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What are you doing? Luce asked

Daniel didn't answer He rolled back his shoulders, turned his face toward the sky, and flung out his arms Zotz stepped forward to interfere, but when he touched Daniel's shoulder, he screamed and recoiled as if he'd been burned And then--

Daniel's white wings unfurled froe and shockingly bright against the parched brown landscape, they sent twenty Mayans hurtling backward

Shouts rang out around the cenote:

What is he?

The boy is winged!

He is a god! Sent to us by Chaat!

Luce thrashed against the ropes binding her wrists and her ankles She needed to run to Daniel She tried to move toward him, until--

Until she couldn't ht they were als that were glowing It wasall of him His entire body shone As if he'd sed the sun

Music filled the air No, not , glorious and frightening

Luce had heard it beforesoht she'd been there, the night Daniel had fought Caht Miss Sophia had dragged her away and Penn had died and nothing had ever been the sa out of Daniel He was lit up so brightly, his body actually hummed

She swayed where she stood, unable to take her eyes away An intense wave of heat stroked her skin

Behind Luce, someone cried out The cry was followed by another, and then another, and then a whole chorus of voices crying out

So and turned her stomach instantly Then, in the corner of her vision, there was an explosion of fla a moment before The boo brightness of Daniel, coughing on the black ash and bitter sround where she'd stood scorched black The gap-toothedhard not to look at Daniel's radiance But it was irresistible Luce watched as the ers and burst into a pillar of flame

All around the cenote, the Mayans stared at Daniel And one by one, his brilliance set thele, lit up everyone but Luce

Ix Cuat! Daniel reached for her

His glow made Luce screae of asphyxiation, the words tulorious

Don't look at el's true essence, then--you can see what happened to the others I can't let you leave ain so soon Always so soon--

I'm still here, Luce insisted

You're still-- He was crying Can you see me? The true me?

I can see you

And for just a fraction of a second, she could Her vision cleared His gloas still radiant but not so blinding She could see his soul It hite-hot and immaculate, and it looked--there was no other way to say it--like Daniel And it felt like coh Luce Sonition chimed She'd seen him like this before

Hadn't she?

As her mind strained to draw upon the past she couldn't quite touch, the light of hi the fire sear her heart and her body shake free of sorated on her eardruainst a cold stone slab Back in one of the Announcer caves, trapped in a frigid in- between place where it was hard to hold on to anything outside Desperately, she tried to picture what Daniel had looked like out there--the glory of his undisguised soul--but she couldn't It was already slipping away from her Had it really even happened?

Luce closed her eyes, trying to remember exactly what he'd looked like There were no words for it It was just an incredible, joyous connection