Typical angel quarters? Hardly the way I’d want to spend my afterlife. But places like these would be for full-bloods like Trsiel. I wondered where the ascendeds lived. In the ghost world? Keeping their angelic identities a secret? Another of a million questions I’d need to ask…if Trsiel was right that the Fates intended to offer me angel-hood.

“Where the hell did you send me?” I muttered. “A celestial waiting room? Damned angels—”

A discreet cough. I turned to see a man and a woman standing half-turned toward me, as if I’d interrupted their conversation.

He was tall and dark-skinned, and she was also tall, with strawberry blond hair. Neither would have been out of place on the cover of any fashion magazine…if they wore something more fashionable. But both wore garments of a diaphanous fabric the same luminous pearl white as the walls. The woman wore a toga that left one shoulder bare, while the man was dressed in a loose-fitting shirt and billowing pants. I’ve heard of people looking so healthy they glowed, but these two literally did; their skin gave off an unearthly shimmer.

“Eve,” the woman said, her beautiful voice leaving no doubt that she was a full-blooded angel.

“Uh, yes,” I said, suddenly flustered. “I’m looking—”

“For Trsiel,” the man said. “He gave you the code to come here?”

When I nodded, the two exchanged a look that I was sure was more than a look. They were speaking to each other telepathically, like the wraith-clerks did. Did full-blooded angels naturally communicate by telepathy? I’d never considered that with Trsiel, but then, except for the voice and picture-perfect beauty, he and these two seemed like members of different species.

“Is Trsiel…around?” I asked. “He was supposed to meet me here but—”

“But he is late.”

The woman gave the barest shake of her head, as if this wasn’t surprising. She looked at the man and they communicated something. The man looked over at me.

“I will find him,” he said.

“Find who?” Trsiel swung through the doorway, still dressed in the cargo pants and jersey he’d been wearing earlier.

“We need to get you a watch,” I said.

He grinned, eyes glinting. “At least this time you aren’t dueling anyone.” He saw the others. Dismay flickered across his face, but he forced it back with another jaunty smile. “Have you guys been introduced?”

“No, we guys have not,” the woman said.

“Eve, this is Shekinah.” He gestured at the woman, then nodded at the man. “And Balthial. Eve is—”

“We are well aware of who Eve is and what she is doing,” Shekinah said, voice rippling with annoyance. “We are also aware, Trsiel, that you have been having some…difficulty helping her with that task.”

“Difficulty?” Trsiel’s jaw twitched. “I haven’t had any—”

“Eve found the Nix and you failed to capture her. You were late, and—”