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"If she’s tired, she needs to sleep A few hours won’t hurt We’re already here"

"But I’

Francesca sed "I guess you’re right It’s either going to happen or it’s not"

"What does she ," he said softly Then, turning to Fran cesca, he said very quietly, "It’s going to happen" He lifted Luce enough so he could slide into the rocking chair beside her He wrapped his ars she felt were his kiss on her temple and his whisper in her ear "Let her have one last sleep"

"Are you ready?"

Luce stood beside Daniel in a fallow plot of farmland outside the white hut Mist rose from the soil, and the sky was the sharp blue color of a heavy storm’s wake

There was snow in the hills to the east, but the sloping plains of the valley exuded springlike wares of the field Butterflies were everywhere, white and pink and gold

"Yes"

Luce had been awake only an instant when she felt Daniel’s hand lift her fro chair and out the door of the quiet hut He ht

"Wait," she said "Ready for what?"

The others atching her, gathered in a circle as if they had been waiting, the angels and Outcasts all with their wings extended

A cloud of storks crossed the sky, their black-tipped wings spread wide as pal shadows on the angels’

wings, before the birds moved on

"Tell me who I ael with his wings concealed inside his clothes He stepped away from her, rolled back his shoulders, closed his eyes, and released his wings

They unfurled swiftly, with supre back a gust of wind that swayed the boughs of the apricot trees

Daniel’s wings towered over his body, radiant and wondrous,him look unfathos, his whole body--

and even lory radiated from Daniel Luce couldn’t take her eyes off hiel"

He opened his violet eyes

"Tell ori," Luce continued

"You’re the angel who has loved me for thousands of years You’re the boy I’ve loved back from the moment--

no, from every moment I first saw you" She watched the sun play off the whiteness of his wings, yearned to feel them wrap around her "You are the soul that fits into mine"

"Good," Daniel said "Now, tell me who you are"

"WellI’irl you fall in love with"

There was a tense stillness all around theels seemed to hold their breath

Daniel’s violet eyes filled with tears He whispered:

"More"

"Isn’t that enough?"

He shook his head

"Daniel?"

"Lucinda"

The way he said her naravely--made her stomach ache What did he want from her?

She blinked, and it sounded like a thunderbolt--and then the Trojan plain went black like it had the night before The earth wascraters stood where the field had been Dust and ash and death were everywhere The trees were on fire along the horizon, and a foul belch of rot rolled in on the wind

It was as if her soul had hurled her millennia back in time There was no snow in the els’ worried faces

But there was Daniel

His wings shone through the dusty air His bare skin was perfect, dewy, pink His eyes gloith the sa at her He was looking at the sky He didn’t seem to know that Luce was next to hiaze upward, the world began to swirl The scent on the air changed froypt, in the dark tomb where she’d been locked away and almost lost her soul That scene played out before her eyes: the starshot warm inside her dress, the panic clear on her past face, the kiss that brought her back--and Bill flitting around the pha-raoh’s sarcophagus, already fory laughter