My cheeks warmed. Kara was so matter-of-fact about her relationship with Luis. Well, not a relationship, I guess, though he clearly thought it was. I studied her covertly, wondering again if I’d only imagined the way I’d seen her gazing at Alex that day. I couldn’t get that soft-eyed look of hers out of my mind; I just had a feeling about it. Not that I was worried, exactly – every time Alex touched me I could sense how deeply in love with me he was – but it didn’t make me feel all that great, either. Kara was so utterly, gorgeously human.

Brendan beat a light tattoo on the table; even when he was sitting quietly, he wasn’t quiet. “Hey, wait – couldn’t Willow help?” he said suddenly.

I glanced at him in surprise. “I – sorry, help with what? I was off in my own world, I guess.”

Thinking freaky half-angel thoughts, said the faces of almost everyone around me.

Brendan seemed alarmed to be talking to me directly – the most we’d ever said was a mumbled hi when we’d almost walked into each other in the hallway once. He cleared his throat, fidgeting with his teaspoon. “Um – help find out if there’s anything we need to know about killing the Council,” he said. “You’re supposed to be psychic, right? So maybe you could get a vision about them or something.”

The room went quiet. “Could she do that?” said Kara to Alex.

“You’d better ask Willow,” he said tersely, still studying the printed schedule. He got very short with anyone who ignored me.

“It doesn’t really work that way,” I said before Kara had to say anything. “I mean, yeah, sometimes I get flashes of things, but mostly for me to get anything specific I need to be touching someone. Like, holding their hand.” No one said anything. Feeling awkward, I traced the design on my coffee mug. “I, um...used to do psychic readings a lot, back home. People at my high school would come to me and ask for them.”

“You went to high school?” blurted Liz. Her pale cheeks reddened when I looked at her. “I mean – that sounds so normal.”

Normal. I tried not to think about the fact that, even as I spoke, I was mentally aware of my angel shifting around inside of me. “Sure, I went to school,” I said. “I didn’t know anything about any of this until a couple of months ago – as far as I knew, I was just like you.”

“Whoa,” murmured Sam, staring at me. “Half-angels going to high school, and we don’t even know about it? That’s...freaky.”

I saw Alex give him a considering look, and decide not to say anything. I shrugged. “I think it’s half-angel, singular, actually – as far as anyone knows, I’m the only one.”