‘Yeah, I’m fine. Those ugly bullies were more afraid of my mommy than any warrior angel anyway. She’s far more scary.’

He nods, looking preoccupied and troubled.

‘What did Obi show you?’

‘He gave me a tour of the camp.’

‘He showed you the ramen supplies?’

‘He showed me their weapons stock. Their evacuation plan. Their surveillance system.’

I almost trip over a branch. ‘Why would he do that?’ The question comes out more forcefully than I intended. Alarm bells are going off in my head. ‘He was Mr. Paranoid the last time he saw you.’

‘He wants to recruit me by impressing me. And he’s more desperate for fighters this time. He can sense I have military experience.’

‘So are you joining the Resistance?’

‘Not likely. I saw their dissection tables.’

‘What dissection tables?’

‘Where they dissect anything that isn’t strictly human. They have a prime table reserved in case they ever catch an angel.’

‘Oh.’

I want to remind him that we’re at war with an enemy we don’t understand. But it’s pointless to argue. I’ll never be okay with Uriel’s experiments on humans regardless of what reasons he thinks he has, so why would Raffe understand any reason we might have to cut into his kind?

‘They’re also working on an angel plague that they hope will wipe out my entire species.’

‘Really?’

‘They raided the lab on Angel Island when they rescued their people and stole something they could tinker with. Apparently, Laylah is working on a human plague and generating various strains to optimize the damage. There’s one strain that they hope might work against angels.’

‘How close are they to creating this angelic plague?’

‘Not very. Otherwise, I would have had to kill them.’

We walk in silence, the concept of kill or be killed heavy between us.

I’m relieved when we reach Paige, if only to interrupt the silence.

My sister is sitting beside her locusts. My mother and her friend stop at a respectful distance and stare at the beasts.

Paige gets up, sending the locusts flying to the branches above, and runs to Mom. Paige is the baby of the family, and she has a different relationship with our mother than I do. Mom strokes her hair while Paige snuggles into her hug.

‘How did it go with Doc?’ Raffe whispers.

I take a deep breath and give him the bad news about Doc’s broken arm. He doesn’t say anything, but I know the news hits him hard. His amputated wings are withering every second they’re not on him, and I’m pretty sure they won’t last as long as they did last time. And now, the only doctor who can reattach them won’t be back in action for six weeks.

And then there’s my starving sister . . .