visible to him. Clearly visible to all the other angels, too. This was a mirror image of her.
This was--Miles's doing.
His gift. He had splintered Luce off into a second self, just as he'd told her he
could on her very first day at Shoreline. They say it's easy to do with the people you, like,
love, he'd said.
He loved her.
She couldn't think about that right now. While everyone's eyes were drawn to the
reflection, the real Luce retreated two steps and hid inside the shed.
"What's happening?" Cam barked at Daniel.
"I don't know!" Daniel whispered hoarsely.
Only Shelby seemed to understand. "He did it," she said under her breath.
The Outcast swung his bow around to aim at this new Luce. Like he didn't quite
trust the victory.
"Let's do this," Luce heard her own voice saying in the middle of the yard. "I can't
stay here with them. Too many secrets. Too many lies."
A part of her did feel that way. That she couldn't keep going on like this. That
something had to change.
"You will come with me, and join my brothers and my sisters?" the Outcast said,
sounding hopeful. His eyes made her nauseated. He held out his ghostly white hand.
"I will," Luce's voice projected.
"Luce, no." Daniel sucked in his breath. "You can't."
Now the remaining Outcasts raised their bows at Daniel and Cam and the rest of
them, lest they interfere.
Luce's mirror stepped forward. Slipped her hand inside Phil's. "Yes, I can."
The monster Outcast cradled her in his stiff white arms. There was a great flap of
dirty wings. A stale cloud of dust stormed up from the ground. Inside the shed, Luce held
her breath.
She heard Daniel gasp as Luce's mirror and the Outcast soared up and out of the
backyard. The rest of them looked incredulous. Except for Shelby and Miles.
"What the hell just happened?" Arriane said. "Did she really--"
"No!" Daniel cried. "No, no, no!"
Luce's heart ached as he tore at his hair, spun in a circle, and let his wings bloom
194
out to their full size.
Immediately, the fleet of remaining Outcasts spread their own dingy brown wings
and took flight. Their wings were so thin, they had to beat frantically just to stay in the
air. They were closing in on Phil. Trying to form a shield around him so he could take
Luce wherever he thought he was taking her.
But Cam was faster. The Outcasts were probably twenty feet in the air when Luce
heard one final arrow loose from its bow.
Cam's arrow wasn't meant for Phil. It was meant for Luce.
And his aim was perfect.
Luce froze as her mirror image disappeared in a great bloom of white light. In the
sky, Phil's tattered wings shuddered open. Empty. A horrible roar escaped his mouth. He
started to swoop back toward Cam, followed by his army of Outcasts. But then he
stopped midway. As if he'd realized there was no more reason to go back.
"So it begins again," he called down to Cam. To all of them. "It could have ended
peacefully. But tonight you've made a new sect of immortal enemies. Next time we will
not negotiate."
Then the Outcasts disappeared into the night.
Back in the yard, Daniel barreled into Cam, throwing him to the ground. "What's
wrong with you?" he yelled, his fists wailing down on Cam's face. "How could you?"
Cam strained to stop him. They rolled over each other on the grass. "It was a
better end for her, Daniel."
Daniel was seething, tackling Cam, slamming his head into the dirt. Daniel's eyes
blazed. "I'll kill you!"
"You know I'm right!" Cam shouted, not fighting back at all.
Daniel froze. He closed his eyes. "I don't know anything now." His voice was
ragged. He'd been gripping Cam by the lapel, but now he just slumped to the ground,
burying his face in the grass.
Luce wanted to go to him. To fall on him and tell him everything was going to be
okay.
Except it wasn't.
What she'd seen tonight was too much. She felt sick from watching herself-Miles's mirror image of her--die from the starshot.
Miles had saved her life. She couldn't get over it.
And the rest of them thought Cam had ended it.
Her head swam as she stepped forward from the shadows of the shed, planning to
tell the others not to worry, that she was still alive. But then she sensed the presence of
something else.
An Announcer was quivering in the doorway. Luce stepped out of the shed and
approached it.
Slowly, it broke free of a shadow cast by the moon. It slithered along the grass
toward her for a few feet, picking up a dirty coat of dust left by the battle. When it
reached Luce, it shuddered up and rose along her body, until it hovered blackly over her
head.
She closed her eyes and felt herself raising her hand to meet it. The darkness fell