“Shame you did such a poor job capturing her.” Sophia felt her voice rise higher than she knew it should, drawing the eyes of an older couple crossing the grandstand. “We were supposed to work together,” she hissed, “to hunt her down, and—and you failed.”
“It would not have mattered one way or another.”
“Come again?”
“She would still be lost in time. It was always her destiny. And the Elders would still be hanging on by a thread. That is yours.”
She wanted to lunge at him, wanted to strangle him until those great white eyes bulged from their sockets. Her dagger felt like it was burning a hole through the calfskin handbag on her lap. If only it had been a starshot. Sophia was rising from the bleacher when the voice came from behind them.
“Please be seated,” it boomed. “This meeting is now called to order.”
The voice. She knew at once whose it was. Calm and authoritative. Utterly humbling. It made the bleachers quake.
The nearby mortals noticed nothing, but a flush of heat rose on the back of Sophia’s neck. It trickled through her body, numbing her. This was no ordinary fear. This was a crippling, stomach-souring terror. Did she dare to turn around?
The subtlest peek from the corner of her eye revealed a man in a tailored black suit. His dark hair was clipped short under his black hat. The face, kind and attractive, was not particularly memorable. Clean-shaven, straight-nosed, with brown eyes that felt familiar. Yet Miss Sophia had never seen him before. And still she knew who he was, knew it in the marrow of her bones.
“Where is Cam?” the voice behind them asked. “He was sent an invitation.”
“Probably playing God inside the Announcers. Like the rest of them,” Lyrica blurted out. Sophia swatted her.
“Playing God, did you say?”
Sophia searched for the words that would fix a gaffe like that. “Several of the others followed Lucinda backward into time,” she said eventually. “Including two Nephilim. We aren’t sure how many others.”
“Dare I ask,” the voice said, suddenly ice-cold, “why none of you elected to go after her?”
Sophia fought to swallow, to breathe. Her most intuitive movements were stunted by panic. “We can’t exactly, well … We don’t yet have the capabilities to—”
The Outcast girl cut her off. “The Outcasts are in the process of—”
“Silence,” the voice commanded. “Spare me your excuses. They no longer matter, as you no longer matter.”
For a long time, their group was quiet. It was terrifying not to know how to please him. When he finally spoke, his voice was softer, but no less lethal. “Too much at stake. I can’t leave anything else to chance.”
A pause.
Then, softly, he said, “The time has come for me to take matters into my own hands.”
Sophia bit her gasp in two to hide her horror. But she could not stop her body’s tremors. His direct involvement? Truly, it was the most terrifying prospect. She could not imagine working with him to—
“The rest of you will stay out of this,” he said. “That is all.”
“But—” It was an accident, but the word escaped Sophia’s lips. She could not take it back. But all her decades of labor. All her plans. Her plans!
What came next was a long, earth-shattering roar.
It reverberated up through the bleachers, seeming to travel around the entire racetrack in a splinter of a second.
Sophia cringed. The noise seemed almost to crash into her, through her skin and down to her deepest core. She felt as if her heart was being drummed to pieces.
Lyrica and Vivina both pressed against her, eyes clamped shut. Even the Outcasts trembled.
Just when Sophia thought the sound of it would never cease, that it would be the death of her at last, his roar gave way to absolute pin-drop silence.
For a moment.
Enough time to look around and see that the other people at the racetrack had not heard anything at all.
In her ear he whispered, “Your time on this endeavor is up. Do not dare to get in my way.”
Down below, another shot rang out. The broad gate banged open once again. Only this time, the pounding of horses’ hooves against the dirt sounded like practically nothing, like the lightest rainfall falling on a canopy of trees.
Before the racehorses had crossed the starting line, the figure behind them had vanished, leaving only the mark of coal-black hoofprints singed into the planks of the grandstand.
ONE
UNDER FIRE
MOSCOW • OCTOBER 15, 1941
Ĺucinda!
The voices reached her in the murky darkness.
Come back!
Wait!
She ignored them, pressing further. Echoes of her name bounced off the shadowy walls of the Announcer, sending licks of heat rippling across her skin. Was that Daniel’s voice or Cam’s? Arriane’s or Gabbe’s? Was it Roland pleading that she come back now, or was that Miles?
The calls grew harder to discern, until Luce couldn’t tell them apart at all: good or evil. Enemy or friend. They should have been easier to separate, but nothing was easy anymore. Everything that had once been black and white now blended into gray.
Of course, both sides agreed on one thing: Everyone wanted to pull her out of the Announcer. For her protection, they would claim.
No, thanks.
Not now.
Not after they’d wrecked her parents’ backyard, made it into another one of their dusty battlefields. She couldn’t think about her parents’ faces without wanting to turn back—not like she’d even know how to turn back inside an Announcer, anyway. Besides, it was too late. Cam had tried to kill her. Or what he thought was her. And Miles had saved her, but even that wasn’t simple. He’d only been able to throw her reflection because he cared about her too much.
And Daniel? Did he care enough? She couldn’t tell.
In the end, when the Outcast had approached her, Daniel and the others had stared at Luce like she was the one who owed them something.
You are our entrance into Heaven, the Outcast had told her. The price. What had that meant? Until a couple of weeks ago she hadn’t even known the Outcasts existed. And yet, they wanted something from her—badly enough to battle Daniel for it. It must have had to do with the curse, the one that kept Luce reincarnated lifetime after lifetime. But what did they think Luce could do?
Was the answer buried somewhere here?
Her stomach lurched as she tumbled senselessly through the cold shadow, deep inside the chasm of the dark Announcer.
Luce—
The voices began to fade and grow dimmer. Soon they were barely whispers. Almost like they had given up. Until—
They started to grow louder again. Louder and clearer.
Luce—
No. She clamped her eyes shut to try to block them out.
Lucinda—
Lucy—
Lucia—
Luschka—
She was cold and she was tired and she didn’t want to hear them. For once, she wanted to be left alone.
Luschka! Luschka! Luschka!
Her feet hit something with a thwump.
Something very, very cold.
She was standing on solid ground. She knew she wasn’t tumbling anymore, though she couldn’t see anything in front of her except for the blanket of blackness. Then she looked down at her Converse sneakers.