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"If you wish the boy to live," she said, her voice at, "I will yield to you"

Around the rolled to a stop, thudding against the corner of the fence Roland's wings slowed to a soft beating and carried hied with an electric silence

Luce could feel the weight of soon her: Callie, Miles, and Shelby Daniel, Arriane, and Gabbe Caazes of the Outcasts theirl with the depthless white eyes

"You won't kill hihed "I thought you wanted to kill irl'ssurprise "Not at all We would die for you We want you to come with us You are the last hope Our entrance"

"Entrance?" Miles voiced what Luce was too surprised to say "To what?"

"To Heaven, of course" The girl peered at Luce with her dead eyes "You are the price"

"No" Luce shook her head, but the girl's words knocked around inside herin a way that made her feel so hollow she could barely stand

Entrance into Heaven The price

Luce didn't understand The Outcasts would take her, and do what? Use her as soirl couldn't even see Luce to knoho she was If Luce had learned one thing at Shoreline, it was that no one could keep the ht They were too old, too convoluted Everyone knew there was a history, one Luce had been involved in for a long time, but nobody seemed to knohy

"Don't listen to her, Luce She's a ht she an to itch, a hot prickling that left the rest of her body cold

"Lucinda?" the Outcast girl called

"Okay, hold on a irl She turned to Daniel "I want to know: What is this truce? And don't tell ,' and don't tell me you can't explain Tell ht," Daniel said, surprising Luce He kept sneaking glances at the Outcast, as if she ht spirit Luce away at any reed to put aside our di erences for eighteen days All angels and deether to hunt down other enemies Like them" He pointed to the Outcast

"But why?"

"Because of you Because you needed tioals may be di erent, but for now, Cam and I--and all of our kin--ork as allies We have one priority in coli scene with Daniel and Caetherthat was supposed to be okay because they'd agreed upon a truce? To give her time?

"Not that you even stuck by the truce" Caood is a truce if you don't honor it?"

"You didn't stand by it either," Luce said to Cam "You were in the forest outside Shoreline"

"Protecting you!" said Caht parades!"

Luce turned to Arriane "Whatever the truce is--or isn't--once it's over, does that ain? And Roland, too? This doesn't make any sense"

"Say the word, Lucinda," the Outcast said "I will take you far from all of this"

"To what? To where?" Luce asked There was so away Frole and confusion

"Don't do soe the way he sounded like the voice of reason, compared to Daniel, who looked practically paralyzed

Luce glanced around her for the rst ti had ceased The same felt of dust that had coated the cerass of the backyard While their group of angels seemed fully intact and accounted for, the Outcasts had lostTheir silver boere lowered

The Outcast girl was still waiting for Luce to answer Her eyes shone in the night and her feet inched backward as the angels pressed closer to her When Caain, slowly, and pointed it at his heart

Luce watched hio with the Outcasts," he told Luce, "especially not tonight"

"Don't tell her what she does or doesn't want" Shelby butted in "I' Just everybody quit babying her and let her do her own thing for once It's, like, enough already"

Her voice booirl jump She turned to aim her arrow at Shelby

Luce sucked in her breath The silver arrow quivered in the Outcast's hands She pulled back on the bowstring Luce held her breath But before the girl could shoot, her glossy eyes widened The bow turay ash of light

Two feet behind where the Outcast girl had stood, Molly lowered a silver bow She had shot the girl cleanly in the back Two feet behind where the Outcast girl had stood, Molly lowered a silver bow She had shot the girl cleanly in the back

"What?" Molly barked as the whole group turned to gape at her "I like that Nephilim She reminds esture at Shelby, who said, "Thanks Seriously That was cool"

Molly shrugged, oblivious to the towering dark presence rising up behind her The Outcast boy Miles had beaten to the ground with the kayak Phil

He swung the kayak behind his body, as if it were a baseball bat, and batted Molly clear across the lawn She landed with a grunt on the grass Tossing the kayak aside, the Outcast reached into his trench coat for one last shining arrow

His dead eyes were the only expressionless part of his face The rest of him--his snarl, his brow, even his cheekbones--looked utterly ferocious His white skin seemed stretched across his bony skull His hands looked ed hiuy into an actual monster He raised his silver bow and took ai fora little rowled "You will come with us"

On either side of Luce, silver boere raised Caain, and Daniel scrairl had just dropped Phil seemed to expect this His face twisted into a dark smile