Page 9

An Announcer.

Usually, Daniel ignored them. The past few years they’d started coming to him less and less. Maybe this one—maybe it had something to do with Shelby. Maybe he could show her instead of flailing for the words. He nodded at the Announcer and let it glide into his palm. A moment later he’d worked it into a flat black plane.

He could just begin to see the image coming clear: Luce. And he knew instantly that he’d made a big mistake. His wings burned and his heart ached as if it were breaking into pieces inside him. He didn’t know where or when in time he was viewing her, but it didn’t matter. It was all he could do not to dive inside and go after her. A single tear rolled down his cheek.

“What the—” Shelby’s shocked tone broke Daniel’s concentration.

But before Daniel could respond, a siren sounded on the street. Flashing lights illuminated the side of the house, then the blades of grass in the backyard. The Announcer splintered in Daniel’s hands. Shelby scrambled to her feet. She was looking at Daniel like something had just clicked but she didn’t have the words to express what it was.

Then the screen door whipped open behind them and a handful of kids from the party raced out.

“Cops,” one of them hissed at Shelby before they all dashed across the lawn toward the fence. They helped each other scramble over it and were gone.

A moment later, two cops jogged around the side of the house and stopped in front of Daniel and Shelby.

“Okay, kids, you’re coming with us.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. It wasn’t the first time he’d been booked. Dealing with the police always veered between a minor annoyance and a big joke. But Shelby wasn’t going in so easy.

“Oh yeah?” she cried. “On what grounds?”

“Breaking and entering a condemned residence. Illegal substance use. Underage drinking. Disturbing the peace. And somebody stole that shopping cart from Ralphs. Take your pick, sweetheart.”

At the station, Daniel waved to the two cops he knew and poured two cups of hot brown water from the coffeemaker, one for Shelby, one for himself. The girl looked nervous, but Daniel knew they didn’t have much to worry about. He was just about to plop down in the seat where the booking officer took your information, your personal items, and your mug shot when he noticed someone standing in the doorway of the station.

Sophia Bliss.

She was dressed in a smart black suit, with her silver hair spun into a tight twist. Her black heels clicked across the wood floor as she approached him. She ran her eyes over Shelby briefly, then turned to Daniel and smiled.

“Hello, dear,” she said. She turned to face the cops. “I’m the parole officer for this young man. What’s he in for?”

The cop handed over his report. Miss Sophia skimmed it quickly, clucking her tongue.

“Really, Daniel, theft of a shopping cart? And you knew this was your last violation before the court-mandated reform school. Oh, don’t give me that face,” she said, a weird smile pulling up the corners of her mouth. “You’ll like Sword and Cross. I promise.”

MILES IN THE DARK

Miles had never meant to splinter off a second Lucinda.

One moment she had been a single girl in danger—his friend, a beautiful girl he’d kissed once, too, but that wasn’t the point—and then a second later, Miles’s eyes went cloudy and his heart pounded and before he knew what he was doing, he had thrown a mirror image of Luce right into the standoff with the Outcasts. Conjured her out of thin air and his deep feelings for her.

Two of her, suddenly. Both as gorgeous as a starry sky: dark jeans, dark shirts, two dark heads of hair. And there was such a dark look in Luce’s mirror image’s eyes when she took flight with the Outcast. And then—Miles pinched his own eyes shut at the memory—with one loosed silver arrow, the mirage image was gone.

Too soon after that, his friend, the real Luce, had disappeared, too.

He was such an idiot! The stupid words he’d said to her the first time they talked about his so-called talent would not stop running through his mind:It’s easy to do with the people you, like, love.

Did Luce remember their conversation that day on the deck at Shoreline? Was what he told her then one of the things that had sent her plunging into the Announcer all alone?

She hadn’t even looked back.

Now the yard was buzzing with the angels and their disbelief. Miles and Shelby were having a tough time grappling with what Luce had just done, but they’d seen her open Announcers. The angels, though, looked ready to keel over from shock.

Miles watched her so-called boyfriend as he worked through his own shock. His stupid mouth opened and closed silently. Daniel didn’t know his girlfriend could do anything. He had no idea how very much she was capable of.

Miles turned away from them all and crossed his arms over his chest. It wouldn’t do him any good to get angrier with Daniel Grigori. Luce was crazy about him. They had been in love forever. Miles couldn’t compete with that.

He gave the dead grass a futile kick—and his foot bumped into something. It glinted in the dark.