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The future was as blurry and distant as the ground below--and Luce hoped it would be as beautiful

"How long will it really take?"

"Four, maybe five hours at this speed"

"But won’t you need to rest? Refuel?" Luce shrugged, still ely unsure of how Daniel’s body worked

"Won’t your aret tired?"

He chuckled

"What?"

"I just flew in from Heaven, and boy, are"The idea ofyou is absurd" As if to prove it, Daniel arched his back, drawing his wings high above his shoulders and beating theantly upward, skirting a cloud, he released one ar that he could hold her deftly with a single hand His free arers across her lips, waiting for her kiss When she delivered it, he returned the ar to the left dramatically She kissed that hand, too Then Daniel’s shoulders flexed around hers, hugging theh that he could release both arms from around her waist, and so was so delicious, so joyful and unbounded, that Luce began to laugh He reat loop in the air Her hair splashed all over her face She was not afraid She was flying

She took Daniel’s hands as they found their way around her waist again "It’s kinda like ere made do this," she said

"Yes Kinda"

He flew on, never flagging They shot through clouds and open air, through brief, beautiful rainstor off in the wind an instant later They passed transatlantic planes at such treers inside not noticing anything but a brilliant, unexpected flash of silver and perhaps a gentle nudge of turbulence, h their drinks

The clouds thinned as they soared over the ocean

Luce could sht of its depths all the way up here, and it smelled like an ocean from another planet, not chalky like Shoreline, and not brackish like holorious shadow on its hah it was hard to believe that she was a part of the vision she saw in the roiling sea

"Luce?" Daniel asked

"Yes?"

"What was it like to be around your parents this ?"

Her eyes traced the outline of a lonely pair of islands in the dark watery plain below She wondered distantly where they were, how far away frouess I felt the way you must have felt a million times At a distance from someone I love because I can’t be honest with them"

"I was afraid of that"

"In soels than it is to be around my own parents and ht for a moment "I don’t want that for you It shouldn’t have to be like that All I ever wanted was to love you"

"Me too That’s all I want" But even as she said it, looking out across the faded eastern sky, Luce couldn’t stop replaying those last s differently She should have hugged her dad a little tighter She should have listened, really listened, to her mom’s advice as she walked out the door She should have spenther best friend about her life back at Dover She shouldn’t have been so selfish or so rushed Now every second took her farther away from Thunderbolt and her parents and Callie, and every second Luce grappled with the growing feeling that she ain

With all her heart Luce believed in what she and Daniel and the other angels were doing But this was not the first time she’d abandoned the people she cared about for Daniel She thought about the funeral she’d witnessed in Prussia, the dark wool coats and darief at her early, sudden death She thought about her beautiful land, where she’d spent Valentine’s Day; her sister, Helen; and her good friends Laura and Elea-nor That was the one life she’d visited where she hadn’t experienced her own death, but she’d seen enough to know that there were good people ould be shattered by Lucinda’s inevitable deine And then Luce thought of Lucia, the girl she’d been in Italy, who’d lost her family in the ho didn’t have anyone but Daniel, whose life--however short it was--had been hile because of his love

When she pressed deeper into his chest, Daniel slid his hands up the sleeves of her sweater and ran his fingers in circles around her ar little halos on her skin "Tell me the best part of all your lives"

She wanted to say when I found you, every time But it wasn’t as simple as that It was hard even to think of theether and hiccup like the panels of a kaleidoscope There was that beautiful moment in Tahiti when Lulu had tattooed Daniel’s chest And the way they’d abandoned a battle in ancient China because their love wasany war She could have listed a dozen sexy stolen eous, bittersweet kisses

Luce knew those weren’t the best parts

The best part was now That hat she would take with her fro to her and she orth everything to him The only way to experience that deep level of their love was to enter each new ether, as if time were made of clouds And if it came down to it these next nine days, Luce knew that she and Daniel would risk everything for their love