She looks at me. She has no response. There was nothing she could have said that the two of us didn't already know. I take her hands. She had started crying. I wipe her tears away with my hand.

"I heard this guy say once that he thought if he said 'no' to doing drugs then the fight was over. But it turns out he had to say 'no' each and every day. I didn't get it until I met you. When I first fell for you, I said 'no' to it. Then the next day the feeling came back. Now every single day, I have to say 'no' to being with you."

"I try not to think about you...."

"Thinking about you caused me to fly into a wall once."

She laughs. Even she was surprised to hear it come out of her. She stops abruptly. I knew exactly what the problem was.

"Emmy, Sara won't be any more gone if you laugh. It's okay to continue living. That isn't disrespecting the dead. They just want us to be okay and move on."

Her eyes fill with tears.

"I didn't help her."

"You couldn't. But now you get to help lots of people."

"I can't save the world, Marcus. I'm not strong enough."

"The thing about saving the world is that it can be hard to care about it. You can't save the world, you don't know the world. So you have to focus and narrow it down to the people you do know-your mom, your uncle, your neighbors."

I hand her a tissue and speak directly to the tiny spark of light that was now in her eyes.

"Look in their faces and understand that they will no longer exist if you don't do this. Your mom won't be around for her next birthday. No bowling nights. No book clubs. Nothing. You have to fight for the people that you love. You. Have. To. Fight."

She blows her nose and throws the tissue in the trash next to her. She gets up. She doesn't ask for my help. I know she doesn't need it. She walks over to the mirror and studies herself, then turns to me.

"So, while you were invisible did you ever see me naked?"

I laugh.

"No comment."

"You suck," she says as she heads to the bathroom.

I call out to her before she leaves the room.

"Hey, I'm not telling you what I saw, but what I did see was...." I bite my lower lip. She smiles a devilishly sweet and sinful smile. I had never seen a girl pull off both sweet and sinful. That takes skill.

She laughs at the look on my face. She goes into the bathroom, and closes the door.

Through the door I hear the most beautiful sound in the world: she was singing in the shower. It's off-key and off-tempo, but it's the best version of "Staying Alive" I've ever heard.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: CONDITIONS.

We have all been summoned by Emerson. Two days have pa.s.sed and she is back to her old self, for the most part. The loss of her friend did not leave her unchanged. She has an edge to her that she didn't have before.

"I asked you all here so we could go over some things," she says like she is addressing a board of investors. Her voice was strong and steady. Whatever it is she wanted, she was certain she would get it. Or at the very least, put up a good fight.

"First, thank you all for helping me get through Sara's death. I know it set you guys off-track in terms of what you needed to do, and I really appreciate it."

"No prob. We got you, baby girl," Jay says.

"I know. But it really was hard and you guys could have like melted my brain or something to get me to talk, but you didn't, so thank you."

"We understand loss better than anyone, Emmy," Reese says simply.

"And on that note, here are my conditions for helping you guys find the Triplex."

"Conditions?" I say.

"Yeah, some things I need you guys to promise me before we can continue."

"We?" Rio and Miku say at the same time.

"Yes. My friend was killed by a p.a.w.n sent out by Lucy. My family stands to lose their lives and I will not allow that. So, I am going to do everything I can in order to help you guys save the world."

"Okay, well let's-"

She cuts me off. "First, I have three conditions."

"What are they?" Jay says.

"One, I want to be told everything there is to know about angels and the world you guys live in. I want nothing left out. I should know everything from what kind of angels there are to what a Snap or whatever it's called is."

"Okay, that's something we can do," I say.

"Good. The next thing is that I want you guys to take me everywhere you go. If you guys are fighting, then I want to be right there helping. No more leaving me in English to diagram sentences while you guys fight for me and my family."

"No," I say flatly.

"Why not?"

"You'll get hurt or worse."

"You guys can protect me. I'll be fine."

"No."

