to rest in her palm. It made a cold sizzling sound.
"What is that?" Daniel's head snapped around at the noise. He raised himself from
195
the ground. " Luce! "
She stayed put as the others gasped at the sight of her standing in front of the
shed. She didn't want to glimpse an Announcer. She'd seen enough for one night. She
didn't even know why she was doing this-Until she did. She wasn't looking for a vision, she was looking for a way out.
Something far away enough to step through to. It had been too long since she'd had a
moment to think on her own. What she needed was a break. From everything.
"Time to go," she said to herself.
The shadow door that presented itself in front of her wasn't perfect--it was jagged
around the edges and it stank of sewage. But Luce parted its surface anyway.
"You don't know what you're doing, Luce!" Roland's voice reached her at the
edge of the doorway. "It could take you anywhere!"
Daniel was on his feet, jogging toward her. "What are you doing?" She could hear
the profound relief in his voice that she was still alive, and the sheer panic that she could
manipulate the Announcer. His anxiety only spurred her on.
She wanted to look back to apologize to Callie, to thank Miles for what he'd done,
to tell Arriane and Gabbe not to worry the way she knew they were going to anyway, to
leave word for her parents. To tell Daniel not to follow her, that she needed to do this for
herself. But her chance to break free was closing. So she stepped forward and called over
her shoulder to Roland, "Guess I'll just have to figure it out."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daniel rushing toward her. Like he hadn't
believed until now that she would do it.
She felt the words rising up in her throat. I love you. She did. She did forever. But
if she and Daniel had forever, their love could wait until she figured out a few important
things about herself. About her lives and the life she had ahead of her. Tonight there was
only time to wave goodbye, take a deep breath, and leap into the dismal shadow.
Into darkness.
Into her past.
196
EPILOGUE
PANDEMONIUM
"What just happened?"
"Where'd she go?"
"Who taught her how to do that?"
The frantic voices in the backyard sounded wobbly and distant to Daniel. He
knew the other fallen angels were arguing, looking for Announcers in the shadows of the
yard. Daniel was an island, closed off to everything but his own agony.
He had failed her. He had failed.
How could it be? For weeks he'd run himself ragged, his only goal to keep her
safe until the moment when he could no longer offer her protection. Now that moment
had come and gone--and so had Luce.
Anything could happen to her. And she could be anywhere. He had never felt so
hollow and ashamed.
"Why can't we just find the Announcer she stepped through, put it back together,
and go after her?"
The Nephilim boy. Miles. He was on his knees, combing the grass with his
fingers. Like a moron.
"They don't work that way," Daniel snarled at him. "When you step into time, you
take the Announcer with you. That's why you never do it unless ..."
Cam looked at Miles, almost pityingly. "Please tell me Luce knows more about
Announcer travel than you do."
"Shut up," Shelby said, standing over Miles protectively. "If he hadn't thrown
Luce's reflection, Phil would have taken her."
Shelby looked guarded and afraid, out of place among the fallen angels. Years
ago, she'd had a crush on Daniel--one he'd never requited, of course. But until tonight,
he'd always thought well of the girl. Now she was just in the way.
"You said yourself Luce would be better off dead than with the Outcasts," she
said, still defending Miles.
"The Outcasts you all but invited here." Arriane stepped into the conversation,
turning on Shelby, whose face reddened.
"Why would you assume some Nephilim child could detect the Outcast?" Molly
challenged Arriane. "You were at that school. You should have noticed something."
"All of you: Quiet. " Daniel couldn't think straight. The yard was crammed with
angels, but Luce's absence made it feel utterly empty.
He could hardly stand to look at anyone else. Shelby, for walking straight into the
Outcast's easy trap. Miles, for thinking he had some stake in Luce's future. Cam, for what
he'd tried to do-197
Oh, that moment when Daniel thought he'd lost her to Cam's starshot! His wings
had felt too heavy to lift. Colder than death. In that instant, he'd given up all hope.
But it was only a trick of the eye. A thrown reflection, nothing special under
ordinary circumstances, but tonight the last thing Daniel had been expecting. It had given