I hope Raffe made it to a shadowy corner somewhere. I hope Paige is okay and that I’ll soon find her. I hope Mom and Clara are doing all right and are successfully escaping. And now, there’s Andi, who I clearly need to take with me when I leave because it’ll be a death sentence for her if her twin walks off or gets killed. And then there are all those people on Alcatraz.…

Too many.

Being responsible for Mom and Paige is nearly crushing me already. I take comfort in reminding myself that I am just a kid, not a hero. Heroes have a tendency to die in horrible ways. Somehow, I’ll get through this, and then I’ll lead the quietest life anyone could possibly have in the World After.

We follow Uriel as he works the crowd and makes his way to the makeshift stage at the ocean side of the lawn. The stage has a long table with a white tablecloth on it. The cloth shivers in the ocean wind, held down by plates and cutlery. Angels are seated on either side of an empty center chair like disciples at the Last Supper.

Uriel walks in front of the table and stands in the center, looking down at the party below him. I wonder if we should find seats, but Andi and I both hesitate long enough that we just assume our trophy poses on either side of him.

As if on cue, the roar of the party quiets down and all eyes are on us. On Uriel, of course, but I’m close to him so it feels like everyone’s staring at me, even though no one is.

I find myself scanning the masses for a certain sarcastic angel.

I take a deep breath. Am I really wishing that Raffe is still here? He almost got caught already. It’ll be suicide for him if he doesn’t get out of here fast.

But I can’t help but wonder if he sees me.

I should be staring at a spot above the crowd as my pose dictates, but my eyes keep drifting back to scan the faces below us.

“Welcome brothers and sisters,” Uriel says as everyone quiets down. “We are gathered tonight to unite in a single cause and to celebrate. I have news both appalling and amazing. First, the appalling.” The audience listens with hushed curiosity.

“Until the humans attacked our aerie, we assumed that they’d been behaving as well as could be expected. But now it has come to my attention that they’ve been up to sinister things that we cannot abide.”

Uriel motions for someone to come forward. An angel drags a cowering man onto the stage. He wears faded jeans, a Rolling Stones T-shirt, and glasses. He’s shaking and sweating, clearly terrified. The angel hands over a rolled cloth to Uriel.

He unrolls it, letting its contents fall onto the stage.