‘But it’s a long flight to victory,’ he says. ‘A blood hunt includes everyone who wants to join. All of Uriel’s angels will join him. A Watcher can kill three times the game that a regular soldier can, but we’ll still need to go to the most populated area if we have any shot at beating Uriel’s team.’

‘You do know that you’re talking about killing my kind, right? We’re not prey, and we’re not game.’ I can’t get away from the thought that I helped Raffe get his team together.

Josiah’s look softens. ‘Your orders are to survive. Run as far away from populated areas as possible. Then hide in the most buried, most secure place you can find. You’ll have until sunset.’

There’s only one place that’s densely populated now. The Resistance camp.

And Raffe knows where it is.

Because I showed it to him.

It feels like the acid in my stomach is boiling and bubbling up to my throat. I can’t seem to get enough air into my lungs.

‘He wouldn’t do that.’ My voice comes out choked and wobbly. ‘He’s not like that.’

Josiah just gives me a look filled with pity. ‘Raphael wants you to run as far away as you can. You and your family. Go. Survive.’

Then he leaps into the air and flies back toward the aerie.

I take a deep breath to try to calm myself.

Raffe wouldn’t do it.

He won’t hunt people. Slaughter them like they’re wild pigs. He wouldn’t do it.

But no matter what I tell myself, I can’t blot out the image of him watching angels fly in formation without him. All I hear in my head is someone saying that angels weren’t meant to be alone. The main reason he so desperately needed his wings back was so he could return to the angels, right? Be one of them? Take his rightful place in their ranks as an archangel?

He wants to be accepted back into the angel world as much as I want to keep my family safe. If I had to kill a few angels to keep my family safe, wouldn’t I do that?

Absolutely. No-brainer.

Then I remember the look of distaste on his face as he talked about the dissection tables at the Resistance camp. He wouldn’t want to wipe out the camp or kill anyone. I’m sure of that. But if he had to? If it was the only way to take his rightful place as an archangel and save his angels from falling?

I slide down the side of the truck and hug my knees.

I took Raffe to the Resistance camp. Knowing he was an angel, I showed him where the largest surviving group of humans was hiding.