"Care to elaborate?" Xavier snapped. The Seven's smug attitude was getting on his nerves.

"We lost track of you, all those years ago," the Seven said. "You disappeared in a sea of human chaos. But we always knew one day you would find your way back. And so you have."

"What are you talking about?" I insisted. "I thought you were looking for me."

"We were," the angel replied. "Until we discovered his true identity. Now he must serve us."

"Hey, he's not your property," I said, overcome with indignation.

Xavier moved closer to me so our shoulders were touching. "And I'm not your servant."

I felt my heart drop to my shoes as the realization sank in. They were no longer after me, coming to dole out my punishment and drag me back to my former home. It was worse-they wanted Xavier.

"What do you want from him?" I choked out.

"We have plans for him," the Seven said, twisting his smooth bald head and pointing a crooked finger at Xavier. "Heaven needs you."

"What are you, Uncle Sam?" Xavier said gruffly. "Earth needs me. I have a life; I have a family. And I'm not leaving Beth."

"I anticipated as much," the Seven said, and he thrust out a palm toward us.

But before his power could touch us, I reached out and grabbed Xavier's hand, letting all the anger and regret that had welled up inside me surge through my body.

"It's just us," I told him. "Us against the world."

Xavier's hand tightened around mine and then, for the first time, I felt a different power mingling with my own and realized it was coming from him. It wasn't angelic like Ivy or Gabriel might produce but it certainly wasn't human. It tasted like sunshine and my mind flooded with a beautiful aqua blue that made my worry wash away like a receding tide. It rippled and danced and I realized it was water, cool, refreshing life-giving water. I felt a breeze rush through my body, followed by a pulsing heat and then a solidness that seemed to plant my feet firmly on the ground, like not even a tornado could move me.

And then, slowly, it dawned on me; air, water, fire, earth. I was experiencing all the elements in a single rush. But I wasn't producing the sensations-my power felt like light; bright, blazing white light that made you feel as though you were floating. This power was coming from Xavier. He was an embodiment of the earth and that's what I could feel surging from his fingertips. Everything magnificent the earth could produce, the strongest forces of nature, seemed to be flowing from his body. What did that mean? Were the elements under his control? All I knew was that Xavier seemed to have Mother Nature on his side, as if Our Father were commanding the very earth itself to rise up and stand by him. Xavier's eyes were shut and I knew I couldn't disturb him. Instead, I focused on contributing every scrap of energy I had on letting our abilities feed one another.

So when the Seven's power reached us, it seemed to hit an invisible shield and shattered into a thousand pieces of clay on the ground. He conjured a shimmering, opal-colored orb in his hands and hurled it at us, like a shot put. This time, it burst into flame a foot away from us and the cinders floated down like glowing confetti. The next orb exploded in a dazzling arc of water, drenching the Seven from head to foot.

"What trickery is this?" the Seven hissed.

"Walk away," Xavier said darkly. "You can't touch us."

"My power usurps yours," the Seven said, although he didn't sound so confident anymore.

"Yeah?" Xavier asked. "Prove it."

"Arrogant boy." The Seven made a low growling noise in the back of his throat.

"Yep, that's me." Xavier shrugged.

The Seven dropped back a few paces. "You should know that surrender is imminent," he said. "You cannot fight us indefinitely."

"Oh, well, we'll do our best."

"Very well," the creature said. "But you are only delaying the inevitable."

And then with a sound like flapping wings, he was gone.

Xavier dropped my hand and bent over, bracing his hands on his knees. A slight sheen of sweat had broken out across his brow.

"Crap," he exhaled. "What was that?"

"I ... I don't know," I replied. "I think it was you."

"No." He shook his head, still breathing heavily. "It was us."

"We took on a Seven?" I almost laughed at the absurdity of it. "Without help? We really made it leave."

"Yeah, we did." Xavier's brilliant azure eyes fell on me and he smiled. "I guess we're stronger than we thought."

And it seemed we were. When Gabriel and Ivy turned up a few moments later, the crisis had passed. There was nothing left for them to do. We had saved ourselves.

24.

The Best-Kept Secret THERE was a conversation waiting to be had. Xavier and I both knew it as we followed my siblings back to the house. We may have been reveling in our single-handed defeat of one of Heaven's most notorious hunters, but we couldn't ignore what he'd said. "Human? Is that what you think he is?" The words kept ringing in my head. What was that supposed to mean? Of course Xavier was human. I'd seen him bleed. I'd seen him nearly die. That classified him as human, right? I concluded the Seven had just been trying to rattle us. Ivy and Gabriel would clear everything up when we got home.

Back in the kitchen, Xavier hesitated in the doorway.

"All right, out with it," Gabriel said. "What did he tell you?"

My brother seemed better than he was a few days ago, but still not quite himself. He was more impatient and unwilling to skirt around the truth. The old Gabriel might have worded things more tactfully, tried to steer the conversation naturally in the direction he wanted. But he wasn't wasting time and cut straight to the point. It was sort of refreshing.

"He said I wasn't human." Xavier folded his arms. "And that Heaven needs me, they have plans for me or something. That's crazy, right?"

"Xavier, there's something you have to understand," Ivy began.

"Oh, for goodness sake," Gabriel interjected. "Just tell them. It's time they knew anyway."

"Time we knew what?" I asked warily. I didn't like the sound of this. "What have you been hiding?"

