She shrugged him off. “I wanted to see who’s here. How’s it going?”

“Fine,” I said. Then, unable to resist: “Are you feeling okay?”

“A little under the weather. Fortunately, Terry’s manning up today. He does almost as good a job as me with the girls.”

I laughed politely at the joke, but it soon faded. We stood awkwardly for a moment, everyone knowing why I was here but no one doing anything about it. Finally, I took a deep breath.

“I’ve come to ask you where Seth is.”

“Funny,” said Andrea. “We were going to ask you the same thing.”

I was taken aback. “How would I know?”

They both just stared.

“I don’t!”

“When this happened a couple days ago…this thing with Maddie…” Terry glanced uneasily at his wife before continuing. “We just assumed, well, that it was because of you.”

“Why would it be because of me? I just found out about this today.”

“It’s always been because of you,” said Andrea gently. “There was never anyone else. We like Maddie. He likes her. But that’s the problem. Throughout it all, we could just tell that you were always the one. Now, whatever happened between you guys to make it go bad isn’t any of our business. We’re just not that surprised to see this new development.”

“We would, however, like to know where he is,” said Terry more pragmatically.

“I don’t know,” I said helplessly, still a little stunned by Andrea’s words. “Maddie said he’d packed up, and I figured you guys were keeping his location a secret from her.” I eyed them suspiciously. “And me?”

“No,” said Terry. “We really don’t know.” I didn’t have an angel’s talent, but I believed he was telling the truth.

Andrea nodded in agreement. “He just called us a couple days ago and said he’d ended things. Didn’t give any explanation—but well, you know how he is. He doesn’t explain much anyway. Then, when Maddie and no one else had seen him, we started to get worried.”

A couple days ago. Seth had ended things with her a couple days ago—when the whole soul retrieval gig had gone down.

“We actually tried calling you,” added Terry. “But never got an answer.”

“Ah, yeah. I’ve been sick this week too.” Eyeing Andrea—who looked exhausted—I suddenly felt bad for taking up any more of their time. “Look, I should go. Thanks for the info. Will you…let me know if you hear from him?”

Andrea smiled again. “Something tells me you’ll hear from him before we do.”

I wasn’t as confident. Leaving the house was a little tricky since the other girls didn’t want me to go, but I managed to escape their adorable clutches at last and make a break for it. I was walking toward my car when a voice said, “She’s sick, you know.”

I turned, startled, and saw Brandy standing near a gate that led to their backyard. She had the same sullen look about her she’d had for so long. “Hey,” I said in greeting. “Where’d you come from?”

“I was around. I heard you talking to Mom and Dad.”

I replayed Brandy’s initial words. “Your mom…you mean she’s sick, right? I could tell.”

“No, I mean she’s really sick. She’s really sick, and they won’t talk about it.” Brandy gave a nod toward the front door. “No one else knows. Not even Uncle Seth knows just how sick she is.”

A chilly breeze stirred dried leaves around my feet, but it was nothing compared to the cold starting to fill me. “Just how sick are we talking, Brandy?”

Brandy scuffed her feet against the driveway, eyes averted. “She has ovarian cancer. It’s bad…but they’re still trying to figure out just how bad it is.”

“She was going to the doctor that day I was here,” I recalled aloud. Andrea had been so bright and cheery, I’d assumed something routine was going on. I also realized I hadn’t technically been here; I’d seen it in a dream. Fortunately, Brandy was too distracted to notice my slip.

“She’s been at the doctor a lot. Dad’s missing tons of work. Uncle Seth’s helped out sometimes, and I’ve been babysitting all the time.”

I suddenly felt incredibly selfish. I’d been assuming Brandy’s moodiness was all over me and Seth breaking up. But that was only a symptom of the larger problem. Her mother was dangerously ill, and every part of her world was destabilizing. Her own life was probably being put on hold to watch her sisters, and even something like her uncle’s romantic life could ripple what she’d regarded as the norm. All the constants in her world were disappearing.

“Brandy, I—”

“I have to go,” she interrupted, heading back toward the gate, face stony. “Kayla’ll be up from her nap soon. I’m supposed to keep an eye on her today.”

Brandy disappeared around the corner before I could say anything. I stood there, feeling lost. I didn’t know who I felt worse for: Brandy and Terry for knowing what was going on or the little girls for being oblivious. I felt bad enough for myself because there was nothing I could do. There was never anything I could do. I had powers beyond human imaginings, but they were nothing that could actually help humans.

I drove downtown with a heavy heart, trying hard—and failing—not to overreact. Brandy herself had said things were bad but that they were still learning the extent of it. Surely there were more tests, tests that would give some hope. And surely there was treatment. Humans could do that much on their own.

Jerome was where I’d hoped he’d be. Really, I decided, the Cellar was nearly as good as him having an office. Carter was by his side at the back table, both of them doing shots from a bottle of Jägermeister. Those two didn’t discriminate among their liquor. I wondered if they were drinking away the hardships of the other day or toasting their success over it.

It must have been the latter because Jerome almost smiled when he saw me. “Georgie, out among the living and back to your petite self. Yet…so blue. Blue like always.”

Yes, they’d been drinking. Angels and demons could sober up at will, and he was apparently indulging in the full effects.

“I got some bad news,” I said, sitting opposite them.

“What, about losing Mortensen?” asked Jerome.

“How do you know about that?”

“I talked to Roman. He recapped your day—the old man checking in, you comforting your romantic rival…it was quite moving.”

I scowled. “Great. You have Roman spying on me.”

“It’s not spying. I just demand answers from him. If it makes you feel better, he’s never very happy to give up those answers.”

“How often do you do it?” I asked incredulously.

“Not that often.” A waiter set down a new bottle. “Mostly I wanted to see how you were recovering post-dream.”

“Fine. I’m fine.” I glanced at Carter. “No comments from you today?”

“Leave me out of this,” he replied. “I’m just drinking.” So he said, but he was also watching and listening very carefully. He was not letting the alcohol affect him.

I turned back to Jerome. “I’ve come to call in my favor.”

The dark amusement in his eyes turned to suspicion. “What favor?”

“The one you promised me for helping save you from Grace, remember?”

Yes, no amusement at all anymore. “I just rescued you from another plane of existence from creatures who were torturing your mind.”

I flinched but pushed on with my words. “You promised a favor, and I didn’t call it in for that. Besides, you would have done it anyway so that you wouldn’t get in trouble.”

“That favor offer was brought on by the drama at the time,” he countered. “I probably said all sorts of things.”

“You promised,” I repeated.

“I can understand you just fine without putting italics in your voice, Georgie,” he snapped.

“You did, though,” pointed out Carter. Demons could lie—and did—but certain deals they were bound to. Jerome had said he’d grant me a favor out on the beach, and it had been a true promise.

“Fine,” he said irritably, gesturing for another shot. “What is it you want? And I don’t have to grant it if it’s something totally unreasonable.”