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climbed off his chest and shook out the feathers of her wings. She truly resembled an indignant queen, even if a small one.
    Nina and Fury looked at each other.
    They both let out a sigh of relief that sounded like a croak.
    Juno arched her wings proudly and turned, nodding at the mirror. Her hunger and the angel were already forgotten. The fear that had made her wings tremble had also misted over her bright eyes, but she seemed to be recovering fast.“What are we waiting for?” she said brightly to Nina. “I guess it’s time to leave.”
    Nina strutted over to the angel and examined his pale face. There was no telling how long he’d be unconscious. And now, their presence would be known.
    Reconnaissance? She looked to Fury. That didn’t explain why all the human souls had disappeared.
    Fury hadn’t bought the angel’s explanation either. She stared off into the distance, seeming disturbed.
    Nina’s mind raced. Her bad feeling was becoming worse. Somehow, it didn’t seem beyond some of the officials in Luz to try bargaining with these angels to save their skins. She could only wonder what the price happened to be for their help. Probably nothing good.
    Her thoughts switched over again to the human spirits trapped in the cemetery and harvested by angels. What did they possibly need them for?
    Nina hadn’t prayed in a long time. Even so, she hoped her feelings could find their way to Angela through so much distance and danger. She glanced at the angelic city on the horizon, and another shiver worked through her body that was born from something other than the icy chill. Despite its beauty and grandeur, Heaven didn’t seem quite so heavenly right now.
    Angela, we need you. Open the Book of Raziel quickly, before it’s too late. I don’t understand—what are you waiting for? What’s happened to you?
    Faintly, like the farthest echo imaginable, she could have sworn an answer reached her.
    Nina wasn’t sure she liked what she heard.

Three
HELLTHE CITY OF BABYLON
    Deadly tension filled the Council chamber as the imprisoned angel was brought forward.
    He was tall like the demons but boasted blond hair and wings. Shining metal cuffs—the mark of a soldier—protected his wing bones and a few decorous gems glittered near his shoulders. Of course his weapons had been taken some time ago, and his hands had been secured by adamant, energy-repelling manacles.
    Kim watched with the others in stark silence as the demons flung the prisoner before Angela. A dull echo rang throughout the chamber as his knees hit the stone. Two sharp tridents jabbed immediately afterward for the angel’s neck. “You will kneel before the Prince of Hell,” one of the demons said maliciously.
    The angel obeyed but stared ahead. The demons who’d poked him continued to stand guard anyway. Side by side, their shared heritage with the angel was more obvious than ever before. These guards were from the younger generation of demons, and though their skin was a dark copper color,and their eyelids glowed with phosphorescent paint, their features and the angel’s were close to identical.
    Angela shifted position on her onyx throne, crossing her legs. Half of her face lit up in the dim bloody light of Lucifel’s former Altar.
    The angel’s wings trembled, and even the guards beside him drew back for a second.
    The obsidian walls gleamed around Kim and the presiding demons of the Council like dark mirrors. In them, Angela on her great throne appeared to reflect a thousand times over, looming over every demon present. Her face had always been rather lean, and though now it appeared even more sharp and resolute, her large eyes—one blue and one a deep emerald green—and her knee-length, blood-red hair softened her features, reminding everyone that she was still human and young. Yet Angela was the Archon, and that remained the crucial difference. Now, she wore the