Ivy pressed her slender fingers against her temples. "Maybe you should sit down. This isn't going to be easy on any of us."

"Okay." Xavier gave an uneasy laugh. "You're really starting to freak me out. What's going on?"

"Just sit?" Ivy implored. "Please?"

I tugged Xavier down onto the couch beside me and knotted the patchwork quilt beneath my fingers. Gabriel was staring solemnly out the window, waiting for Ivy to begin. I noticed she couldn't keep her hands still and it took a lot to rattle her that way.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning," she said absently.

"Is this gonna be a long story?" Xavier said. "Because I'd rather cut to the chase."

"Just listen," my sister said heavily. "It won't make sense otherwise." She cast a loaded look at Gabriel, who nodded encouragingly. "The last time I was on earth was almost twenty years ago. I was headed to Charlotte but I miscalculated and landed in Birmingham. I didn't plan to speak to anyone, but I met a couple whose car had broken down and they asked to borrow my cell phone. We got to talking and they told me they were there visiting a fertility clinic. But it wasn't working. They couldn't conceive."

"That's very interesting," I said. "But I don't see how it relates to us."

Gabriel held up his hand. "Let her finish. You have to hear the full story."

"I shouldn't have gotten involved." My sister shook her head. "But the woman told me they'd been praying for a miracle. I couldn't walk away when I had the power to help them."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I gave them a child," Ivy murmured. "When the woman left me that day, she was pregnant although she didn't know it. I restored her body to full health so she would be able to conceive in the future."

"You acted without consent?" I said. "Did Heaven try to punish you?"

"I brought punishment upon myself."

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing happened for a long time." Ivy sighed. "But I eventually found out the couple had given birth to a son and have since had five more healthy children."

I saw Xavier shift uncomfortably beside me. "What happened to the kid?"

"My involvement went no further than his conception," Ivy said. "I left him alone to live a normal life. I never expected to see him again."

"I don't believe it," I whispered. "How come you never told us?"

"I was ashamed of myself," Ivy said. "And after I berated you for getting too involved in human life, how could I reveal what I had done? I was a hypocrite."

"Oh, Ivy," I said. "You could have trusted me of all people. I would have understood."

"Bethany, I'm not finished," my sister cut in. "There's more. Heaven told me I would see the boy again, that one way or another he would come back and merge with the world of angels."

"You mean we're going to meet him?"

Gabriel turned to look me straight in the eye. "Bethany, you already have."

My mind struggled to grasp the information being thrown at me. "I don't understand...." I said.

"I do," Xavier spoke in a hoarse voice. "Whatever you're trying to say just spit it out."

My sister lifted her gaze slowly. "The couple I met all those years ago-their names were Peter and Bernadette Woods. The child is you. I'm so sorry, Xavier."

There was a long silence. It felt as though the earth itself were at a standstill. Xavier didn't move. He sat very quietly, staring at his hands. We all waited for him to speak. Gabriel sat down and put a tentative hand on his shoulder. Xavier shook him off and jumped up.

"Xavier, please try and stay calm," said my sister.

"Calm?" Xavier let out a short laugh. "You just told me that I'm some kind of Immaculate Conception miracle child and I'm supposed to stay calm?"

"You are still human," said Ivy urgently. "You are flesh and blood, just not quite the same as everybody else."

"How long have you known about this?" Xavier asked suddenly.

"Since I first met you." Ivy couldn't quite meet his gaze. "We weren't sure initially but it soon became clear. That's part of the reason we tried so hard to keep you and Bethany apart. Any ordinary human would not have been able to handle the reality of our world-we would have wiped their memory and moved on. But you ... you were different."

"You've known all this time?" Xavier looked genuinely devastated. "And you waited till now to tell me?"

"You had other things on your mind," Ivy said pleadingly. "Your journey has not been easy; I didn't want to add to your burden."

"My brothers and sisters?" Xavier asked in a tight voice. "Are they...?"

"They were all naturally conceived. I only took part in your creation."

"So..." Xavier sounded a little bit sick. "Are you ... does that make you ... like ... are you my mother?"

The alarm that surged through me was uncontainable.

"Oh God," I moaned. "Please no."

"I am not your mother," Ivy said firmly. "I do not have DNA that can be transferred. You are Bernadette's child. But I gave you our essence, our spirit. The blood of angels runs in your veins, but so does the blood of your human parents."

"So what the hell am I then? Angel or human?"

"I suppose you are both," Ivy replied.

"Great. This is so messed up."

"I didn't want you to find out this way."

"There isn't really a good time to find out you're some kind of freaky half-breed," Xavier said scathingly.

"Don't say that," I told him. "You're the same person you've always been."

"How do you figure, Beth?" he asked.

"You've always known you were extraordinary," I said. "Fate wouldn't have brought us together otherwise. You've survived so much, you've got so much strength, and now you know why."

"What do the Sevens want with me?" Xavier asked. "What do they think I can do for them?"

"Halflings have powers," Gabriel said. "Powers we don't quite understand. I'm guessing they want to find out what they are."

"So they want to use me?" Xavier asked in a hard voice. "Like some kind of lab rat?"

"Probably." Gabriel didn't bat an eyelid.

"Surely I'm not the first..." Xavier rolled his eyes at the word. "Halfling."

"You're the first one they've found," Gabriel answered. "There have been others over time, but the angels that created them were not forthcoming about their whereabouts and for the most part, they live out normal human lives. That doesn't make them easy to track."