up?" he asked, his voice weak and low. "Are we breaking up?" he asked, his voice weak and low.
"Are we even together, Daniel?"
He got to his feet and cupped her face. Before she could jerk away, she felt the heat subside from her cheeks. She closed her eyes, trying to resist the magnetic force of his touch, but it was so strong, stronger than anything else.
It erased her anger, left her identity in tatters. Who was she without him? Why did the pull toward Daniel always defeat anything that pulled her away? Reason, sensibility, self-preservation: None of them could ever compete. It must have been part of Daniel's punishment. That she was bound to him forever, like a marionette to its puppeteer. She knew she shouldn't want him with every ber of her being, but she couldn't help herself. Gazing at him, feeling his touch--the rest of the world faded into the background.
She just wished loving him didn't always have to be so hard.
"What's this business about wanting a toaster?" Daniel whispered in her ear.
"I guess I don't know what I want."
"I do." His eyes were intent, holding hers. "I want you."
"I know, but--"
"Nothing will ever change that. No matter what you hear. No matter what happens."
"But I need more than to be wanted. I need for us to be together--actually together."
"Soon. I promise. All of this is only temporary."
"So you've said." Luce saw that the moon had risen overhead. It was brilliant orange and waning, a quiet blaze. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
Daniel tucked her blond hair behind her ear, examining the lock for way too long. "School," he said with a hesitancy that made her think he was being less than truthful. "I asked Francesca to look after you, but I wanted to see for myself. Are you learning anything? Are you having an okay time?"
She felt the sudden urge to brag to him about her work with the Announcers, about her talk with Steven and the glimpses she'd had of her parents. But Daniel's face looked more eager and open than she had seen it all evening. He seemed to be trying to avoid a ght, so Luce decided to do the same.
She closed her eyes. She told him what he needed to hear. School was ne. She was ne. Daniel's lips came down on hers again, brie y, hotly, until her whole body was tingling.
"I have to go," he said at last, getting to his feet. "I shouldn't even be here, but I cannot keep myself away from you. I worry about you in every waking moment. I love you, Luce. So much it hurts."
She closed her eyes against the beat of his wings and the sting of the sand he raised in his wake.
Chapter Ten
NINE DAYS
An echoing series of whooshes and clangs cut through the song of ospreys. A long, singing note of metal scraping metal, then the clash of the thin silver blade glancing o its opponent's guard.
Francesca and Steven were ghting.
Well, no--they were fencing. A demonstration for the students who were about to stage matches of their own.
"Knowing how to wield a sword--whether it's the light foils we're using today, or something as dangerous as a cutlass--is an invaluable skill," Steven said, slicing the point of his sword through the air in short, whiplike movements. "The armies of Heaven and Hell rarely engage in battle, but when they do"--without looking, he snapped his blade sideways toward Francesca, and without looking, she brought her sword up and parried the blow--"they remain untouched by modern warfare. Daggers, bows and bolts, giant aming swords, these are our eternal tools."
The duel that followed was for show, merely a lesson; Francesca and Steven weren't even wearing masks.
It was late in the morning on Wednesday, and Luce was seated on the deck's wide bench between Jasmine and Miles. The entire class, including their two teachers, had changed out of their regular clothes into the white out ts fencers always wore. Half the class held black mesh face masks in their hands. Luce had arrived at the supply closet just after the last face mask had been snagged, which hadn't bothered her at all. She was hoping to avoid the embarrassment of having the entire class witness her cluelessness: It was obvious from the way the others were making lunges at the sides of the deck that they had been through these practices before.
"The idea is to present as small a target for your opponent as