“We’re going to scythe her later, right?” Demus said. “This is just a way to make Ron crazy and put Barnabas off his guard?”
My head dropped, and I took a deep breath. Two steps back. Linking my arm in his, I started to lead him back into the mess. “Demus, we have to talk.”
“There!” shrilled out a high voice, and we both turned, recognizing Tammy’s voice. “There she is! She’s the one that set the fire!”
My mouth dropped open, and I froze as Demus pulled away. Tammy was in a clear spot with a cop and a fireman. Johnny was with her, pressed into a scared-looking woman holding their dog. Their mom, maybe? Behind them trying to stay out of sight was Barnabas. There was a ting of divinity, and I saw Nakita, facing down the light reaper.
A strong thump came from my heart, then stopped. She’s blaming me for the fire? I’m the one that warned her to get out!
“Puppy presents,” I whispered, feeling Demus drop back and vanish into the crowd. I turned to make my own escape, but the cops were faster, and I found myself yanked around and staring up at a stern, smoke-marked face. God, he was big, and he had a gun.
“She broke into my house this afternoon!” Tammy was yelling, currently being held back by a second cop. “I called and it took you three hours to help me! I told you! I told you and you laughed at me!”
“I did not break into your house!” I said indignantly. “Your brother let us in.”
It looked like the fire was almost out, but they weren’t allowing anyone in yet. The parking lot was full of angry people, and they were all starting to look at me.
“She was talking about a fire,” Tammy said, and the cop holding me tightened his grip. “She told me not to be here tonight. Mom!” she exclaimed. “It’s her! I’m telling you it’s her fault! She said there was going to be a fire. How would she know unless she set it!”
“You . . .” the woman said, her fear finding an easy outlet. The dog in her arms squirmed, and she held him tighter. “You burned down my apartment? Why?”
Her shrill voice carried over the roar of the fire trucks, and I backed up to bump into a third cop. Crap, I was surrounded. Barnabas couldn’t help. The cop looming over me grew even more grim. “What’s your name, miss?”
“I want her in jail!” Tammy’s mother yelled, attracting even more attention. “She set fire to my apartment! I lost everything. Everything!”
I touched the bump of my cell phone in my pocket, thinking of my dad. Oh, God, I didn’t want him to get a call about me being two time zones away. “Uh, I have to go,” I whispered, scared out of my mind.
I jumped when the cop gripping my arm pulled me to him. “I’m sorry, miss. Will you come with me?”
“She burned my apartment!” Tammy’s mother said, starting to cry. “I’ve got nothing!”
You still have your children, I thought, but I couldn’t say it. They wouldn’t understand that Tammy’s and Johnny’s lives had nearly been lost.
“Hey!” I yelped when the cop pinched my arm and started leading me away. “I didn’t set the fire! I just had a feeling.”
“Yeah, well you and your feeling are in deep trouble,” the cop said. “How old are you?” he asked. They couldn’t question me without an adult present if I was a minor.
“Seventeen,” I whispered, thinking of the disappointment in my dad’s eyes. “Look, I shouldn’t even be here.”
The cop opened the door of one of the cop cars. It was quieter at the curb, the entire six lanes of traffic diverted somewhere else. People were everywhere. “What’s your name? How can we reach your folks?” he asked.
I looked at the inside of the car and got in. My mouth was shut, and it was going to stay that way. I was so scared, but I was almost laughing. I was the dark timekeeper, able to stop time, stand down dark reapers, and fly with angels, and I was scared. Better to just go along with it until Barnabas showed up and changed their memories, but the less there was to change, the better. So I said nothing, looking up at him and knowing there would be no mercy.
He made a soft grunt. “Wrong answer,” he said, then shut the door. It made a firm thump, cutting through the noise and confusion. Warm silence took me, comforting almost, though the seat was hard and the space tiny. Outside, the fire trucks thundered and people cried, but inside here, it was quiet.
The cop tapped the glass, and I jerked back. “You’d better remember your phone number by the time I get back, missy,” he said, his voice muffled. Turning, he walked away with a swagger.
“Big strong man put the little girl in her place,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest and slumping back in the seat. I had a bad feeling I was going to miss my curfew. I could see Tammy talking to both the fireman and another cop, pointing at me. Her mother was in tears, and Johnny looked lost, patting his mom’s knee as she sat on the ground and rocked their dog. Barnabas was lurking at the edge of the crowd, and Nakita. I didn’t see Demus or the light reaper Barnabas had called Arariel. Maybe they were gone. Maybe all of this had changed Tammy’s future.
Yeah, and maybe I’ve got ice-cream cones coming out of my ears. If the seraphs had sent a dark reaper, then Tammy’s soul was still fated to be lost, and I’d accomplished nothing.
Chapter Six
I watched the wall clock as I sat in the swivel chair, tapping my foot in time with its ticks to irritate the cop sitting behind the desk. But mostly I just sulked. Either luck or Grace had landed me here instead of the juvenile detention area, which was apparently full up at the moment. It could have been the fire, but I think it was Grace. My guardian-angel-turned-messenger had shown up halfway to the station, almost getting me into the psych ward when I started talking to her. Luck had stayed with me, so instead of a cell, I was stuck in some cop’s office while they figured out what to do with me. It stank like stale cigarette smoke, and he had dried Diet Coke rings on his scratched desk. Nasty.
