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For a second I couldn’t help gripping her fingers. “I’m fine,” I said. I quickly let go of her, hating the fact that tears were threatening. It had been a year. “Fine,” I repeated.
Nina still looked stricken; Jonah’s gentle brown gaze was full of concern. Seb cleared his throat. “Willow and Alex went down to Mexico City after they escaped from Denver,” he said. “Willow had a dream that took them there. ”
He told Jonah and Nina everything – the assassination of the Council, our base in Nevada, the recent angel attack. He explained it all far more succinctly than I could have. It made me sad to listen, though. For over two years, we’d tried so hard, hoped so much – and we’d just had failure after failure.
Nina and Jonah both looked dazed when he’d finished. “Wow,” Jonah said finally, pushing his cap back a little. “Well, nothing as important as that’s been happening here. Though something pretty strange has been going on. ”
He glanced at me and seemed reluctant to continue. Instead he stretched on his knees to hook the kettle off the fire. He poured us each a mug of tea, his boyish face intent. “Sorry, no milk. We’ve got sugar, though. ”
“No, it’s gone,” Nina said, hugging a knee to her chest.
Jonah settled back beside her. “Oh, well. Sorry, no sugar, either. Anyway, I got to Pawntucket and found out that you weren’t here, Willow. But then I met Nina. ”
Nina gave a small smile as they exchanged a glance. “Yeah, we were both outside your aunt’s old house. I mean…where it used to be. ”
I stiffened, remembering the news footage: the shimmering wall of fire that had devoured the house, with a garden gnome glowing like a weird fire spirit in the front yard. “What were you doing there?”
Nina shook her head. “I don’t know; I just…went there sometimes. I really missed you after you left. ” She ran a finger over her mug as she went on: “So one day there was this guy lurking around, and it was Jonah. We got to talking, and I thought he was crazy at first. I mean, he was telling me angels were real and feeding from humans, and you were half-angel and trying to defeat them – believe me, I made an excuse to get away from him pretty fast. ”
Jonah smiled slightly. “And here I thought it was just my personality. ”
“It was. I thought you were cute, but certifiable. ” Nina swallowed. “But…then all this other stuff started happening, and I realized he was right. ”
“What stuff?” Seb asked sharply.
“Well, things got pretty weird as soon as Willow left. ” Nina glanced at me. “Right after, we had police all over the place, asking questions – and then there was all that about you running away with a secret boyfriend, which I knew wasn’t true. I – well, I was scared. ”
“I wanted to call you so many times,” I said softly. “It just wasn’t safe. ”
She nodded, her eyes bright. “I know that now. Anyway, things just got even weirder after that, with everyone convinced you were a terrorist. Which made even less sense than the secret boyfriend. And then the quakes…” She sighed. “Oh god, it was horrible. No power except for one tiny generator, the middle of winter—”
“Why didn’t you go to Schenectady Eden?” I asked. “I mean, I’m glad you didn’t, but I haven’t seen any populated dark towns this far north. ”
“Most people did. I stayed because…well, because of the angels. ” Nina shook her head. “It’s crazy, huh? I would never have believed that anything like that could be true. But after you left, I’d see people just – looking up into the air with these empty smiles. And then afterwards they’d go join the Church. It was like everyone was turning into a Stepford wife. ” She bit her lip. “But then after the quakes hit…it all changed. ”
“We’ve, um – sort of got a theory,” Jonah said. “We think maybe the earthquakes affected people here in ways they weren’t aware of. Like, woke them up, on some level. ”
I stared at him. Nina took a deep breath. “Willow, a few days after the quakes, I saw Mrs. Baxter standing in front of Drake’s Diner, staring up at the sky – only this time I could see what was happening. I saw the angel, saw it feeding from her. It was so…” She trailed off with a convulsive shudder.
“I know,” I whispered, remembering the first time I’d seen someone being fed from by an angel. It wasn’t a sight that left you.
Nina started to say something else and hesitated, looking pained.
“The next week, Nina’s parents went to the refugee camp outside of Schenectady,” put in Jonah softly, touching her hand. “They’re probably residents of the Eden now. ”
If they were still alive at all. I winced, remembering her nice, normal parents – how much I used to envy her having them. “Oh god, Nina, I’m so sorry. ”
“Yeah,” she said at last, her eyes full of an old sorrow. “I begged them not to go, but they didn’t believe me. They tried to make me go, but by then everyone who’s here now had seen what was going on too. We all kind of…banded together, I guess, and refused. ” She gazed down, playing with Jonah’s fingers.
“Nina, that’s—”
She took a deep breath. “Wait, there’s more. We didn’t realize it until the first time an angel tried to feed from one of us, but – well, it’s like we’re immune. They try to feed and then hiss and back off. It’s even gotten to where we can see them coming now, as if our senses are sharpening all the time. ”
I stared at her, my thoughts in chaos. “How many of you are there?” I asked finally.
“Almost two hundred,” she said. “Pretty much everyone you had a class with at Pawntucket High. Which, um…” She glanced at Jonah.
He put his mug down. “Willow, this is just a theory, okay? The thing is, we think the quakes had something to do with what’s happening – but we think you might, too. ”
“Me?” I gaped at them. “I wasn’t even here!”
Nina’s voice was low. “Yes, but the people who became immune after the quakes had all spent a lot of time around you. We’ve gone over and over possible links, and you’re the only one that makes any—”
“Oh, right!” I let out a short, gasping laugh. “So I’m, like, secretly marshalling everyone from thousands of miles away, even though I wouldn’t know how if I tried? Yes, that’s reasonable. ”
Jonah’s face was troubled. “No, actually we think it’s the opposite,” he said. “That people who knew you are somehow connecting to your energy and marshalling themselves. ”
We were speaking different languages. “But that doesn’t make any sense. There’s nothing about me that could help them do that. ”
“Jonah says the angels think you’re the one who can defeat them,” pointed out Nina. “So there must be something special about you. ”
I hated this conversation. “The only thing special about me is that I’m half-angel – and so is Seb, so what does that do to your theory? Besides, if this is true, then everyone I know should be immune, and they aren’t!”
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