the angel: `Sue me? Where do you think you're going to have to go to nd a lawyer?' " He nudged her. "Get it? 'Cause lawyers are supposed to all ..."
A punch line. Her mind had been elsewhere and she'd missed the fact that Miles had even been telling a joke. She forced herself to crack up, laughing loudly, even slapping the top of the bar. Miles looked relieved, if not a little suspicious of her overblown reaction.
"Wow," Luce said, feeling crummy as she scaled back her fake laughter. "That was a good one."
To their left, Lilith, the tall redheaded triplet Luce had met on the rst day of school, stopped the bite of tuna tartare on its way into her mouth. "What kind of lame half-breed joke is that?" She was scowling mostly at Luce, her glossy lips set in a snarl. "You actually think that's funny? Have you ever even been to the underworld? It's no laughing matter. We expect that from Miles, but I would have thought you had better taste."
Luce was taken aback. "I didn't realize it was a question of taste," she said. "In that case, I'm de nitely sticking with Miles."
"Shhhh." Francesca's manicured hands were suddenly on both Luce's and Lilith's shoulders. "Whatever this is about, remember: You're on a ship with seventy-three non-Nephilim students. The word of the day is discretion."
That was still one of the weirdest parts about Shoreline as far as Luce was concerned. All the time they spent with the regular kids at the school, pretending they weren't doing whatever it was they were actually doing inside the Nephilim lodge. Luce still wanted to talk to Francesca about the Announcers, to bring up what she had done earlier that week in the woods.
Francesca glided away and Shelby shoved up next to Luce and Miles. "Exactly how discreet do you think I need to be while giving seventy-three non-Nephilim swirlies in the cabin toilets?"
"You're bad." Luce laughed, then did a double take when Shelby held out her plate of antipasti. "Look who's sharing," Luce said. "And you call yourself an only child."
Shelby jerked the plate back after Luce had helped herself to one olive. "Yeah, well, don't get used to it or anything."
When the engine revved beneath their feet, the whole boatful of students cheered. Luce preferred moments like this at Shoreline, when she really couldn't tell who was Nephilim and who wasn't. A line of girls braved the cold outside, laughing as their hair tumbled in the wind. Some of the guys from her history class were getting a game of poker together in one corner of the main cabin. That table was where Luce would have expected to nd Roland, but he was conspicuously absent.
Near the bar, Jasmine was taking pictures of the whole scene while Dawn motioned to Luce, miming with a pen and paper in the air that they Near the bar, Jasmine was taking pictures of the whole scene while Dawn motioned to Luce, miming with a pen and paper in the air that they still had to write out their speech. Luce was heading over to join them when, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Steven through the windows.
He was by himself, leaning against the railing in a long black trench coat, a fedora capping his salt-and-pepper hair. It still made her nervous to think of him as a demon, especially because she genuinely liked him--or at least, what she knew of him. His relationship with Francesca confused her even more. They were such a unit: It reminded her of what Cam had said the night before about him and Daniel not being all that di erent. The comparison was still nagging at her as she slid open the tinted-glass door and stepped out on the deck.
All she could see on the westward side of the yacht was the endless blue on blue of ocean and clear sky. The water was calm, but a brisk wind tore around the sides of the boat. Luce had to hold on to the railing, squinting in the bright sunlight, shielding her eyes with her hand as she approached Steven. She didn't see Francesca anywhere.
"Hello, Luce." He smiled at her and took o his hat when she reached the railing. His face was tan for November. "How is everything?"
"That's a big question," she said.
"Have you felt overwhelmed this week? Our demonstration with the Announcer didn't upset you too much? You know"--he lowered his voice--"we've never taught