I EXPECTED TO lose consciousness. Wished for it even. But the sweet relief from the black abyss of a coma never came. On the contrary, my senses sharpened, burned my psyche, churned in my belly.

My eyes opened and saw Warren still curled around me. No longer a soulless void, his spirit was a brilliant white. He was not a human; he was an angel. And for the very first time, I could see him. All of him.

The shrill chime of Warren's cell phone reverberated off the bathroom walls, but he didn't move to answer it. Reuel's heavy footsteps approached our door. A bat flapped its wings somewhere outside the open window. My skin prickled against the cold breeze.

"Sloan?" Warren's voice echoed in my head. "Sloan, can you hear me?"

I blinked and nodded my head. "I hear everything."

A fist pounded against our door.

"Reuel, get in here!" Warren shouted, piercing my eardrums.

I winced.

Reuel rattled the locked door handle before striking it and knocking the door open. A second later he was in the bathroom. His face turned bright red when he saw me. He quickly shielded his eyes with his hand. "I'm sorry. I thought you were in trouble," he said.

My face snapped up. "Whoa. You speak English now?"

"You can understand me?" he asked.

I looked at Warren. "What's he talking about?"

"He's not speaking English, Sloan."

"My God, it's happened," Reuel said, a note of wonder in his deep voice.

"Reuel, get the towels," Warren said. "Watch the glass. It's everywhere."

Reuel tiptoed across the floor, still using his hand as a blinder so he wouldn't see me naked. He picked up a towel, shook the glass from it, then tossed it to Warren. He quickly wrapped it around me. Reuel spread out other towels on the floor and Warren helped me out onto them.

"What happened?" Warren asked me.

With one hand, I held my towel. With the other, I gripped my forehead. "It's the baby. This is what Azrael was talking about. I don't know how to describe it, but it's like she just woke up or something."

Warren quickly pulled his boxer shorts back on, then took my arm and helped me back to the bedroom. Reuel was blowing out candles. I sat on the bed and Warren's phone rang again. "Answer it," I said.

When he turned toward the phone, I saw the red lines on his side, back, and shoulder where pieces of glass were embedded. I raised my hand toward him, power sizzling in my fingertips, and like iron being pulled to a magnet, the bloody glass fragments were plucked from his flesh and hung suspended in the air. He turned with wide eyes, and the pieces fell to the carpet.

He put the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

I could hear the whole conversation as clearly as if he'd used the speaker. It was Kane. "We've picked up some activity in the atmosphere. Are you OK?"

"Yes," Warren said. "I think the activity was Sloan, or the baby, rather." He was still staring at me, dumbfounded. "We're all right here, but I want a team at the house tonight and around the clock till we get back to Claymore."

"Roger that, sir," Kane said. "I'll send a unit now."

Warren ended the call. "That was Kane—"

I cut him off. "I heard every word."

"We need to get you back to Echo-10," he said. "We'll leave first thing in the morning."

I shook my head. "I want to leave tonight. Now."

He looked at the clock. It was already after ten. "We won't get there until morning at this rate. Are you sure you want to drive all night again?"

"Warren, I can warp there," I said.

His head snapped back. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"How do you know?"

I shrugged. "I just do. I can cross the spirit line now."

Even from across the bedroom, I could see him gulp. "How is this possible?"

"It's like Azrael said. Our little girl is different. Very different." I stood and held my hand toward the dresser. The drawer slid open without me touching it. "Get dressed. We've got work to do."

* * *

I'd secretly hoped that crossing the spirit line and traveling unbound by time and space would be like flying, or maybe like moving at hyper speed aboard the Millennium Falcon.

It wasn't.

It was similar to stepping on and off a two-sided elevator. The doors closed in Asheville and re-opened in New Hope. We could travel inside the elevator shaft, but we couldn't cross through the doors on the other side. The whole process, from the time Warren took my hand in our bedroom to the moment we found ourselves at the doorstep of Echo-10, took about the length of slow blink.

Enzo was standing in the lobby when Warren scanned us into the building. "Kane called me." He pointed between us. "How did you get here so fast?"

"Aboard the Angel Express. Where's Lamal?" I asked.

He motioned to the elevator. "Floor four. I'll take you to him."

"Is Kane on his way here?" Warren asked as we rode up to the fourth floor.

Enzo nodded. "The whole crew is. Where's Reuel?"

"He stayed behind to board up our bathroom windows. He'll be here soon," Warren explained.

"Bathroom windows?" Enzo asked.

"My superpowers got a little messy tonight," I said.

The elevator dinged and we stepped off. We could have warped there faster. We followed Enzo down the hall to the door on the left. It opened to a college dorm style living area with a kitchen, bathroom, and four bedroom doors. He went to the second one on the right and knocked.

"Come in," Lamal called.

I paused, still taken back by my sudden understanding ear.

I looked at Enzo. "What did he say?"

Enzo shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I think he said we can come in."

"That wasn't English?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Enzo looked at me like I'd grown a third eye. "No ma'am, and my Katavukai is limited."

I gripped my temples. "This is so weird."

We walked into the room and found Lamal reading on his bed. "A little late for house calls, isn't it?" he asked.

