Remembering the strange glimmer of knowledge that had come as he showered earlier, Raziel frowned. And now he recalled that the moment in the shower hadn’t been the first time. He’d had a sense of the girl while he was lying unconscious too – had known then that she and Kylar were in a tent together, near the Mexican border. What was going on?

Clicking a few buttons, he brought up the Church of Angels website. It still showed the girl’s image on its home page: blonde and smiling, her green eyes sparkling with suppressed laughter. His daughter. Picturing Jenny lying asleep in his bed, Raziel’s mouth twisted wryly. If he thought for a second that such a perverse fluke as Willow Fields could ever be repeated, he’d volunteer himself for death-by-Council immediately. No, the anomaly had clearly been something to do with Miranda, rather than himself, though finding out exactly what it had been was impossible now.

What he could find out, though, was how he knew where the girl was. He relaxed back against his leather chair, then closed his eyes and went searching, allowing any knowledge to come as it would. Images of the moments in the cathedral before the Second Wave had arrived began drifting past. The long line of acolytes from all around the country, kneeling in homage before the gate. A girl’s screams. Willow’s startled face when she realized her disguise had been seen through; her mad dash to the gate, with her angel self flying overhead. Himself, blocking her angel from its task and feeling the disconcertingly familiar energy as their wings and auras had touched.

In fact...he could still sense her energy inside of him, even now. It was as if Willow had left a small part of herself behind, like pollen brushed from a flower.

Raziel went very still as he considered what this might mean. Then he took a breath and journeyed more deeply within. The room, the chair, the hum of the computer all faded to nothing. Soon he found the spark of his daughter’s energy: a silver and lavender glow. Grimacing at the unnatural half-angel feel, Raziel prodded it carefully, touching it with his thoughts. It responded and grew, lengthening into a rich, pulsing stream of information that led to a similar spark of his own energy, now residing inside Willow.

She was lying in a bed in Mexico City – she and Kylar had found other Angel Killers. The thought that had come to Raziel in the shower was correct: she knew about the Council. She and the others thought that to kill the Twelve would kill all angels, but didn’t seem aware of the other possibilities – had no clue that it could backfire horribly, as far as they were concerned.