I made an ugly noise. “I think that I’m just not her scene.”
He gave a slow nod, his mouth forming a tight line. “She didn’t tell me that you knew.”
“About her and Will?” I asked, my voice a little more snarly than I meant it to be. “Yeah.”
He pushed himself off the wall and moved around me so that he stood in my line of sight to Will. “If you want an outside opinion, I say don’t stress over it. He felt pretty bad after it happened and told no one. Not even Nathaniel. I only know because Ava told me.”
“Did you and Ava ever … ?”
He laughed. “No, she’s too serious for me. She’s absolutely no fun at all, and I have a lot of fun. I have an open mind.”
I rolled my eyes. “Then Kate is just your type.”
He grinned widely. “She’s perfect. I want you to know that I’m a one-woman kind of guy when I have one. You don’t have to worry about her.”
I stared at him. “I better not.”
“May I ask you something, Ellie, my love?”
“Of course, but I’m not your love.”
“What’s Heaven like?”
I paused. “Why? That’s kind of random.”
He shrugged. “I’ve come to the realization recently that I am not invincible. I’m immortal, but there is a very real possibility that I will die in battle. Any of us could die. Nathaniel is gone. Since reapers don’t have an afterlife, I’ll never get to see what Heaven looks like. You’re the only angel I’m cool with, so I thought I’d ask you.”
I blinked. “I don’t know. I never remember Heaven. Never have.”
He frowned. “That’s too bad. I guess I will never know.”
“Marcus,” I said, examining his scars. “How did you get those scars?”
He pulled his collar wider. “Demonfire from the blade of one of the Fallen.”
“Who?”
“Belial,” he answered. “A long time ago, he was summoned by humans messing with angelic magic they had no business messing with. They wanted him to fight on their side in a war between men. They call it the Second World War. Thankfully the spell was short-lived, and Belial was sent back to Hell before he did too much damage. He killed three of my friends in the process and split me wide open from here”—he pointed to the right side of his rib cage and drew a line with his finger up to his cheek—“to here. His demonfire scarred me, but I survived.”
I absorbed his story, imagining the horror of it all.
“It’s okay, though,” he said with a grin. “The scar makes me look like a badass. Kate loves it.”
I laughed. “If you say so.”
My smile faded when his did, and he grew very serious suddenly. “Believe Will when he says he doesn’t want you to fight Sammael and Lilith until he knows you can beat them. Belial was Hell on two legs, Ellie. I wouldn’t be here right now if that spell hadn’t sucked that monster back to where he came from. Be patient. Grow as strong as you can, be as prepared as you can. Michael and the other angels don’t care what happens down here unless Heaven is compromised. If your soul is destroyed, then Earth will be at Lucifer’s mercy.”
“Do you think I can beat them?”
He studied my face, his sapphire gaze invasive. “You?” he asked. “No. Azrael? Maybe. Gabriel? Definitely.”
I nodded. I knew what we had to do: summon Azrael. If he couldn’t do it, then I needed to become an archangel, and I needed to stop worrying about what would happen to me once I did.
Will’s presence flooded over me, and I looked to see that he had wandered over to where Marcus and I were standing. His smile was pleasant. “Can I have her back yet?”
Marcus slapped Will’s shoulder, took a swig of his beer, and started to walk away. “Have your way with her.”
My hand rushed to my mouth as heat flushed into my cheeks.
Will dipped his head low to mine. “Ignore him. Are you having a good time?”
I pressed my body into his, just to feel the security his closeness offered me. “Yes. Are you?”
His hands came down on my shoulders and rested around my arms. “I am if you are.” His hands touched my waist.
I pushed my palms up his chest and around the back of his neck. I tilted my head back and he leaned forward, his face inches from my own. “Dance with me.”
“I can’t dance to this music. It’s not even music at all.”
“You’re a big bad demonic reaper hunter and you’re too shy to dance with me? That’s kind of sad in a huge way.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I could just order you to dance with me.”
