Fallen - By Lauren Kate Page 0,113

It will kill her - "

Luce shook her head, confused by Miss Sophia's request. "I think I could survive a little truth."

"It is not a little truth," Miss Sophia said, stepping forward to position herself between them. "And you will not survive it. As you have not survived it in the thousands of years since the Fall."

"Daniel, what is she talking about?" Luce reached around Miss Sophia for his wrist, but the librarian fended her off. "I can handle it," Luce said, feeling a dry pit of nerves in her stomach. "I don't want any more secrets. I love him."

It was the first time she had ever said the words aloud to anyone. Her only regret was that she'd directed the most important three words she knew at Miss Sophia instead of at Daniel. She turned to him. His eyes were shining. "I do," she said. "I love you."

Clap.

Clap. Clap.

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.

Slow, loud applause sounded from behind them in the trees. Daniel broke away and turned toward the woods, his posture stiffening, as Luce felt the old fear flood in, felt herself rooted by terror about what he was seeing in the shadows, frightened of what he saw before she did.

"Oh, bravo. Bravo! Really, I am touched to my very soul - and not much touches me there these days, sad to say."

Cam stepped into the clearing. His eyes were rimmed with a thick, shimmering gold shadow, and it shone on his face in the moonlight, making him look like a wildcat.

"That is so incredibly sweet," he said. "And he just loves you, too - don't you, lover boy? Don't you, Daniel?"

"Cam," Daniel warned. "Do not do this."

"Do what?" Cam asked, raising his left arm in the air. He snapped his fingers once and a small flame, the size of a lit match, ignited in the air over his hand. "You mean that?"

The echo of his finger snap seemed to linger, to reflect off the tombs in the cemetery, to grow louder and multiply as it bounced back and forth. At first Luce thought the sound was more applause, as if a demonic auditorium full of darkness were clapping derisively at Luce and Daniel's love, the way Cam had done.

But then she remembered the thundering wingbeats she'd heard earlier. She held her breath as the sound took the form of those thousand bits of flitting darkness. The swarm of locust-shaped shadows that had vanished into the forest reared up overhead once again.

Their drumming was so loud, Luce had to cover her ears. On the ground, Penn was crouched with her head between her knees. But Daniel and Miss Sophia stoically watched the sky as the cacophony grew and changed. It began to sound more like very loud sprinklers going off ... or like the hiss of a thousand snakes.

"Or this?" Cam asked, shrugging as the hideous, formless darkness settled around him.

The insects each began to grow and unfold, becoming larger than any insect could ever be, dripping like glue and growing into black segmented bodies. Then, as if they were learning how to use their shadow limbs as they formed, they slowly hoisted themselves onto their numerous legs and came forward, like mantises grown to human height. Cam welcomed them as they swarmed around him. Soon they had formed a massive army of embodied night behind Cam.

"I'm sorry," he said, smacking his forehead with his palm. "Did you tell me not to do that?"

"Daniel," Luce whispered. "What's happening?"

"Why did you call an end to the truce?" he called to Cam.

"Oh. Well. You know what they say about desperate times." Cam sneered. "And watching you plaster her body with those perfectly angelic kisses of yours ... it made me feel so desperate."

"Shut up, Cam!" Luce shouted, hating that she'd ever let him touch her.

"In good time." Cam's eyes rolled over to her. "Oh yes, we're going to brawl, baby. Over you. Again."

He stroked his chin and narrowed his green eyes. "Bigger this time, I think. A few more casualties. Deal with it."

Daniel gathered Luce in his arms. "Tell me why, Cam. You owe me that much."

"You know why," Cam boomed, pointing at Luce. "She's still here. Won't be for long, though."

He put his hands on his hips, and a series of dense black shadows, now shaped like endless fat serpents, slithered up along his body, encircling his arms like bracelets. He petted the largest one's head dotingly.

"And this time, when your love blows into that tragic little puff of ash,