"I'm sorry for the time, but I came straight here," I said.

Lamal closed his book and swung his legs off the bed. He eyed me carefully as he slowly stood. "You comprehend what I'm saying?"

"I do."

"It's happened then," he said, walking over to me. "The Daughter of Zion awakens."

I turned my ear toward him. "The who?"

He put his hand on my stomach. "The child of the prophecy is here." The baby fluttered against his hand. "It's a miracle," he said softly.

"Are you ready to not be stuck here anymore?" I asked.

A hopeful smile spread across his face. "Yes, but we must do it in Chicago."

My head tilted. "Why?"

"It's the next part of Azrael's plan."

I gulped. Azrael had mentioned that in his letter, but he gave no explanation. "This is it then."

"This is what?" Warren asked.

I put my hands on my hips and looked at the floor. "This is the moment I have to decide if I trust Azrael or not."

Everyone stared at me.

I looked at Enzo. "How soon can we get the team in the air?"

He nodded. "Tonight, if we have to. They're ready."

"Tomorrow," I said. "Let everyone take their time in the morning, and we'll leave after lunch."

"Are you sure about this?" Warren asked.

I sighed. "No, but don't worry." I touched his arm and smiled. "I can handle it."

And I knew that I could.

* * *

"I want to see Taiya before we go to bed," I announced as we walked back to the elevator.

"She's been awake a couple of times in the past few days," Enzo said.

I smiled. "I know. I've kept in touch with Melinda."

We stopped at his floor and Enzo got off. "See you tomorrow," he said and stepped out of the way.

"Get some rest. We're all going to need it," Warren told him.

"You too, sir."

We rode to the first floor and walked down the dark hallway to the clinic. Inside, the nurse was working at her station and Melinda was asleep in the recliner by Taiya's bed. I looked at the nurse. "Does her mother sleep here every night or did something happen?"

"She sleeps here every night," the woman whispered.

I went to Taiya's bedside and took her hand. I squeezed her fingers gently and sent a small bump of my power into her. Her eyes fluttered open. They were no longer the brilliant blue I remembered. They had faded to a dull slate, the color of the sky before snow clouds roll in.

"Praea."

My nerves prickled at the name given to me by my demon mother, but I was thankful for her voice nonetheless. "Good morning, sweet girl. You've been sleeping for a long time." I knew I was speaking to her in her common tongue, though I still didn't know how.

She smiled. "Praea is different."

"Quite different. You're different too. How do you feel?"

"Weak," she answered. "Tired."

I pushed a few loose strands of her red hair back off her face. "Rest. You've got nothing but time."

"I missed you, my sister."

My breath caught in my chest. "I missed you too."

Her eyes slowly closed again.

"You're back." Melinda's voice startled me. I turned as she straightened in her recliner.

"We're back," I said.

"I wasn't expectin' you for a few more days. Isn't today movin' day?" she asked.

I nodded. "It was. We finished and came back here." I pointed toward the door. "Why don't you let me sit with her tonight? You go upstairs and find a bed to sleep in."

She looked at Warren, then back at me. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. Go and get a good night's sleep."

Without protest, she got up and stretched her arms up over her head. She bent and kissed her daughter's forehead. "Come get me if you need me. I'm in unit two on the second floor."

"We'll be fine," I assured her.

"Goodnight," she said at the door as she left.

I looked at Warren. "You go on up to bed too. You've worked hard today."

"So have you, babe."

"I really am fine," I said. "I want to stay with her."

He tucked my hair behind my ear. "And I want to stay with you."

I pulled his hand to my lips and kissed it. I motioned to the bed in the other exam room. "At least go lie down."

He pressed a kiss into my hair. "I won't argue with that."

The recliner was even more comfortable than it looked, or maybe I was more tired than I'd realized. After replaying the events of the day in my head, the quiet beep, beep, beep of Taiya's heart monitor lulled me to sleep. But in my new state, even sleep was no longer the same. I closed my eyes to my world, but was very awake in a different one. I knew it wasn't a dream, but I also knew it wasn't reality. At least not the reality I was accustomed to.

I was seated at a bistro table with my back to the street. The sounds of people, their rolling suitcases, their bartering with vendors, was alive and loud behind me. The window of the cafe in front of me reflected the scene in fractals, but I couldn't turn in my chair to see it first-hand. Something was blocking me; I suspected it was the back of the recliner.

"Do you still hate me?" Azrael's voice perked my ears. I saw him on the other side of the glass in the cafe. He was drinking a beer from a frosted mug. I could see the bubbles rising to meet the foam that crested the top.

He held up his hand. "Never mind. Don't answer that. Do you at least believe me now?"

I shook my head. "I don't know what to believe. You've told so many lies."

He bowed his head in acceptance of my statement. "Yes. I have, but it's only ever been to protect you. To protect your daughter. To protect your world and mine."

"I don't know how to trust you," I said. "I certainly don't know how to forgive you."

"I don't need your forgiveness, Sloan, or even your trust. What I do need is for you to remember my words, whether you believe them or not."

A chill made me shudder.

"Remember my words," he said again. "Trust no one."