Fallen 2. Torment(83)

claustrophobic and sadder than other IHOPs.

Shelby led the way inside, pushing through the glass doors, chiming the cheap

jingle bells duct-taped to the top. She grabbed a fistful of mints from the bowl by the

register before claiming a booth in the far back corner. Arriane slid in next to her, while

Luce and Miles took the other side of the cracked orange leather booth.

With a whistle and a quick circular gesture, Arriane ordered a round of coffee

from the plump, pretty waitress with the pencil stuck in her hair.

The rest of them focused on the thick, spiral-bound laminated menu. Turning the

pages was a battle against the ancient maple syrup welding the whole thing together--and

a good way to avoid talking about the trouble they'd just narrowly escaped.

Finally Luce had to ask. "What are you doing here, Arriane?"

"Ordering something with a funny name. Rooty Tooty, I guess, since they don't

have Moons Over My Hammy here. I can never decide."

Luce rolled her eyes. Arriane didn't need to act so coy. It was obvious her rescue

effort hadn't been coincidental. "You know what I mean."

"These are strange days, Luce. I figured I'd pass them in an equally strange city."

"Yeah, well, they're almost over. Aren't they, according to the truce timeline?"

Arriane put down her coffee cup and cradled her chin in her palm. "Well,

hallelujah. They are teaching you something at that school after all."

"Yes and no," Luce said. "I just overheard Roland saying something about how

Daniel would be counting down the minutes. He said it had something to do with a truce,

but I didn't know exactly how many minutes we were talking about."

Beside her, Miles's body seemed to have stiffened at the mention of Daniel. When

the waitress arrived to take their orders, he barked his out first, practically shoving the

menu back at her. "Steak and eggs, rare."

"Oooh, manly, " Arriane said, eyeing Miles approvingly in the midst of the eeny,

meeny, miny, moe game she was playing on her menu. "Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity it

is." She enunciated as properly as the Queen of England might, keeping a remarkably

straight face.

"Pigs in a blanket for me," Shelby said. "Actually, make that an egg-white omelet,

no cheese. Aw, what the hell. Pigs in a blanket."

The waitress turned to Luce. "How 'bout you, hon?"

"Breakfast Sampler." Luce smiled apologetically on behalf of her friends.

"Scrambled, hold the meat."

The waitress nodded, padding off toward the kitchen.

"Okay, so what else did you hear?" Arriane asked.

"Um." Luce started playing with the carafe of syrup next to the salt and pepper.

"There was some talk of, you know, End Times."

Snickering, Shelby splashed three little tubs of creamer into her coffee. "End

Times! You actually buy into that crap? I mean, how many millennia have we been

waiting around for that? And humans think they've been patient for a mere couple

thousand years! Hah. Like anything is ever going to change."

Arriane looked about a second away from putting Shelby in her place, but then

she set down her coffee. "How rude of me to not even introduce myself to your friends,

Luce."

138

"Um, we know who you are," Shelby said.

"Yeah, there was a whole chapter on you in my eighth-grade History of Angels

textbook," Miles said.

Arriane clapped. "And they told me that book had been banned!"

"Seriously? You're in a textbook?" Luce laughed.

"Why so surprised? You don't find me historic?" Arriane turned back to Shelby

and Miles. "Now, tell me all about yourselves. I need to know who my girl's been palling

around with."

"Lapsed nonbelieving Nephilim." Shelby raised her hand.

Miles stared at his food. "And the ineffectual great-great-great-to-the-nth-degreegrandson of an angel."

"That's not true." Luce bumped Miles's shoulder. "Arriane, you should have seen

how he helped us step through this shadow tonight. He was great. That's why we're here,

because he read this book and the next thing you know, he could--"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that," Arriane said sarcastically. "But what

concerns me more is this one." She gestured at Shelby. Arriane's face was much graver

than Luce was accustomed to. Even her manic light blue eyes looked steady. "It's not a

good time to be a lapsed anything right now. Everything's in flux, but there will be a

reckoning. And you will have to choose one side or the other." Arriane stared deliberately

at Shelby. "We all have to know where we stand."

Before anyone could respond, the waitress reappeared, wielding a huge brown