Passion - By Lauren Kate Page 0,89

does that again. Never. He learned his lesson. Now you've learned one, too: Mortal flesh cannot gaze upon an angel's true form without dying.

Luce turned away from him, growing angrier herself. Maybe Daniel changed after this lifetime in Chich?n Itz?, maybe he'd become more cautious in the future. But what about the past?

She approached the limit of the ledge inside the Announcer, looking up into the vast, gaping blackness that tunneled above into her dark unknown.

Bill hovered over her, circling her head as if he were trying to get inside it. I know what you're thinking, and you're only going to end up disappointed. He drew close to her ear and whispered. Or worse.

There was nothing he could say to stop her. If there was an earlier Daniel who still dropped his guard, then Luce was going to find him.
Chapter Sixteen
BEST MAN

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL 27 NISSAN 2760

Daniel was not entirely himself.

He was still cloven to the body he had joined with on the dark fjords of Greenland. He tried to slow down as he left the Announcer, but his momentum was too great. Heavily off-balance, he spun out of the darkness and rolled across rocky earth until his head slammed into something hard. Then he was still.

Cleaving with his past self had been a vast mistake.

The simplest way to split apart two entwined incarnations of a soul was to kill the body. Freed from the cage of the flesh, the soul sorted itself out. But killing himself wasn't really an option for Daniel. Unless ...

The starshot.

In Greenland, he had snatched it from where it lay nestled in the snow at the edge of the angels' fire. Gabbe had brought it along as symbolic protection, but she would never have expected Daniel to cleave and steal it.

Had he really thought he could just drag the dull silver tip across his chest and split apart his soul, casting his past self back into time? Stupid.

No. He was too likely to slip up, to fail, and then instead of splitting his soul, he might accidentally kill it. Soulless, Daniel's earthly guise, this dull body, would wander the earth in perpetuity, searching for its soul but settling for the next best thing: Luce. It would haunt her until the day she died, and maybe after that.

What Daniel needed was a partner. What he needed was impossible.

He grunted and rolled over onto his back, squinting into the bright sun directly overhead.

See? a voice above him said. I told you we were in the right place.

I don't see why this--another voice, a boy's this time--is proof of us doing anything right.

Oh, come on, Miles. Don't let your beef with Daniel keep us from finding Luce. He obviously knows where she is.

The voices drew closer. Daniel opened his eyes in a squint and saw an arm slice the light of the sun, extending toward him.

Hey there. Need a hand?

Shelby. Luce's Nephilim friend from Shoreline.

And Miles. The one she'd kissed.

What are you two doing here? Daniel sat up sharply, rejecting Shelby's offered hand. He rubbed his forehead and glanced behind him--the thing he'd collided with was the gray trunk of an olive tree.

What do you think we're doing here? We're looking for Luce. Shelby gaped down at Daniel and wrinkled her nose. What's wrong with you?

"Nothing." Daniel tried to stand up, but he was so dizzy he quickly lay down again. Cleaving-- especially dragging his past body into another life--had made him sick. He fought his past from inside, slamming up against the edges, bruising his soul on bones and skin. He knew the Nephilim could sense that something unmentionable had happened to him. Go home, trespassers. Whose Announcer did you use to get here? Do you know how much trouble you could get yourselves in?

All of a sudden, something silver gleamed under his nose.

Take us to Luce. Miles was pointing a starshot at Daniel's neck. The brim of his baseball cap hid his eyes, but his mouth was screwed in a nervous grimace.

Daniel was dumbstruck. You--you have a starshot.

Miles! Shelby whispered fiercely. "What are you doing with that thing?"

The dull tip of the arrow quaked. Miles was clearly nervous. You left it in the yard after the Outcasts left, he said to Daniel. Cam grabbed one, and in the chaos, no one noticed when I picked up this one. You took off after Luce. And we took off after you. He turned to Shelby. I thought we might need it. Self-defense.

Don't you dare kill him, Shelby said to