Grace and Barnabas followed him to be sure he wasn’t going to find you, seeing as your aura was chiming all over heaven and earth. I went to Shoe’s house to see for myself. Then I came here.” Nakita twisted and yanked on a locker handle, and it popped open, the hinges bent. “I’m sorry,” she said as she reached in and came out with my shoes and socks. “I should have trusted you. I don’t understand what you are trying to do. Maybe if I understood why.”

Her steps silent, she crossed the room to hand me my yellow sneakers. “It’s okay,” I said as I accepted them. “I don’t know what I’m doing half the time, either. I just do what feels right.” Nakita smiled faintly. “I probably shouldn’t have knocked Paul out—even if it felt right, too. His amulet is powerful, but it’s not a timekeeper’s.”

She didn’t just hit him, but knocked him out? Leaning against the gurney, I looked up from putting my socks on, hopping on one foot when the gurney started to roll. “Nakita…please tell me you’re kidding. He was there to keep Ace from leaving.”

Wincing, Nakita took a breath to answer, but she stopped, spinning to the hall when the twin doors crashed open. It was Ace, and he wasn’t happy.

Jeez, can this get any worse? “Ace!” I shouted, almost panicking, one sock on, the other dangling from a finger.

“Get away from the computer, Shoe,” he demanded, his black shirt hiding the blood that dripped from his nose, but I could smell it like a warning, almost see a red glow flaring from him. Is it his aura? Am I finally starting to see auras?

“Like I said, I probably shouldn’t have hit Paul,” Nakita admitted.

Shoe didn’t look up, his fingers typing furiously. “Go to hell,” he muttered, trusting us to keep Ace off him.

“I’m not taking the blame for this.”

Ace predictably went for Shoe, and Nakita lunged forward. “Back…” she threatened, but her motion to pull her sword faltered when a glowing ball of light hummed in after him. It was his guardian angel, and I knew from experience that they worked by making things go wrong. The more Nakita tried to hurt him, the worse it would become. The angel might not believe in saving Ace, but she’d do it.

“Keep working, Shoe!” I shouted, angling to get between them and raising my hands in placation when his guardian angel hummed a warning. All Ace saw was me looking as if I were begging for him to be a good little boy. If only I could reason with this angel like I do Grace.

Peeved, I glanced at Nakita as I settled into a martial arts stance, one sock on, one off. “You not only let him get away, you let him follow you?” I said to Nakita.

“Not exactly,” she said, then stomped her foot at Ace to make him drop back a step. “Well, maybe,” she added.