his feet, jogging toward her. "What are you doing?" She could hear the profound relief in his voice that she was still alive, and the sheer panic that she could manipulate the Announcer. His anxiety only spurred her on.
She wanted to look back to apologize to Callie, to thank Miles for what he'd done, to tell Arriane and Gabbe not to worry the way she knew they were going to anyway, to leave word for her parents. To tell Daniel not to follow her, that she needed to do this for herself. But her chance to break free was closing. So she stepped forward and called over her shoulder to Roland, "Guess I'll just have to gure it out."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daniel rushing toward her. Like he hadn't believed until now that she would do it.
She felt the words rising up in her throat. I love you. She did. She did forever. But if she and Daniel had forever, their love could wait until she
gured out a few important things about herself. About her lives and the life she had ahead of her. Tonight there was only time to wave goodbye, take a deep breath, and leap into the dismal shadow.
Into darkness.
Into her past.
Epilogue
PANDEMONIUM
"What just happened?"
"Where'd she go?"
"Who taught her how to do that?"
The frantic voices in the backyard sounded wobbly and distant to Daniel. He knew the other fallen angels were arguing, looking for Announcers in the shadows of the yard. Daniel was an island, closed o to everything but his own agony.
He had failed her. He had failed.
How could it be? For weeks he'd run himself ragged, his only goal to keep her safe until the moment when he could no longer o er her protection. Now that moment had come and gone--and so had Luce.
Anything could happen to her. And she could be anywhere. He had never felt so hollow and ashamed.
"Why can't we just nd the Announcer she stepped through, put it back together, and go after her?"
The Nephilim boy. Miles. He was on his knees, combing the grass with his ngers. Like a moron.
"They don't work that way," Daniel snarled at him. "When you step into time, you take the Announcer with you. That's why you never do it unless ..."
Cam looked at Miles, almost pityingly. "Please tell me Luce knows more about Announcer travel than you do."
"Shut up," Shelby said, standing over Miles protectively. "If he hadn't thrown Luce's re ection, Phil would have taken her."
Shelby looked guarded and afraid, out of place among the fallen angels. Years ago, she'd had a crush on Daniel--one he'd never requited, of course. But until tonight, he'd always thought well of the girl. Now she was just in the way.
"You said yourself Luce would be better o dead than with the Outcasts," she said, still defending Miles.
"The Outcasts you all but invited here." Arriane stepped into the conversation, turning on Shelby, whose face reddened.
"Why would you assume some Nephilim child could detect the Outcast?" Molly challenged Arriane. "You were at that school. You should have noticed something."
"All of you: Quiet." Daniel couldn't think straight. The yard was crammed with angels, but Luce's absence made it feel utterly empty.
He could hardly stand to look at anyone else. Shelby, for walking straight into the Outcast's easy trap. Miles, for thinking he had some stake in Luce's future. Cam, for what he'd tried to do--
Oh, that moment when Daniel thought he'd lost her to Cam's starshot! His wings had felt too heavy to lift. Colder than death. In that instant, he'd given up all hope.
But it was only a trick of the eye. A thrown re ection, nothing special under ordinary circumstances, but tonight the last thing Daniel had been expecting. It had given him a horrible shock. One that had nearly killed him. Until the joy of her resurrection.
There was still hope.
As long as he could nd her.
He'd been stunned, watching Luce open up the shadow. Awed and impressed and painfully attracted to her--but more than all of that, stunned. How many times had she done it before without his even knowing?
"What do you think?" Cam asked, coming up beside him. Their wings drew toward each other, that old magnetic force, and Daniel was too drained to pull away.
"I'm going after her," he said.
"Good plan." Cam sneered. "Just `go after her.' Anywhere in time and space across the several thousand years. Why should you need a strategy?"