The somewhat overweight, stocky man looked up at me, and I gave him an insincere smile. Irritated, he set his pen down on his steel-and-laminate desk and crossed his arms over his chest, staring back at me. My cell phone was next to his oversize, ugly monitor. Grace had drained the batteries. She drained every single thing they tried to plug into it. They hadn’t been able to contact my parents yet, and I hoped I’d be out of here before they managed it. Grace was good, but these guys were determined.
“You ready to tell me who that redheaded kid was with you?” he asked, and I shook my head. “How about how to call your folks?” he tried, and I looked at the ceiling.
“Punk-ass kids,” he muttered, standing up and pocketing my cell phone. “We used to be able to put you gangbangers behind bars where you belonged and be done with it. You’re only making it harder on yourself. We’ll find out who you are. And that redhead, too.”
“I didn’t set the fire,” I said, and he pressed his lips together, which made his mustache stick out.
“Stay there,” he demanded, pointing a stubby, fat finger at me. “Don’t touch anything.”
I stuck my tongue out at him as he left, but he missed it, more intent on getting a sugar-induced coffee high. The frosted-glass door shut with a bang, and I jumped.
Exhaling a breath I’d taken who knew how long ago, I slumped back in my chair and swung my foot, looking over the cluttered shelves, the high, narrow window with the metal netting on it, and finally the scuffed green and white tiles. I didn’t think my treatment was standard procedure, but I wasn’t making things easy on them, either.
Head thrown back, I looked at the stained ceiling. I’d totally missed my curfew, and I was going to be so-o-o-o grounded when I got home, even if my dad never found out about this. But what really had me worried was Tammy. I didn’t like that the seraphs had sent a reaper out to take her early. They knew I was handling this. Grace had told me that Barnabas was watching Tammy and that both Arariel and Demus were gone, so maybe my actions tonight in stopping Demus had caused them to reconsider. I just didn’t kno
w.
I’d feel a lot better if I could change Tammy’s resonance to help hide her while I cooled my heels in juvie. Ron had changed mine several times, but he had done it by modifying my amulet, seeing as it was the source of my aura now that I was dead. Tammy didn’t have an amulet to give her the illusion of an aura, so I’d have to change it some other way. Logic said I’d have to be with her to do it, but maybe all I needed to do was find her in the time line and just sort of . . . tweak it. It was worth trying.
Bringing my head down, I looked at the ticking clock. It was after ten, past midnight at home. My dad was going to kill me. “Grace?” I whispered, needing some company.
“There once was a cop shop in Baxter,” the guardian-angel-turned-messenger sang out as she ghosted through the glass in the door, “who once a timekeeper did capture. Accused of a fire, her condition was dire, but Barnabas won’t let them ax her.”
Looking at the bookcase of sloppy folders where she had landed, I squinted. “Grace? What’s going on? I feel like I’m on a deserted island, here.”
“You’re in jail, Madison!” the angel said cheerfully. “The seraphs are angry. Tammy is a lost cause. And Demus is walking the streets again, looking for her. She’s run away, just like the seraphs fated she would.”
“What?” I sat up, now twice as worried for Tammy as I was before. “I thought Demus was recalled!”
The glowing ball of light landed on my knee, and a soft warmth soaked into me, like a sunbeam. “No, he just went back to heaven temporarily to make sure he wasn’t doing something contrary to heaven’s will by doing what you told him to do.”
My face scrunched up into an ugly expression. “Three guesses as to how that went,” I said sourly. “And the first two don’t count.” Just like Tammy’s desire to live, I guess. This is so unfair. I saved her from the fire. I saved Johnny from the fire, and still Tammy lets her soul die? What is wrong with the girl? Doesn’t she see how much her mother and brother love her?
“Um, they told Demus to get back down here and scythe her. Madison, it doesn’t look good. He knows her aura signature and even what she looks like.”
Thanks to me.
Grace rose up, the glow from her wings a spot of clean in the otherwise sticky office. “Barnabas and Nakita are going to get you out,” she offered, but I didn’t feel much better. “Madison, maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Grace said softly, and my heart gave a thump.
“Not you, too,” I said, miserable. Damn it, why did no one believe that this was possible! We’d done it before. It would work if they would believe in it!
“It’s just that the seraphs are so agitated!” Grace said, hovering right in front of me. “Their songs are going higher than I’ve ever seen them. The echoes are reaching down here, even. Those sensitive to it are getting visions. I haven’t seen it like this since . . . since the Renaissance in Italy.” She hesitated, and a burst of light came from her at a thought unshared.
“Maybe the seraphs shouldn’t have butted in and sent Demus,” I said, and Grace flew backward in alarm. “I’m trying to help Tammy!” I said, almost pleading. “It doesn’t always happen whiz-bang! If it takes a year for a soul to give up on life, then it might take longer than two hours to rekindle the will to live. Scything someone to save their soul is so fast that it’s cheap. Where’s the honor in that? I’m getting better at this. Haven’t I changed things already so that she is alive? Her and her brother both. She doesn’t have that guilt now. How can that be a bad thing?”
