the fact that we were leaving her here, in some form of captivity. I felt awful about it. Not only had we failed the mission, I had probably consigned her to a worse fate than if I’d left her alone entirely.
The ymbrynes bundled us out of the loading dock and into a big car. It lurched away from the curb before the doors had even closed.
“Miss Peregrine?” I said.
She turned slightly, her face in profile. “It would be better,” she said, “if you didn’t speak.”