“No. It was just decided—a couple of hours after we met.”

“But why?” I asked, frustrated.

“Because the Angel told us to.”

“But you said you wouldn’t!”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “But the Angel told us to. We had to obey her.”

I started to argue the idiocy of that and then paused to reconsider something I hadn’t given credence to before. “Are you saying the Angel actually spoke to you?”

“Yes, of course. How else would we know what she wants?”

An uneasy feeling came over me. This whole time, when they’d spoken of doing what the Angel “wanted,” I’d assumed it was in the way so many religious zealots presumed they understood their deity’s desires. Those who said their deity spoke to them were usually crazy.

“Does she, like, speak to you in dreams?”

“No,” he said. “She appeared to me. Right here. Well, over there, actually. By the TV.”

“The Angel appears to you,” I said flatly. “In the flesh. Shows up and tells you what to do?”

“Of course. How else do you think we’d know?”

That uneasy feeling increased. “What does she look like?”

Evan sighed, a dreamy expression filling his features. “Oh, Georgina. She’s beautiful. So beautiful. She glows—she’s almost hard to look at. Her hair—it’s like a cloak of gold, and her eyes . . .” He sighed again. “I can’t describe them. Like all the colors in the rainbow.”

My phone rang just then, interrupting his similes. I didn’t recognize the number, but it was a Vancouver area code. “Hello?”

It was Cedric. “If you are not in my office in ten minutes,” he said. “I will come and bring you here. And you won’t like it.”

I shoved my phone into my purse and stood up. “Evan, I’ve gotta run. Look, if the Angel talks to you again, can you give me a heads up next time?”

He turned hesitant. “Um, maybe.”

I paused at the door. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, you see . . . Don’t take this the wrong way, but she told us not to tell you. She said to keep this to the inner circle. Probably she just needs to get to know you better.”

That sent my mind reeling, but Cedric’s words had a greater impact at the moment. I had no time to argue against an entity that might or might not be real. “We’ll talk about this later.”

I sped over to the Financial District, not bothering to count the minutes for fear of what I’d find. Nothing happened to me by the time I reached Cedric’s office, so I assumed I’d made it. Kristin wasn’t in the reception area, but his door was open.

“Get in here,” Cedric barked.

My heart pounding, I walked into his office.

His face was filled with rage, and if I’d had any thoughts that his mild manner made him seem undemonlike, that idea was immediately banished. He clenched his fists as he glared at me, and I thanked whatever luck I had that he had remained sitting and didn’t throw me across the room. Meekly, I slid into my usual chair.