Never. Never would anyone be able to convince me that Tammy and her brother dying in pain and agony in a fire was a good thing.
“There once was a brave human girl, immortality gave her a whirl. For humans to save, God’s wrath did she brave, her tenacity making me hurl.”
“Nice.” I looked at the door as a shadow went past. “Grace,” I whispered, “I got this job for a reason. Maybe because I want to change things.”
Her glow dimmed, and I felt cold as her depression soaked into the room. “What do the seraphs say Tammy’s fate is now?” I asked. There had to be something I could do to make this better.
“It hasn’t changed.” A brief glow came from Grace, vanishing as she moved to the desk and stilled her wings. “Her brother’s death had been the trigger of her soul’s decline. Now it’s losing her home in the fire. That’s why they sent Demus back. She needs to come home early, or she’s not coming home at all. Madison, we’re talking about her soul. What is a human life compared to the everlasting soul? This isn’t a game!”
“Is that what they think I think this is? A game?” I exclaimed, then lowered my voice before someone came in. “I want this to work so badly that it hurts. Tammy’s fate hasn’t changed at all?”
“Nope.”
She sounded resigned, and I slumped back into my chair, not wanting to believe it. Barnabas could lie. Maybe seraphs could, too.
“Tammy’s choice to stay with her brother tonight was based on fear, not a change in heart,” Grace said. “You may have saved their lives, but Tammy still runs away, abandoning those who love her and losing hope in herself. Soon as Demus finds her . . .” Grace made a curious, high-pitched whistle, and went silent.
“Game over,” I whispered, staring at the cop’s desk and his phone. Maybe they left me alone thinking I’d use it and they could track my parents down. “Are you sure?”
“Yup.”
I need to figure out how to change her resonance. I was a timekeeper, damn it. I should be able to do this. “Maybe if I talked to her a little more.”
“Madison. Don’t you get it? You are a timekeeper. You can’t change fate. And you can’t cause change. You see the future. You send out dark reapers to cull souls. If they are successful, the light reaper who failed escorts them to heaven’s gate so the black wings don’t eat their still-bright soul, severed early from their body. You know this. It’s how you met Barnabas. Andif the light reaper wins, a guardian angel keeps the mark safe in the hope that their soul will remember how to live. That’s all you do!”
Screw it. I knew I could do more. “I see the future, huh?” I said, starting to get angry. “Then I want to see her future. Ask the seraphs to show me. I can still fix this!”
“They are angry at you! First you fix it so that they both die in grace, which is what they wanted, and then you go muck it up by talking to Tammy and getting her to leave the apartment. You may have saved both their lives, but you damned her soul doing it!” Grace said, glowing so brightly that she started to cast shadows. “I’m not going to ask them to do a far search on her!”
“Yeah? Well, I’m not too happy with them. Butting in like that.” Sullenly I stood, pacing to the high window and back. That cop was going to come back. I had to get out of here. I had to find Tammy before Demus did. Jeez, what kind of timekeeper was I if I couldn’t even elude a building of cops?
“I bet I can find her future by myself,” I said, hands on my hips and glaring at her.
“See the future before the seraphs do?” Grace snorted. “There once was a girl with no brain, whose theories were kind of insane.”
“Thanks, Grace. You’re a font of wisdom,” I muttered.
She rose up in a haze of glowing light, adding, “To outfly immortals, caused many to chortle. Because what the girl was, was vain.”
“I’m not vain,” I said as she hovered before the closed door. “I’m trying to get things done and no one is helping.”
Grace bobbed up and down impatiently. “I gotta go. They found another phone battery.”
“Go, go! And thank you,” I said, waving at her as she flew through the glass and vanished. I didn’t want to explain to my dad why I was on the West Coast and accused of arson. But even if Grace could keep them from contacting my dad, there was no way that I could hide that I wasn’t at home. Never would I have imagined I could get things this messed up. Maybe Grace was right. Maybe they were all right.
Arms wrapped a
round myself, I glanced at the door and sank down in my squeaky chair. Maybe. But it didn’t feel right. Barnabas had once said to trust my gut. My gut said this wasn’t done. My gut said I could make this better. My gut said . . . I could make a difference.
I looked at the ceiling again, closing my eyes against the water stains that looked like swirling clouds or angels. And I’m disgraced, I thought, feeling a welling of self-pity. The seraphs were angry with me. Worse, I failed Tammy.
Ticked, I kicked out at the cop’s desk. My toe met the thick steel with a dull thump, but I hadn’t put any force behind it and nothing happened, not even a twinge in my toes.
I know Tammy’s aura resonance. I can find her future by myself, I thought defiantly, but it was quickly followed by the realization that I probably couldn’t. I wasn’t being a self-defeatist—I was being a realist. Still . . . maybe I could change her resonance so Demus and Arariel couldn’t find her. Buy me some time.