He sighed and nuzzled my neck. “Don’t make me. I beg you.”
Shivers rushed through me. “You’re lucky you’re so cute. Otherwise I’d definitely make you do it.”
He kissed my shoulder. “You’re very merciful.”
I pulled away to look into his face. “How are you tonight? We can leave if you want to go home.”
He shook his head and smiled at me. “It’s your party. We’re not leaving.”
I smiled, happy to see him so willing to be with me in my human world. I hadn’t been out with my friends in … I didn’t even know when the last time was. I needed this, and I was grateful to him. I didn’t want to go anywhere without him. I touched my fingertips to his lips. His gaze softened. “You’re good to me,” I said.
“You’re everything to me.” He kissed my fingertips. “Let’s go back to your party.”
He took my hand and I followed him back out into the crowd of my friends, determined not to let the end of the world take this happiness, this single peaceful moment, from us.
30
BEING THE SUBJECT OF MOST GOSSIP IN SCHOOL made me long for open campus during lunch hours. That was always the worst part of my day. It was finally May, but the storm still had not quelled. In the hallways, as students were all rushing to get to their next classes or swarming around lockers talking about the upcoming prom, I went mostly unnoticed. But at lunch, we always sat near the corner, and the entire cafeteria looked only in one very obvious direction: right at me.
“Ellie.” Kate’s fingers snapped in my face. “Ignore them,” she said, loudly enough that the surrounding tables heard her very easily. “They’re idiots, and they’re just jealous because you’re pretty.”
I wanted to hide under the table. “I don’t think the second part is all that true.”
Rachel gave me a sad look. “I think you’re pretty.”
I smiled weakly at her. “Thanks, Rach.”
“It’s been over two months,” Landon growled. “They ought to just ignore you and concentrate on the downtown hysteria.”
I nodded but was thinking otherwise. Landon was referring to my final and very public fight with Orek. The media storm surrounding the incident had only gotten worse since it had happened, and on top of the gossip at school, I lived in fear every day of someone connecting me or Will to the grainy cell phone videos taken that night.
“Speaking of,” Chris began, fluttering with excitement. “Did you hear that special effects expert they had on CNN last night ruled out animatronics? He said we don’t have the technology to make something that big and that complex. Something about the way it moved. I can’t remember exactly what he said.”
Landon huffed. “That’s because it was aliens, dude.”
“It wasn’t aliens, man,” Evan grumbled and folded his arms across his chest. “It was probably some brand-new 3-D technology, something so good it was like a hologram.”
Chris gave them both reproachful looks. “Anyway, they also had a witness on who said he saw a girl jump off the roof into the explosion. You know, the one that made the monster disappear? But she disappeared too, and so did the guy with wings.”
My heart pounded like a hammer against my rib cage.
“That’s why I’m thinking it wasn’t even real,” Kate chimed in. “Everything just disappeared afterward. Maybe that expert last night was in on the h
oax and was just trying to cover it up.”
“I wonder if the people behind it will go to jail,” Rachel said, looking out the window.
I swallowed hard. “See, now this is way more exciting gossip for people to concentrate on than me.”
“Exactly,” Landon said. “You’d think they’d get over what happened to you.”
I’d already accepted that I’d have to endure this until, at the very least, graduation. If I wasn’t so determined, I’d have begged Nana to homeschool me for the last couple months of school, but I wasn’t a wimp and I was determined to be normal. As normal as possible for me, anyway.
Chris laughed. “Not going to happen. I can’t believe people were saying you were in rehab while you were gone.”
“Why are there so many psychos in this school?” Kate grumbled. Then she suddenly perked up and stared directly at me. “I have to pee.”
“Uh, okay,” I said, eyeing her. “Thanks for the memo, but I’m not changing your Depends.”
She shot to her feet and grabbed my hand. “Come with me, Ellie Bean.”
