I look at my mother, who is nodding as if to say, of course we did. Wiry gray now streaks her dark hair. When did that happen? For a second, I see her through the eyes of a stranger and see a frail and vulnerable woman who looks tiny next to the brawny angels.

I look at my sister up in a tree. She’s being carried by a locust the way I used to carry her from her wheelchair only a couple of months ago.

‘You went to the aerie?’ My voice wavers a little as I look back and forth between my mom and sister. ‘You risked your lives to rescue me?’

My mother gives me another too-tight hug. My sister twitches the corners of her lips up despite the pain it must cost her to move the stitches on her cheeks.

My eyes sting at the thought of the danger they faced to rescue me.

‘Paige has three large pets with scorpion stingers who can fly her out at any time,’ says my mom. ‘I told them they’d be in big trouble if anything happened to her.’

‘Oh.’ I look at Raffe with a watery smile. ‘Even the locusts are afraid of my mother.’

‘I can see why,’ says Josiah. ‘She came with a group of shaved-headed humans who were requesting safe passage marks on their foreheads.’

‘Amnesty?’ asks Raffe. ‘Uriel’s giving some of the humans amnesty?’

‘Just the ones who gave her up.’ Josiah nods toward me.

The muscles in Raffe’s jaw dance as he clenches his teeth.

Josiah shrugs. ‘Your mother somehow convinced those people to wander into the aerie after they received their amnesty marks. Uriel had to drive them out like rats. Your sister also distracted the angels by doing flybys with her three locusts. We all kept looking to see where the rest of the swarm was. While everyone was distracted, your mother set the place on fire. She is one fierce woman.’

‘Fire?’

‘What do you think caused that explosion?’ Josiah nods in appreciation. ‘I never would have gotten Beliel out if it wasn’t for all the distractions your family caused.’

Josiah gestures to the truck. ‘Once I convinced your mother that you were inside Beliel, she convinced me we needed to ride in this vehicle. It got us out, but I’m never going to ride in one of those metal coffins again.’

‘Amen,’ says Thermo, who still looks queasy.

Mom has a smudge on her forehead. It looks like ashes, but I know that it’s the amnesty mark. It looks just like the smudges that Uriel’s soldier gave to the cult members who sold me out.

‘You’re not in a cult, are you, Mom?’