Fallen 2. Torment(76)

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"You're right," said Luce, looking over at Miles. "We'll distract ourselves. We

could go for a walk--"

"Too dangerous." Shelby's eyes darted from side to side.

"Or watch a movie--"

"Too inactive. My mind will drift."

"Eddie said something about a soccer game during lunch," Miles threw out.

Shelby clamped a hand over her forehead. "Need I remind you I am done with

Shoreline boys?"

"How about a board game--"

Finally Shelby's eyes lit up. "How about the game of life? As in ... your past

lives? We could do that thing where we track down your relatives again. I could help

you."

Luce chewed on her lower lip. Punching through that Announcer yesterday had

seriously rocked her foundation. She was still physically disoriented, emotionally

exhausted, and that didn't even begin to address how it had made her feel about Daniel.

"I don't know," she said.

"You mean, more of what you were doing yesterday?" Miles asked.

Shelby cranked her head around and glared at Miles. "Are you still here?"

Miles picked up a pillow that had fallen on the floor and chucked it at her. She

swatted it back at him, seeming impressed with her own reflexes.

"Okay, fine. Miles can stay. Mascots are always handy. And we may need

someone to throw under a bus. Right, Luce?"

Luce closed her eyes. Yes, she was dying to know more about her past, but what

if it was as hard to swallow as it had been the day before? Even with Miles and Shelby at

her side, she was scared to try again.

But then she remembered the day Francesca and Steven had glimpsed the Sodom

and Gomorrah Announcer in front of the class. Afterward, the other students had reeled,

but Luce kept thinking that whether or not they had glimpsed that gruesome scene didn't

matter in the least: It would still have happened. Just like her past.

For the sakes of all her former selves, Luce couldn't turn away now. "Let's do it,"

she said to her friends.

Miles gave the girls a few minutes to get dressed, and they reconvened in the

hallway. But then Shelby refused to go out to the forest where Luce had summoned the

Announcers.

"Don't look at me like that. Dawn just got nabbed, and the woods are dark and

creepy. I don't really want to be next, you know?"

That was when Miles insisted it would be good for Luce to try to practice

summoning the Announcers somewhere new, like the dorm room.

"Just whistle and bring 'em running," he said. "Make those Announcers your

bitches. You know you want to."

"I don't want them to start lurking around here, though," Shelby said, turning to

Luce. "No offense, but a girl likes her privacy."

Luce wasn't offended. But it wasn't like the Announcers ever really stopped

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following her, regardless of when she summoned them. She didn't want the shadows

dropping by the dorm room unannounced any more than Shelby did.

"The thing with the Announcers is demonstrating control. It's like training a new

puppy. You just have to let it know who's boss."

Luce cocked her head at Miles. "Since when do you know so much useful stuff

about the Announcers?"

Miles blushed. "I may not always 'apply myself' in class, but I am capable of a

few things."

"So what? She just stands there and summons?" Shelby asked.

Luce stood on Shelby's rainbow-colored yoga mat in the center of the room and

thought about how Steven had coached her. "Let's open a window," she said.





Shelby hopped up to raise the sash of the broad window, letting in a fresh blast of

chilling sea air. "Good idea. Makes it more hospitable."

"And cold," Miles said, pulling up the hood of his sweatshirt.

Then the two of them sat on the bed facing Luce, as if she were a performer on a

stage.

She closed her eyes, trying not to feel on the spot. But instead of thinking of the

shadows, instead of summoning them in her mind, all she could think of was Dawn and

how terrified she must have been the night before, how she must be feeling even now,

back with her family. She'd bounced back after the freakish incident on the yacht, but this

was so much more serious. And it was Luce's fault. Well, Luce's and Daniel's, for

bringing her here.

He kept saying he was taking her to a safer place. Now Luce wondered whether

all he was really doing was making Shoreline dangerous for everyone else.

A gasp from Miles made Luce open her eyes. She looked just above the window,

where a large charcoal-gray Announcer was pressed against the ceiling. At first it looked

like it could have been a normal shadow, cast by the floor lamp Shelby moved into the

corner when she did her Vinyasa. But then the Announcer began to spread across the