She dragged me away from the table as I looked back at the rest of my friends pleadingly; they didn’t even move to save me. They knew better than to get between Kate and Kate’s mission. She shoved through the door to the girls’ restroom, let me go, and proceeded to kick open each of the stalls until she came to one that was locked.
“Get out,” she ordered as she pounded on the door. “You’ve got five seconds. The toilet’s for pissing, not for loitering.”
The girl in the stall made small, frightened noises as she finished her business and flushed. She appeared—she had to be a freshman, the poor thing—her eyes wide and terrified, and she skirted around Kate to get to the sink.
“Did you piss on your hands or something?” Kate barked sharply. “Get out of here! There are Purell dispensers in every hallway. Keep your pee fingers off the faucet.”
The girl whimpered as she darted from the restroom, letting the door slam shut behind her.
“Kate, really?” I asked, giving her a disparaging look. “That was mean.”
She shrugged. “What? We only have fifteen minutes left of lunch, and we need to talk.”
“About … ?”
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened?” she asked. “Or where you’ve been?”
I had strategically avoided this conversation for months because I didn’t want to lie to her anymore and I didn’t know how to be honest without dragging her into my mess of a life. “I stayed with Will and a friend of ours. That’s where I was. It was safe there.”
Safe. As soon as I said it, I realized how untrue that really was. Merodach and Kelaeno had found us and killed Nathaniel.
Kate nodded, her gaze gentle and forgiving. “I’m glad you were with him. I was so worried you were alone all that time, but your grandma kept telling me you were all right.”
I shrugged. “Sort of. I wasn’t exactly civil for a while.” She didn’t laugh. “No one can blame you for that. I can’t even imagine what you went through. I just wish you’d have let me be there for you.”
“I missed you,” I told her. “But I just couldn’t deal … I blamed myself for everything and I was so lost. I felt like my world had ended and kept dragging on like it didn’t get the memo.”
When Kate pulled me into her arms and squeezed me tight, I lost it. I wrapped my arms around her and cried into her shoulder. I had missed her so much. As she held me, I realized what a mistake it had been to shut her out. She was like my sister, and I’d just lost my parents. I needed an anchor to my humanity, and I’d practically cut the rope and allowed myself to drift away.
“I’m so sorry,” I said between sobs against her sweater.
“It’s okay,” she murmured back. “I’m glad you’re going to be all right.”
I pulled away, forcing a smile as I wiped at my face and then wiped her shoulder. “I got drool all over your sweater,” I said with a small laugh.
She smiled back and shrugged. “I’ll just get it dry-cleaned, so it’s somebody else’s problem.”
“You’re horrible,” I said with a loud sniffle. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
I leaned heavily against the counter, folding my arms over my chest, and I stared at the floor. We fell into silence for some time until I spoke at last. “My dad didn’t kill my mom,” I said. “I know that for sure. Whoever killed her killed them both.”
Kate stepped closer to me, her voice hushed. “Ellie, do you know something? If you know something, then you have to go to the police.”
“I …” I trailed off and shook my head. “I don’t know anything that would help the police, but I do know they’ll never catch who did it.”
“Don’t think that,” she said. “The cops are good. It’s their job to solve crimes.”
They’d never solve this one, though. “I know,” I said. I couldn’t bear arguing with her about it.
“How are you and Will?” she asked, changing the subject. “Are you okay yet?”
I nodded and shrugged at the same time. “Yeah. It’s just hard. He … lost his best friend not long after my mom died—the friend we had been staying with.”
She frowned. “Wow. What are the odds that you both would go through that at the same time?”
I huffed. What were the odds? For normal people, sure, it was pretty crazy. But not for me or Will. Death surrounded us.
Her phone buzzed and she slipped it out of her purse. Then she grinned. “Marcus just texted me and says he has a surprise. It’s probably another cupcake. This boy is going to make me fat.”
