Fallen 2. Torment(105)

Arriane scanned the room quickly and without affection. "As far as your parents

are concerned when they pick us up tomorrow morning, you've been here all along. Got

it?"

Arriane acted as if returning to Sword & Cross for the night was no different than

checking into a nondescript motel. The jolt back to this part of her life, however, hit Luce

like a slap across the face. She hadn't liked it here. Sword & Cross was a miserable place,

but it was a place where things had happened to her. She'd fallen in love here, had

watched a close friend die. More than anywhere else, this was a place where she had

changed.

She closed her eyes and laughed bitterly. She'd known nothing then compared to

what she knew now. And yet she'd felt surer of herself and her emotions than she could

imagine ever feeling again.

"What the hell is this place?" Shelby asked.

"My last school," Luce said, glancing at Miles. He seemed uneasy, huddling next

to Shelby against the wall. Luce remembered: They were good kids--and though she'd

never talked much about her time here, the Nephilim rumor mill could easily have filled

their minds with enough vivid details to paint one scary night at Sword & Cross.

"Ahem," Arriane said, looking at Shelby and Miles. "And when Luce's parents

ask, you guys go here too."

"Explain to me how this is a school," Shelby said. "What, do you swim and pray

at the same time? That's a level of freakish efficiency you'd never see on the West Coast.

I think I just got homesick."

"You think this is bad," Luce said, "you should see the rest of campus."

Shelby scrunched up her face, and Luce couldn't blame her. Compared to

Shoreline, this place was a gruesome sort of Purgatory. At least, unlike the rest of the

kids here, they'd be gone after tonight.

"You guys look drained," Arriane said. "Which is good, because I promised Cole

we'd lie low."

Roland had been leaning against the diving board, rubbing his temples, the

Announcer shards quivering at his feet. Now he stood up and began to take charge.

"Miles, you're going to bunk up with me in my old room. And Luce, your room's still

empty. We'll roll in a cot for Shelby. Let's all drop our bags and meet back at my room.

I'll use the old black-market network to order a pizza."

The mention of pizza was enough to shake Miles and Shelby out of their comas,





but Luce was taking longer to adjust. It wasn't that weird for her room to still be empty.

173





Counting on her fingers, she realized she'd been gone from this place less than three

weeks. It felt like so much longer, like every day had been a month, and it was impossible

for Luce to imagine Sword & Cross without any of the people--or angels, or demons-who had made up her life here.

"Don't worry." Arriane stood next to Luce. "This place is like a reject revolving

door. People come and go all the time because of some parole issue, crazy parents,

whatever. Randy's off tonight. No one else gives a damn. If anyone gives you a second

look--just give 'em a third one. Or send them over to me." She made a fist. "You ready to

get out of here?" She pointed at the others already following Roland out the door.

"I'll catch up with you guys," Luce said. "There's something I need to do first."

In the far east corner of the cemetery, next to her father's plot, Penn's grave was

modest but neat.

The last time Luce had seen this cemetery, it had been coated in a thick felt of

dust. The aftermath of every angel battle, Daniel had told her. Luce didn't know whether

the wind had carried the dust away by now, or whether angel dust just disappeared over

time, but the cemetery seemed to be back to its neglected old self. Still ringed by an everadvancing forest of kudzu-strangled live oaks. Still barren and depleted under the nocolor sky. Only, there was something missing, something vital Luce couldn't put her

finger on, but that still made her feel lonely.

A sparse layer of dull green grass had grown up and around Penn's grave, so it

didn't look so jarringly new, compared to the centuries-old graves surrounding it. A

bouquet of fresh lilies lay in front of the simple gray tombstone, which Luce stooped

down to read:

PENNYWEATHER VANS YCKLE-LOCKWOOD

A DEAR FRIEND

1991-2009

Luce inhaled a jagged breath, and tears sprang to her eyes. She'd left Sword &

Cross before there'd been time to bury Penn, but Daniel had taken care of everything. It

was the first time in several days that her heart ached for him. Because he had known,

better than she would have known herself, exactly how Penn's tombstone should read.

Luce knelt down on the grass, her tears flowing freely now, her hands combing the grass