say I didn't enjoy it. Bloody monsters. They're after you, too, you know. Word has gotten out that you're here. And that you like to wander into that dark forest unchaperoned." He pointed.
"You just killed them?" She was horri ed, glancing up at the deck to see whether Shelby, or anyone, could see them. No. "You just killed them?" She was horri ed, glancing up at the deck to see whether Shelby, or anyone, could see them. No.
"A couple of them, yes, just now, with my own two hands." Cam showed o his palms, caked with something red and slimy that Luce really did not want to see. "I agree the woods are lovely, Luce, but they're also full of things that want you dead. So do me a favor--"
"No. You don't get to ask me for favors. Everything about you disgusts me."
"Fine." He rolled his eyes. "Then do it for Grigori. Stay on campus." He icked his cigarette onto the grass, rolled back his shoulders, and unfurled his wings. "I can't always be here to watch over you. And God knows Grigori can't."
Cam's wings were tall and narrow and pulled tight behind his shoulders, sleek and gold and ecked with brindled stripes of black. She wished they repulsed her, but they didn't. Like Steven's wings, Cam's were jagged, rough--they too looked as though they'd survived a lifetime of ghts. The black stripes gave Cam's wings a dark, sensual quality. There was something magnetic about them.
But no. She loathed everything about Cam. She would forever.
Cam beat his wings once, lifting his feet o the ground. The wings' apping was tremendously loud and kicked back a swirl of wind that raised leaves from the ground.
"Thank you," Luce said, crisply, before he coasted under the deck. Then he was gone in the shadows of the woods.
Cam was protecting her now? Where was Daniel? Wasn't Shoreline supposed to be safe?
In Cam's wake, the Announcer--the reason Luce had come down here in the rst place--spiraled up from its shadow like a small black cyclone.
Closer. Then a little closer still.
Finally, the shadow wandered into the air just over her head.
"Shelby," Luce whispered loudly. "Get down here."
Shelby looked down at Luce. At the cyclone-shaped Announcer teetering over her. "What took you so long?" she asked, sprinting down the stairs just in time to watch the whole massive Announcer tumble down.
Straight into Luce's arms.
Luce screamed--but luckily, Shelby clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Thank you," Luce said, her words mu ed against Shelby's ngers.
The girls were still huddled three steps down from the deck, in plain view of anyone who might cross over to the shady side. Luce couldn't straighten her knees under the weight of the shadow. It was the heaviest one she'd ever touched, and the coldest on her skin. It wasn't black like most of the others, but a sickly greenish gray. Parts of it were still twitching, lighting up like bolts of distant lightning.
"I don't have a good feeling about this," Shelby said.
"Come on," Luce whispered. "I summoned it. Now it's your turn to do the glimpsing."
"My turn? Who said anything about me having a turn? You're the one who dragged me down here." Shelby waved her hands like the last thing on earth she wanted to do was touch the beast in Luce's arms. "I know I said I'd help you track down your relatives, but whatever kind of relative you've got in here ... I don't think either of us wants to meet."
"Shelby, please," Luce begged, groaning from the weight, the chill, and the general nastiness of the shadow. "I'm not a Nephilim. If you don't help me, I can't do this."
"What exactly are you trying to do?" A voice behind them from the top of the stairs. Steven had his hands clamped down on the banister and was glaring at the girls. He seemed larger than he did in class, towering over them, as if he had doubled in size. His deep brown eyes looked stormy, but Luce could feel the heat coming o them, and she was scared. Even the Announcer in her arms trembled and edged away.
Both girls were so startled they screamed.
Jarred by the sound, the shadow bolted from Luce's arms. It moved so fast she had no chance to stop it, and it left nothing behind but a freezing, foul-smelling wake.
In the distance, a bell rang. Luce could sense all the other kids trooping o toward the mess hall for lunch. On his way out, Miles stuck