“You were spying on me?” Shoe said hotly, and I grimaced. He was worried about a little spying?

“Ace is trying to get even with you. I thought I was seeing you be mad at him. I never considered it might be him mad at you.” I had to find Ace. He was somewhere with that virus.

“He’s been mad at me for a long time,” Shoe said softly. “He knew I was doing this tonight, and now I bet he’s going to make it look like I downed the hospital, too. I ought to kill him.”

Nakita dissolved her sword in a flashy show of whirling. “No need. I’ll do it.”

Shoe’s face went pale. “I was kidding.”

“I’m not.”

“Life ended, a soul to save,” Grace said mournfully. “Decisions age-old are made. Is it choice? Is it fate? Forgiveness or hate? When love is what all of us crave.”

Shocked, I stared at her dim glow. It was…good.

Barnabas touched my arm, and I jerked. “Ace’s mother works at the hospital,” he reminded me, and I turned to the black windows.

Nakita leaned to look out at the sky, her long throat showing in the light. “He has a way to get in.”

Beside me, Shoe was clenching his teeth. “And he knows how to upload it. I showed him how. I’m such an idiot. I’m going to get blamed for this, not him.”

Stomach knotting, I looked at Barnabas. “We have to get to the hospital.”

At the window, Nakita made a muffled oath, then shouted, “Drop!”

I stared at the window, seeing the black shape coming at it. Barnabas reached up and yanked me down behind one of the lab stations. I hit Shoe on the way, and he fell under me. “Hey!” I yelped, then clapped my hands over my ears as something crashed through the window.

Glass flew, tinkling, and a faint bell began ringing. Swell. Just peachy keen.

“It’s Ron!” Grace chimed out, her hazy shadow darting over us.

I picked a piece of glass out of my hair and sat up, safe behind the tall lab bench. “No kidding.”

From inside the room came Ron’s harrumph, and I could almost see him standing with his feet spread wide and his eyes turning blue like they did when he was angry. At least he wasn’t trying to stop time. “Madison!” he said loudly, and I met Shoe’s eyes, mouthing for him to stay down. “It’s over. I’m putting a guardian angel on him.”

I peeked above the lab bench to find Ron at the front of the room before the whiteboard. A hazy glow above him had to be the guardian angel, as yet unassigned. Ron was wearing his usual off-white tunic and pants, and he looked satisfied. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut and let him believe that Shoe was the mark. Maybe I can pull this off after all.

“Go,” Barnabas said, hunched beside me. “Grace and I will keep him busy. If he wants to put an angel on Shoe, then Ace doesn’t have one yet.”

“Madison?” Ron called. “Show yourself.”

“But you can’t stand up to Ron!” I almost hissed. “He’ll just stop time or something.”

Grace drifted down to land on Barnabas’s shoulder, giggling. “I’m a guardian angel first, baby,” she said, her words cheerful. “I can keep Ron from messing with time.”

“We’ll be fine,” Barnabas said, gesturing with his eyes for me to leave. “Go.”

“What about the other guardian angel?” I asked.

“She doesn’t have free will,” Grace said. “No name, you see.”

I licked my lips, wondering if I might be able to salvage something. Shoe’s life, maybe.

“Madison! Come out and admit you lost!” Ron shouted. “There’s no shame here. You can’t expect to win when you’re trying to beat a thousand years of experience.”

This guy has an ego bigger than my old chemistry teacher’s.

“Go!” Barnabas said urgently as Shoe stared at us, frightened. “Nakita, you go with them. In case you have to…”

His words trailed off, and I met his eyes, shocked. Was he agreeing with Nakita’s position, to kill Ace if he wouldn’t change?

Nakita, too, was surprised. “You think I’m right in ending his life?” she asked, and Shoe fidgeted, seeming more concerned about not getting caught in a demolished lab than with our conversation about killing his friend.

“No. I mean, I don’t know what I believe anymore,” Barnabas said, his brown eyes solemn. “I held Madison as she lived in the shadows of the future, heard her cry from the pain of the beauty in the stars. Maybe it would be better if his life ended before he does himself so large a hurt and robs his soul of the chance to find that beauty. I don’t…know anymore. I have… doubt.” His eyes came to mine. “Please make him see reason. Don’t force me to have to make that choice.”

I swallowed, scared. Were things so wrong that an angel doubted his own mind?

“Madison!” Ron shouted.

Nakita touched Barnabas’s arm. “I understand,” she said softly.

From above us, Grace said, “Uh, guys? He’s coming over here.”

Barnabas looked at all of us in turn. “On the count of three,” he said, then took a breath. “One. Two—”

“Three!” Nakita shouted, jumping straight up to land atop the bench, screaming as she drew her sword. On her chest, her amulet glowed a sharp amethyst, hurting my eyes.

“Nakita!” Ron exclaimed, and Grace lit up, bathing Nakita in a crystalline beauty. My amulet warmed, and I knew the former guardian angel was blocking whatever Ron was trying to do as Nakita screamed at him, her sword making large circles as she advanced.

Barnabas sighed and hunched closer. “Three,” he said. “Get Shoe out of here. Talk to Ace. Please make him understand. We’ll catch up with you.”

It was all the encouragement I needed. Grabbing Shoe’s hand, I ran, trying to stay below the level of the benches. Glass sparkled on the floor, and the night air came in through the broken windows. Cars had pulled up, and flashing lights had begun playing on the ceilings.

Cop cars and alarm bells. Ohhh, I knew this song. We had to leave, and leave now. Ron’s breaking of the window had been more than noticed.

“What about her?” Shoe said when we skittered out of the room and into the hall. It was cooler out here, and darker.

I glanced behind us and sighed. “Nakita doesn’t want to kill you now. She’s after Ace. You’ll be fine.”

Breaking into a jog, we headed down the hall. “I got that part. Is she coming?”

It never failed to amaze me how people could go from fear to acceptance. Meeting him stride for stride, I said, “She’ll catch up. How did you get here? Will your bike hold two?”

Shoe pulled me into a room. It was another lab, and, moving fast, he led me to the back and the attached greenhouse. “I’ve got a car. But with the cops—”

“A car?” I interrupted him. “How do you sneak out your bedroom window, then drive a car to the school?” For all my moaning and groaning about having left my car in Florida, I’d found a new freedom with my bike. Slipping away was easier when you weren’t making noise.

“I park it in the street,” he said, flashing me a grin. “It’s not like my parents want it in the drive. They can’t get their cars out with me in the way.”

I nodded as Shoe pointed to an open window in the school’s greenhouse.

Another boom shook the school, followed by the sound of frantic radio chatter. The hoot of the fire alarm started. An instant later, the sprinklers went off.

“Damn!” Shoe said, watching the water spill out of the ceiling. There weren’t any spigots in the greenhouse, and, glad for small favors, I bent to slip out the narrow window. I could hear cops in the hallways complaining about the water. I’d be willing to bet that between Ron and Barnabas, everyone in the school with a pulse would remember tonight just as the one when the fire alarm went off.

My feet skidded on the dew-wet grass when I finally got outside. The night was cool, and I waited, fidgeting and scanning the empty parking lot while Shoe scraped himself out the window. There was a glow on the horizon where the moon was about to rise. Shoe’s feet thumped silently onto the grass, and after a quick look at the distant cop lights, we jogged across the empty parking lot.