Passion

“Are we going to my house?” she asked.

“Sleep first,” Daniel said. “You’ve only been gone a few hours as far as your parents are concerned. It’s nearly midnight there. We’ll swing by first thing in the morning, once you’re rested.”

Daniel was right: She should rest now and see them in the morning. But if he wasn’t taking her to her house, where were they going?

They neared the tree line. The narrow tops of the pines wobbled in the wind, and the empty sandy shores sparkled as they flew over. They were drawing near a small island not far off the coast. Tybee. She’d been there a dozen times as a kid—

And once, more recently … a small log cabin with a gabled roof and smoke coming out of its chimney. The red door with the pane of salt-stained glass. The window looking into the small loft. It looked familiar, but Luce was so tired and had been so many places recently that it wasn’t until her feet touched down on the soft, silty ground that she recognized the cabin she’d stayed at right after she’d left Sword & Cross.

After Daniel had first told her of their past lives together, after the ugly battle in the cemetery, after Miss Sophia had morphed into something evil and Penn had been killed and all the angels had told Luce that her life was suddenly in danger, she had slept here, alone, for three delirious days.

“We can rest here,” Daniel said. “It’s a safe haven for the fallen. We have a few dozen of these places scattered around the world.”

She should have been thrilled by the prospect of a full night’s rest—with Daniel at her side!—but something was nagging at her.

“I need to tell you something.” She faced him on the path. An owl hooted from the pine tree and the water lapped along the shore, but otherwise the dark island was quiet.

“I know.”

“You know?”

“I saw.” Daniel’s eyes went stormy gray. “He tricked you, didn’t he?”

“Yes!” Luce cried, burning with the shame of it.

“How long was he with you?” Daniel fidgeted, almost as if he were trying to suppress jealousy.

“A long time.” Luce winced. “But it gets worse—he’s planning something terrible.”

“He is always planning something terrible,” Daniel muttered.

“No, this was big.” She stepped into Daniel’s arms and pressed her hands to his chest. “He told me—he said he wanted to wipe the slate clean.”

Daniel’s grip tightened around her waist. “He said what?”

“I didn’t understand everything. He said he was going back to the Fall to open up an Announcer and take all the angels with him from that moment straight into the present. He said he was going to—”

“Wipe clean the time between. Wipe clean our existence,” Daniel said hoarsely.

“Yes.”

“No.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the cabin. “They could be spying on us. Sophia. The Outcasts. Anyone. Come inside where it’s safe. You must tell me everything he said, Luce, everything.”

Daniel practically ripped open the red wooden door of the cabin, bolting it behind them. An instant later, before they could do anything else, a pair of arms engulfed both Luce and Daniel in a giant hug.

“You’re safe.” The voice broke with relief.

Cam. Luce turned her head to see the demon dressed all in black, like the “uniform” they’d worn at Sword & Cross. His massive golden wings were pulled back behind his shoulders. They sent sparkles of light reflecting off the walls. His skin was pale and he looked gaunt; his eyes stood out like emeralds.

“We’re back,” Daniel said warily, clapping Cam on the shoulder. “I’m not sure I would say safe.”

Cam’s gaze swept carefully over Luce. Why was he here? Why did Daniel seem happy to see him?

Daniel led Luce to the worn wicker rocking chair near the crackling hearth and gestured for her to sit. She collapsed into the chair, and he sat on the arm, resting his hand on her back.

The cabin was as she remembered it: warm and dry and smelling like cinnamon. The narrow canvas cot in the corner where she had slept was neatly made. There was the narrow wooden ladder leading up to the small loft that overlooked the main room. The green lamp still hung from a rafter.

“How did you know to come here?” Daniel asked Cam.

“Roland read something in the Announcers this morning. He thought you might be coming back—and that something else might be developing.” Cam eyed Daniel. “Something that affects us all.”

“If what Luce says is true, this is not something any of us can take on alone.”

Cam tilted his head at Luce. “I know. The others are on their way. I took the liberty of spreading the word.”

Just then, in the loft, a window shattered. Daniel and Cam shot to their feet.

“Just us!” Arriane’s voice sang down. “We’ve got Nephilim in tow, so we travel with the grace of a college hockey team.”

A great burst of light—gold and silver—from above made the walls of the cabin shudder. Luce jumped to her feet just in time to see Arriane, Roland, Gabbe, Molly, and Annabelle—the girl Luce had realized in Helston was an angel—slowly floating down from the rafters, all with their wings extended. Together they were a myriad of colors: black and gold, white and silver. The colors stood for different sides, but here they were. Together.

A moment later, Shelby and Miles thundered down the wooden ladder. They were still dressed in the clothes—Shelby’s green sweater and Miles’s jeans and baseball cap—that they’d worn to Thanksgiving dinner, which seemed like an eternity ago.

Luce felt like she was dreaming. It was so wonderful to see these familiar faces right now—faces that she’d truly wondered if she would ever see again. The only people missing were her parents, of course, and Callie, but she would see them soon enough.

Starting with Arriane, the angels and Nephilim all circled Luce and Daniel in another massive hug. Even Annabelle, whom Luce barely knew. Even Molly.

Suddenly, everyone was shouting over everyone else—

Annabelle, batting shimmering pink eyelids: “When did you get back? We have so much to catch up on!” And Gabbe, kissing Luce on the cheek: “I hope you were careful … and I hope you saw what you needed to see.” And Arriane: “Did you bring us back anything good?” And Shelby, out of breath: “We were searching for you for, like, ever. Weren’t we, Miles?” And Roland: “Pretty cool to see you made it home in one piece, kid.” And Daniel, silencing them all with the gravity of his tone: “Who brought the Nephilim?”

“I did.” Molly draped an arm around Shelby and Miles. “You got something to say about it?”

Daniel cast his eyes over Luce’s Shoreline friends. Before she had a chance to stick up for them, the corners of his lips pulled upward into a smile, and he said, “Good. We’re going to need all the help we can get. Everyone sit down.”

* * *

“Lucifer can’t mean it,” Cam said, shaking his head, stunned. “This is just a desperate last resort. He wouldn’t—He was probably just trying to get Luce to—”

“He would,” Roland said.

They were spread out in a circle near the fire, facing Luce and Daniel on the rocking chair. Gabbe had found hot dogs and marshmallows and packets of powdered hot chocolate in the kitchen cupboard and had set up a little cook station in front of the fire.

“He would rather start again than to lose his pride,” Molly added. “Besides, he has nothing to lose by erasing the past.”

Miles dropped his hot dog and the plate clattered on the hardwood floor. “Wouldn’t that mean Shelby and I —wouldn’t exist anymore? And what about Luce, where would she be?”

No one answered. Luce felt embarrassingly aware of her nonangelic status. A hot flush spread across the tops of her shoulders.

“How are we still here if time has been rewritten?” Shelby asked.

“Because they haven’t finished their fall yet,” Daniel said. “When they do, the act is done and can’t be stopped.”

“So we have—” Arriane counted under her breath. “Nine days.”