"Marcus, just hear her out," Ameana says.

"There is nothing to hear out. I'm not risking her life so that she can have ringside seats to a battle."

"When you guys have to look after me at my house, you guys are a man or two short. Think about it. If I'm with you then everyone can help. Why should any of you have to babysit me? Wouldn't you rather I came along and hid somewhere instead of wasting precious manpower watching me at home?"

"She does have a point," Reese says.

"No, no way. That's not happening."

"We could put her in a Holder so that they couldn't get at her," Jay suggests.

"No," I say again.

"What's a Holder?" she asks. Reese tells her.

"So, it could protect me when you guys are fighting. That's perfect."

"There are ways around a Holder. At least for Lucy there is. The answer is no," I say once again.

"Marcus, I promise I won't do anything stupid. I'll just stay inside the bubble thing way off into the corner. I won't get hurt."

"No, and that's final!"

She walks up to me and looks deeply into my eyes. I look into hers and see it-the sadness that had overtaken her. She could just as easily slip back into the void she had just left. A wave of dread washes over me. I realize what I have to do, and don't like it at all. But it's the only way to keep her from being pulled under again.

"Please, Marcus," she begs.

A dull pain sits in my chest as I give in to what she wants.

"Okay."

She is so excited, she hugs me and wraps her hands tightly around me. "Thank you," she says over my shoulder.

"What's the third condition?" Reese asks after seeing Meana get tense as she watched us hug.

Emmy looks like she is uncertain, but she lets me go, takes a deep breath, and lets it out.

"I learned from Sara's death that anything can happen. There are no guarantees. So, you should go after what you want."

"Emmy, no" Rio warns her.

He is reading her wave. Whatever she is radiating is causing Rio to look both agitated and alarmed.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"I didn't want to do this behind anyone's back. I mean that would be worse, you know?" she pleads sincerely to the entire room.

"I want Marcus to take me on a date."

n.o.body saw it coming. Before anyone of us could react, Ameana had thrown Emmy against the wall so hard that every painting on the wall fell down. Jay was on Ameana in a flash. He holds her back. We all run to Emmy, who had slid down the wall and onto the floor. She gasps and feels the back of her head with her fingers. When she holds her hand in front of her, there is blood.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"No!" she shoots back.

"Rio?" I call.

"She's in pain, but she'll live."

"Blink her to the ER. Ameana, roof. Now," I order.

Reese Blinks her out of the room. I dash up to the roof, Ameana right behind me. I am so enraged I wanted to hit something. My jaw clenches. My fists ball up and my wings flap furiously against the night air.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?" I rage.

"She had no right to ask you that."

"You can't go around trying to kill humans."

"But you can go around falling in love with them?"

"Turn around. Now."

She looks at me coldly and turns away so the back of her head is facing me. At the base of her skull is a thumb print pattern that glowed. It is called a Deck. Once it is pressed, the angel will be stripped of their wings and powers.

Every Angel has a Deck. But each type of angel has their own rules about who could and could not press their Desk. For Guardians, only three beings can strip an angel of her powers- Omnis, the council, and the First Guardian, me.

I put my hand at the center of the Deck. The glow started to fade from it. Ameana flinched. It hurt to be void of any amount of light. She wasn't in bad pain, but it was enough pain to make her hands shake. I held my thumb there until the light completely went out of her Deck. I look up. Her wings are gone.

I fly to hospital where Reese had Blinked Emmy. She is sitting on the bed with her eyes closed, holding an ice pack to the back of her head. The doctor had gone out to look in on another patient.

"How's your head?"

"Fine. Your girlfriend throws like a human," she jokes.

"She could have killed you. That wasn't very smart."

"I'm not really known for doing the smart thing. Why should today be any different?"

"Why did ask for me to take you out?"

"Do all angels ask questions they already know the answers to?"

"You're making this very hard."

"Making it hard? What, like it didn't come that way?"