silence.
Luce could feel the weight of so many gazes falling on her: Callie, Miles, and
Shelby. Daniel, Arriane, and Gabbe. Cam, Roland, and Molly. The blind gazes of the
Outcasts themselves. But she couldn't wrench herself away from the girl with the
depthless white eyes.
"You won't kill him ... just because I say not to?" Luce was so baffled, she
laughed. "I thought you wanted to kill me."
"Kill you? " The girl's mechanical voice lilted upward, registering surprise. "Not at
all. We would die for you. We want you to come with us. You are the last hope. Our
entrance."
"Entrance?" Miles voiced what Luce was too surprised to say. "To what?"
"To Heaven, of course." The girl peered at Luce with her dead eyes. "You are the
price."
"No." Luce shook her head, but the girl's words knocked around inside her mind,
echoing in a way that made her feel so hollow she could barely stand.
Entrance into Heaven. The price.
Luce didn't understand. The Outcasts would take her, and do what? Use her as
some sort of bargaining chip? This girl couldn't even see Luce to know who she was. If
Luce had learned one thing at Shoreline, it was that no one could keep the myths straight.
They were too old, too convoluted. Everyone knew there was a history, one Luce had
been involved in for a long time, but nobody seemed to know why.
"Don't listen to her, Luce. She's a monster." Daniel's wings were trembling. As if
he thought she might be tempted to go. Luce's shoulders began to itch, a hot prickling
that left the rest of her body cold.
"Lucinda?" the Outcast girl called.
"Okay, hold on a minute," Luce said to the girl. She turned to Daniel. "I want to
know: What is this truce? And don't tell me 'nothing,' and don't tell me you can't explain.
Tell me the truth. You owe it to me."
191
"You're right," Daniel said, surprising Luce. He kept sneaking glances at the
Outcast, as if she might spirit Luce away at any moment. "Cam and I drew it up. We
agreed to put aside our differences for eighteen days. All angels and demons. We came
together to hunt down other enemies. Like them." He pointed to the Outcast.
"But why?"
"Because of you. Because you needed time. Our end goals may be different, but
for now, Cam and I--and all of our kin--we work as allies. We have one priority in
common."
The glimpse Luce had seen in the Announcer, that sickening scene with Daniel
and Cam working together ... that was supposed to be okay because they'd agreed upon a
truce? To give her time?
"Not that you even stuck by the truce." Cam spat in Daniel's direction. "What
good is a truce if you don't honor it?"
"You didn't stand by it either," Luce said to Cam. "You were in the forest outside
Shoreline."
"Protecting you!" said Cam. "Not taking you out on moonlight parades!"
Luce turned to Arriane. "Whatever the truce is--or isn't--once it's over, does that
mean that ... Cam's suddenly the enemy again? And Roland, too? This doesn't make any
sense."
"Say the word, Lucinda," the Outcast said. "I will take you far from all of this."
"To what? To where?" Luce asked. There was something appealing about just
getting away. From all the heartache and struggle and confusion.
"Don't do something you'll regret, Luce," Cam warned. It was strange the way he
sounded like the voice of reason, compared to Daniel, who looked practically paralyzed.
Luce glanced around her for the first time since leaving the shed. The fighting had
ceased. The same felt of dust that had coated the cemetery at Sword & Cross now caked
the grass of the backyard. While their group of angels seemed fully intact and accounted
for, the Outcasts had lost most of their army. About ten stood at a distance, watching.
Their silver bows were lowered.
The Outcast girl was still waiting for Luce to answer. Her eyes shone in the night
and her feet inched backward as the angels pressed closer to her. When Cam approached,
the girl raised her silver bow again, slowly, and pointed it at his heart.
Luce watched him stiffen.
"You don't want to go with the Outcasts," he told Luce, "especially not tonight."
"Don't tell her what she does or doesn't want." Shelby butted in. "I'm not saying
she should go with the albino freaks or anything. Just everybody quit babying her and let
her do her own thing for once. It's, like, enough already."
Her voice boomed across the yard, making the Outcast girl jump. She turned to
aim her arrow at Shelby.
Luce sucked in her breath. The silver arrow quivered in the Outcast's hands. She