Crouched before me, Nakita started to rise. “I’ll smack her.”

“No!” both Barnabas and I shouted, tugging her back down.

Josh was peeping through the windows. “She’s gone.”

Son of a dead puppy. How am I supposed to save some guy’s life if I can’t even sneak out of the high school’s parking lot? I’d told the seraphs that if I could talk to him—the mark—he would make a better choice and he wouldn’t have to die to save his soul. This was likely my best chance to prove that my ideas could work. I didn’t want to lose my opportunity by getting to the party too late. And I wasn’t going to blow it all to dust because I was sitting in detention—and then my room after my dad found out.

My fingers encircled my amulet, and my worry grew stronger. I should be able to stop time using the black stone at its center, go invisible, and do all sorts of things, but the last time I tried some experimentation, I had nearly destroyed myself. But if I didn’t do something…

Barnabas put his hand around mine, both of us holding the shiny black stone that kept me looking alive, and I turned to him, blinking in surprise. “I’ll take care of this,” he said, compassion in his deep brown eyes.

My lips parted, and I nodded. I didn’t have to do this alone. He and Nakita were here to help until I could do things myself. Seeing my gratitude, he smiled, and his hand slipped from mine as he stood.

“You?” Nakita barked as she stood, too. “If anyone is doing any smiting, it will be me!”

Josh sighed. “There they go again.”

Barnabas’s expression became peeved, but his eyes went wide as he focused behind her. A dry clearing of a throat shocked through me, and I stood when I saw Officer Levy with her hands still on her hips and disappointment in her expression.

“Isn’t it a little early for a field trip?” she asked. She looked too young to be a cop, but the no-nonsense slant to her eyes demanded a respect that went beyond her snappy haircut and slim stature.

“Officer Levy!” I said, feeling foolish as I brushed off my skirt. It was black, with skulls and crossbones on the hem. It matched my shoelaces. And with the black tights, the outfit was out there, but all me. “Wow, it’s good to see you again. I didn’t know you were assigned here,” I said.

My voice died, and no one said anything while she looked at each of us in turn.

“Ah, we were getting something out of Josh’s truck,” I lied, looking at it two aisles away—two aisles and six hours away. Crap.

Her eyebrows were high, and she took her hands from her waist. “Josh, Madison…and you two are…?” she asked.

“Barney,” Barnabas said, not looking up as his eyes silvered. He’d given her the name I used when I was mad at him, which told me he was ticked at himself.

“And you, young lady?”

“Nakita,” the dark reaper said boldly as she fingered her amulet as if preparing to use it.

“She’s my sister,” Barnabas said, pulling her close in what Officer Levy would think was a sideways hug but what I knew was an admonishment for her to behave herself. Trouble was, they both thought they were top dog, and it only made things worse when she shoved him off her. “We’re transfer students from Denmark,” he added, and I looked at him in surprise.

I thought it was Norway…. “They’re staying with me,” I added.

Officer Levy seemed to relax, apparently satisfied with our downcast expressions. “You’re going to be on probation if you pull this again,” she said, dropping back and gesturing toward the school. “Inside. All of you. I’m not going to bust your chops the first day of school. Let’s go,” she said as she ushered us ahead of her, and as one, we pushed into motion.

“Sorry,” Josh muttered as I came even with him, but whether he was talking to me or Officer Levy, I didn’t know. Disappointment slipped into me, tinged with desperation. The hair on the back of my neck prickled as I heard Officer Levy behind me. We’re not going to go quietly, are we? I thought, but the wink and sly smile I caught from Barnabas when I looked at him brought me straight with anticipation.

“Keep walking,” he mouthed, then tugged Nakita’s arm to bring her even with Josh and myself. I couldn’t help but smile at her muffled complaint as Barnabas put his head next to hers and convinced her not to smite the woman.

“I saw what you were going to do,” he said, his hand upon his amulet as it started to glow a faint green. It used to be ruby red, but since he’d abandoned his light-reaper status and gone grim, it had shifted up in the spectrum—much to Barnabas’s embarrassment. “Smiting her has the finesse of a rhino, Nakita,” he added. “You need to learn the art of minimization. Just watch.”

Then, softer, to me, Barnabas whispered, “Madison, start to drop back until Officer Levy walks right past you. Josh, I’m sorry; I can’t cover you. The woman has to take someone in. The best I can do is make it so you don’t get in trouble.”

Josh sighed, glancing at me as he took my hand. “I’ll see you later,” he said softly, his expression both unhappy and resigned. “I knew it was too good to be true.”

My fingers slipped from his, and I winced. “Get my assignments for me?”

“Yeah. I’ll stop at your house after school. Got my number?”

I touched my pocket, feeling for my cell phone. “Always,” I said, and Nakita made a huff of sound, not understanding at all. Most everything was logic for her. That was the difference between her and Barnabas. For all his sourness, he was ruled by his heart.

I felt like dirt for ditching Josh, but what else could I do? Slowly I started easing my pace, both Nakita and Barnabas dropping back with me until Josh continued on ahead of us, his head down and his hands in his pockets. I held my breath as I shifted to the side and let Officer Levy walk right on past. Barnabas touched my elbow, and I stopped. His other hand was around his amulet, and his eyes were silver as he touched on the divine, changing Officer Levy’s memories to not include us. It was a minor task, but one I think they were both reluctant to teach me because of what I might do with it. Sure, I was their boss, but I’d gotten the job without the lifelong apprenticeship and discipline that usually went before it.

I stood between cars and watched, unbelieving as Officer Levy seemed to forget all about us, escorting Josh back to the school as if he were the only one she’d seen. Reaper magic—you gotta love it.

“The woman will remember,” Nakita said with a huff, hip cocked and watching, too. “You used so little of the divine that the false memory won’t stick.”

“It will stick long enough for us to leave, and that’s all we need.” Josh clearly forgotten, Barnabas took my elbow and directed me to the field at the edge of the parking lot, but my eyes were on the school behind us and the open windows. “And when she comes back to look and she finds nothing, then there will be doubt in her. A week from now, she won’t remember it because it will be easier for her to forget.”

A week, I thought, hoping he wasn’t making a mistake. I had thought it would be more certain than that. Nakita, too, seemed unconvinced.

Shoulder-to-shoulder, we turned and left the cars behind us to walk out onto a long-fallow field thick with bees and tiny flowers. I couldn’t help but feel odd as I walked between the two angels, one light, one dark, as if I were somehow connected with all the past that had happened before me and the future yet to be. If I hadn’t known the school was behind us or smelled the pavement and hot metal, I could have been walking in Eden.

Nakita looked to the sky and shook her hair back. A smile so beautiful that it hurt came over her. As she stretched her arms to the heavens, her wings—her glorious, black-feathered, impossibly big wings—melted into existence, glistening in the sun. Dark reaper, dark wings.