the Blade weapon." She held it up, moving away from the door, her heart racing. What in God's name she was planning to do with it, she didn't know, but—
"It's an Order of the Blade weapon?" Catherine's voice raised several octaves. "I might be able to make it deadly enough to destroy me. Bring it over here. We'll try that. It might work."
Alice hesitated as the footsteps grew nearer. Ian? Is that you? There were no hoofbeats. Just the footsteps of a person. Was it Ian? But there was still no answer, and she couldn't feel his presence at all. Fear began to build inside her. Ian had never cut her off before. Was he hurt? Was he dead? "I don't want you to die, Cat."
"It doesn't matter! I have to!"
"If you're a guardian angel for the Order of the Blade, what will happen to them if you die? What if they lose one of their trinity?" Even as she asked the words, she realized that it applied to her as well, if she were the third part of the trinity. What if she died for good? What would happen to them? If, of course, she was part of their trinity. But what if she was? What if, all this time, she'd been saving lives?
Catherine looked grave. "It will be worse for them if I live." She thrust her hand through the bars. "Give me the weapon, Ally. Let me try it."
"I—" Alice looked back and forth between Cat and the hallway that was echoing with the sound of encroaching footsteps. Ian. Please tell me it's you who is almost here. No reply. Was he dead?
"Alice!" Catherine screamed at her. "Don't you dare let me live! You made a promise to me!"
"Is he dead?" She couldn't focus on anything else but the gaping void in her mind where Ian was supposed to be. "Is Ian Fitzgerald dead? Can you tell?"
Cat's jaw dropped. "Are you kidding? We don't have time for that. Give me the weapon." But as Alice looked at Cat's fierce gaze, she suddenly saw in her dear friend the same emptiness and loneliness that she'd lived with her whole life. An agony of guilt, and a terror so deep it made her bones ache. She'd lived with that her entire existence, the fear of what would happen to her if she screwed up, and in the end, she'd finally broken through those walls, and it hadn't been so bad.
It had been, in fact, beautiful. She could feel the love for Ian and her worry that something had happened to him. She could feel the love that she and Cat had for each other. It was beautiful, a gift so pure that it made everything worthwhile. She looked down at her shorts and saw the white light from the glowing pearl through the fabric. The pearl was the only thing keeping her an angel, and soon it would be gone. Did she feel any regret? No. She'd rather be alive for two hours than die without understanding what love was. And as she looked into Catherine's eyes, she saw the same emptiness that she'd lived with.
She couldn't let Cat die never having lived.
"No." She stepped back from Catherine. "I won't kill you. We're going to find a way—"
A huge dark shadow morphed out of the darkness and grabbed Alice from behind. A hand clamped over her mouth, and she was hauled back against a hard, well-muscled body.
But it wasn't Ian's body.
"Alice," a husky voice said in her ear, and she went ice cold.
It was Flynn. The man she'd lured here to kill her.
* * *
Alice's heart began to pound furiously as Flynn crushed her against him with his massive arms. He was solid muscle, more than he had been before that terrible night when everything had changed for them, for him. The night that she'd betrayed him, at least in his eyes. "Flynn," she said, trying to keep her voice calm, trying to reach the man who had once been her dearest friend. "I'm so glad you're here. We have to get Cat out of the cell—"
"No." His arms tightened around her, and she saw a faint green glow beneath his fingernails. "This is about you. And me." He spun her around, and she gasped when she saw his face.
Eyes that were once a beautiful rich brown were glowing green. A mouth that used to quirk in laughter at her jokes was a grim, brutal line. His cheeks were