Fallen 2. Torment(40)

still wanted to talk to Francesca about the Announcers, to bring up what she had done

earlier that week in the woods.

Francesca glided away and Shelby shoved up next to Luce and Miles. "Exactly

how discreet do you think I need to be while giving seventy-three non-Nephilim swirlies

in the cabin toilets?"

"You're bad." Luce laughed, then did a double take when Shelby held out her

plate of antipasti. "Look who's sharing," Luce said. "And you call yourself an only child."

Shelby jerked the plate back after Luce had helped herself to one olive. "Yeah,

well, don't get used to it or anything."

When the engine revved beneath their feet, the whole boatful of students cheered.

Luce preferred moments like this at Shoreline, when she really couldn't tell who was

Nephilim and who wasn't. A line of girls braved the cold outside, laughing as their hair

tumbled in the wind. Some of the guys from her history class were getting a game of

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poker together in one corner of the main cabin. That table was where Luce would have

expected to find Roland, but he was conspicuously absent.

Near the bar, Jasmine was taking pictures of the whole scene while Dawn

motioned to Luce, miming with a pen and paper in the air that they still had to write out

their speech. Luce was heading over to join them when, out of the corner of her eye, she

spotted Steven through the windows.

He was by himself, leaning against the railing in a long black trench coat, a fedora

capping his salt-and-pepper hair. It still made her nervous to think of him as a demon,

especially because she genuinely liked him--or at least, what she knew of him. His

relationship with Francesca confused her even more. They were such a unit: It reminded

her of what Cam had said the night before about him and Daniel not being all that

different. The comparison was still nagging at her as she slid open the tinted-glass door

and stepped out on the deck.

All she could see on the westward side of the yacht was the endless blue on blue

of ocean and clear sky. The water was calm, but a brisk wind tore around the sides of the

boat. Luce had to hold on to the railing, squinting in the bright sunlight, shielding her

eyes with her hand as she approached Steven. She didn't see Francesca anywhere.

"Hello, Luce." He smiled at her and took off his hat when she reached the railing.

His face was tan for November. "How is everything?"

"That's a big question," she said.

"Have you felt overwhelmed this week? Our demonstration with the Announcer

didn't upset you too much? You know"--he lowered his voice--"we've never taught that

before."

"Upset me? No. I loved it," Luce said quickly. "I mean--it was difficult to watch.

But also fascinating. I've been wanting to talk about it with someone. ..." With Steven's

eyes on her, she remembered the conversation she'd overheard her two teachers having

with Roland. How it had been Steven, not Francesca, who'd been more open to including

Announcers in the curriculum. "I want to learn all about them."

"All about them?" Steven tilted his head, catching the full sun on his already

golden skin. "That could take a while. There are trillions of Announcers, one for almost

every moment in history. The field is endless. Most of us don't even know where to

begin."

"Is that why you haven't taught them before?"

"It's controversial," Steven said. "There are angels who don't believe the

Announcers have any value. Or that the bad things they often herald outweigh the good.

They call advocates like me historical pack rats, too obsessed with the past to pay

attention to the sins of the present."

"But that's like saying ... the past doesn't have any value."

If that were true, it would mean that all of Luce's former lives didn't add up to

anything, that her history with Daniel was also worthless. So all she'd have to go on was

what she knew of Daniel in this lifetime. And was that really enough?

No. It wasn't.

She had to believe there was more to what she felt for Daniel: a valuable, lockedaway history that added up to something bigger than a few nights of blissful kissing and a

few more nights of arguing. Because if the past had no value, that was really all they had.

"Judging from the look on your face," Steven said, "it seems like I've got another

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one on my side."

"I hope you're not filling Luce's head with any of your devilish filth." Francesca

appeared behind them. Her hands were on her hips and a scowl was on her face. Until she

started laughing, Luce had no idea she was teasing.

"We were talking about the shadows--I mean, the Announcers," Luce said.

"Steven just told me he thinks there are trillions of them."