“It’s still really sweet that he surprises you at school,” I said longingly. I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy at this, but I knew it wasn’t right to feel that way. I was happy for Kate and Marcus, though I didn’t approve of Marcus keeping his secrets from her. But then again, it wasn’t like he could exactly tell her that he wasn’t human. Ugh. That was a conundrum for someone else to solve.
She took my hand. “Come with me to see him before we go back to class?”
I nodded and followed her out of the restroom and toward the front doors of the school. Marcus was standing in front of a sleek black Maserati. Kate squealed and skipped up to him before launching herself into his arms. They kissed briefly, politely, since I was standing there.
“Nice car,” I said, eyeing him.
“Thanks,” he replied. “I let Ava use it sometimes, so if you see her in it, she didn’t steal it. She’s not a car person. She doesn’t know how to appreciate a fine machine like this.”
The suggestive way he said that made me wonder whether he was talking about the car or himself. I chose not to ask.
He turned his back and ducked into his car for a moment before returning with a small white box in his hand. He presented it to Kate. She flashed me a knowing look and then beamed and squealed at him as she tore open the box to find—of course—a cupcake with pink frosting. She danced and threw an arm around his neck and kissed him again.
“I’ve even got one for you, too, Ellie,” he said, untangling himself from Kate, and he took a second small box from inside the car. He handed it to me, and inside was another cupcake.
“Wow, thank you, Marcus.” I was kind of surprised that he would have gotten one for me, too, but I wasn’t going to argue with him.
“The second one was supposed to be mine,” he admitted with a shrug. “But since I don’t want to look like a jackass, I’ll give it to you. See what a nice guy I am?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “God, Marcus, you’re the sweetest guy ever.”
He grinned stupidly. “Actually, that’s not true. I got it for you to begin with, because you two are attached at the hip and I figured you’d show up together. You’re so predictable.”
“And you’re not?” Kate shot back, shoving his shoulder playfully. “You show up here again with yet another cupcake?”
He scoffed. “I’m not bei
ng predictable. It’s self-preservation. I know you love these.”
“Whatever you say,” I grumbled, and marveled at the treat I was aching to devour. My day was about to get a billion times better.
“We’ve got to run or we’ll be tardy,” Kate said to him with a pout. “See you soon?”
“Of course.” He smiled and kissed her good-bye.
She waved to him, and we headed back inside for our lockers as he drove away. “I think I love him,” she said. We walked down the hallway, and she took a bite out of her cupcake.
I raised my eyebrows. “Oh? As of just now?” I took a bite of my own. It was sugar and deliciousness and so good.
“No,” she said thoughtfully. “I think I have for a while, but I was just in denial. I’ve never actually loved a boy before. They’re hard to love, you know? At least Marcus doesn’t smell. I think that’s why I love him. And because of the cupcakes.”
“So I guess you’re sleeping with him now?”
“For a few weeks,” she replied. “He’s marvelous, by the way. Thanks for asking.”
I frowned, unsurprised. Marcus had two hundred years of practice with that. Then, of course, my thoughts went to Will…. “It was a simple yes-or-no question. I didn’t need details.”
“Oh, I won’t go into details while we’re at school,” she said. “I’ll tell you more later. You’ve missed a lot since you’ve been gone and then busy catching up in classes.”
“I’m sure,” I said. “We need to have a heart-to-heart all-nighter.”
“What are you doing tonight?” she asked, nudging my shoulder and frowning as we walked down the hall. “You should come over. Maybe stay the night Friday or Saturday.”
“I can’t,” I said honestly. “I’m sorry. I’ll let you know about this weekend, though. Tonight is a me-and-Will thing.”
“Can’t skip it for me?”
“It’s his birthday, actually,” I said. “He doesn’t know I’m planning anything, but I wanted to do something sweet for him.”
Kate nodded. “He needs it. And so do you. Did you get him anything?”
“He wouldn’t like a present if I got him one,” I said. “The celebration will be enough for him. Probably too much.”