The almost-sound of spilling broken glass slid through my awareness, and a softball-size haze of light darted into the room from the open window.

“Grace!” I exclaimed, and Shoe looked at me as if I were nuts. Either something had gone really right with Barnabas and Nakita, or it had gone really wrong.

The globe circled Ace as if getting a scent, then went to perch on Shoe’s monitor. “Grace?” I questioned, suddenly unsure.

“Guardian angel two-T-four-five taking on a new charge, you lamebrain, dark-winged dark reaper,” the light said snidely. “You lose.”

My mouth dropped open, and I turned to the window when I realized what had happened. “No!” I cried, and my anger peaked when I saw Paul, smug and satisfied, standing in the bushes, his head level with the window.

“You idiot!” I exclaimed, and both Shoe and Ace turned to the window to see him. Damn it, this was my own fault. He must have been at the school, then followed us, waiting until I gave away who the mark was before assigning an angel to Ace.

“Done and done,” Paul said snarkily. “You lose, Madison. I saved this one.”

“Saved him for what?” I asked. Angrier than I’d ever been, I lunged to the window, grabbing his tunic and dragging him in.

“Ow! Hey!” Paul exclaimed, hitting the floor in a graceless pile. From the ceiling, the guardian angel was shouting, but no one but me could probably hear it. Shoe and Ace had drawn back, and I stood over Paul, wanting to give him a good kick.

“You stupid idiot!” I said, pissed. “I told you I was taking care of this! And you come in and muck it up! Why don’t you find out the entire story before you start making choices for people! Thanks a hell of a lot, Paul!”

From outside in the hall, I heard Shoe’s mom call out, “Honey? Is everything all right?”

Oh, crap!

We froze. Paul got up off the floor, his eyes wide. Ace was standing with his head craned back as his nose bled.

“We’re fine, Mom,” he called out with just the right amount of irritation, flexing his hand, which was now swollen from having hit Ace.

“Swell, swell, we’re all good here,” the angel chimed out.

“You guys want a snack or anything?” his mother asked, clearly concerned.

My estimation of Shoe’s mom went higher. She hadn’t burst in even when things were clearly not right. She was a cool lady for letting us work this out ourselves.

“No, Mom! We’re fine!”

Fine, fine. We’re all just spiffy keen.

No one spoke as her heels clicked away. Finally the guardian angel sighed, and Shoe put his back to his door, clearly frustrated. “Okay,” he said, looking at Paul. “This is my room, and I want to know who you are and what’s going on.”

I couldn’t tell him everything, but I stood in front of the window and crossed my arms over my middle. “This idiot just gave Ace a guardian angel!” I said, furious.

“Saved your scrawny butt,” the guardian angel said, and I gave it a dark look. It sounded different from Grace, but I doubted that I’d be able to name it and break the hold Ron had put on it. Not a second time.

Ace brought his head down and sniffed back his bloody nose. “I got a guardian angel?”

“Him?” Shoe yelled. “He just framed me for crashing the hospital computers tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know. Ironic, isn’t it?” I said, uncrossing my arms and turning to Ace. “You can’t see her, but you just got a blessing from heaven—idiot. Nothing will touch you now until your scheduled death.” Turning to Paul, I couldn’t help myself and shouted, “Thanks a lot!”

This just wasn’t my day. Here I was supposed to be impressing the seraphs that dark and light reapers could work together to save the lost, and I had failed spectacularly. At least Barnabas could make everyone forget the last twenty-four hours. If he was okay, that was. The guardian angel buzzed me, and I wasn’t surprised as her wings came to a halt with the soft sound of sliding glass.

“You’re not a dark reaper,” she said. “You’re the dark timekeeper! You’re Madison? I heard about you! You gave Grace a name!”

I nodded, not wanting to say anything aloud and make Shoe or Ace any more aware of what was going on than they already were. Barnabas was a reaper, not a miracle worker.

“Just as well,” the chiming ball of light said. “She wasn’t very good at it.”

A soft sound of affront slipped from me, and I stared at her.

Paul had gotten to his feet, and he stood next to Ace as if not quite knowing what to do. “You wanted him dead,” he said, but he sounded unsure. “Ron was right.”

I began to pace between the desk and the open window. “Ron is a shortsighted idiot,” I muttered. Spinning, I pointed to Ace, now smiling as he dabbed at his nose with the hem of his shirt. “Do you know what that fine piece of work does now that you’ve given him a get-out-of-death-free card? He’s going to go on and do it again, deluded and thinking it’s a kick. He thinks it’s his only way to make a mark on the world. He’s dead, Paul,” I said. “You may have saved his life, but his life is worthless. I had a chance to get him to change, but now he never will.”

Edging away from Ace, Paul said, “You don’t know that.”

I arched my eyebrows at him. “I do. I saw it. Congratulations. You did real well on your scythe prevention. Saved him and everything.” What was the difference between this scythe and my last one, where I had saved Susan on the boat, the first time I’d met Nakita? I’d changed her future with nothing more than showing her a near-death, and it hadn’t even been hers. She had been marked because she was going to live her life distorting the truth to ruin people’s lives just for the sensationalism. Seeing the reality of how precious life was and the tragedy of it being cut short had shown her what really mattered, and she had changed. But Ace…he knew his actions were going to end lives—and he didn’t care. Except for what he could gain from it.

Ace was laughing, pulling out more tissue from the box by the bed. Making a happy sigh, he fell back onto the pillows. “I’ve got a guardian angel? Cool!” he said to the ceiling.

His guardian angel didn’t seem very happy, if the gray blob on the mirror was any indication. I was pacing again; I couldn’t help it. I was not going to let things end like this.

Paul was edging to the window, and Shoe was trying to wipe his fingerprints off the hospital entrance card. “You were going to end his life,” Paul said slowly, and I glanced at Ace.

“I was trying to save it. But why, I don’t have a clue.”

Shoe had turned his back on us, and his fingers clicked over the keys. Rummaging for a blank disc, he slid it into the burner and clicked a button. “I’m not taking the blame for the hospital,” he said emphatically.

Ace laughed from the bed. “You can’t stop me. I just got me a guardian angel.”

From the mirror, the ball of light sighed.

My temper was cooling. Shoe was probably burning a patch. Clearly he was having the same thoughts I was, since the hospital entrance card was now shoved into his back pocket. We could break in and upload the patch. There was just the lingering problem of Ace. The moment we left, Ace would call someone.

I turned to Paul, the beginnings of a plan in me. “You guys never stick around to find out what the people you save do after you bless them, do you?” I said sourly. What was done was done. Fate, I thought, wondering if I was wrong about choice being stronger than seraph vision. Paul was still looking at me, and I snapped, “Just leave, okay? You did your thing. I’ve got work to do.”

Paul’s expression became worried, and he looked at Ace. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “He’s got a guardian angel.”

“The people at the hospital don’t,” I said. “And you call me a murderer? Open your eyes!” I turned to Shoe, glad to see a determined slant to his expression as he popped the disc out of his computer and glared at Ace. “Is that the patch?” I asked, and he nodded. From the bed, Ace sat up.