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gestured to the bags sitting by the door.
    “Oh. And you live here? All the time?”
    “Yes, I live here. What’s your point?”
    “It’s just... Nothing.”
    “You’re as bad as Gwyn, you know that? Look, I don’t expect you to understand. I was lucky to find this. Do you know how many churches have an extra sacristy just sitting there?”
    “Why don’t you live in a house or a flat or something, you know, normal?” As soon as she said it, she knew it was a mistake. Mallory looked wounded.
    “Because this is the only place that feels like home,” he said quietly, and downed the rest of his coffee. “Right,” he said after a moment, his tone suddenly brighter as he lobbed the empty cup into the sink. “Let’s talk about you, shall we?”
    “Me. Yeah, great.” Alice’s heart sank.
    “Well, we certainly aren’t going to spend the morning talking about me. I’m boring. Really, really boring.”
    “What about Gwyn?”
    “Nope. Not only is he even more boring, he’d kill me. And I might not have that great a life at the moment, but I’d quite like to hang onto it, if it’s all the same to you.”
    “What about my mother?”
    “Your mother? Ah. Now there’s something we can talk about. At least until Gwyn gets here and starts ordering us both around, which I’m afraid is inevitable.” He sat down again, this time on the floor beside the sofa. “Your mother was... she was kind. I know. It’s a ridiculous thing to say, isn’t it? That she was kind. But she was. Kind, and warm.” He looked up at Alice, meeting her eyes again. “Not all angels are, you see. I imagine you think you know a lot about us, one way and another, but you don’t. Angels are vengeful, or ferocious, or sometimes downright psychotic. Soldiers, remember? So not all that often are we kind. She was, though. She could see the truth in things.”
    “Was she like you?”
    “Like me?” Mallory flinched slightly, then shook his head. “I see what you mean. No. I can’t ever imagine her being an Earthbound.” There was something missing in his last sentence – Alice could see it in his face. He was saying more than he was telling her, and that was the question she had wanted to ask last night, the question she had forgotten as she drifted. Why were they lying to her?
    The knock at the door made them both jump. Alice disentangled her legs from the blanket and stood up. Her feet were sore and her knees shook slightly, but all in all she could have been worse off – especially given the woodlouse that was inching its way across the cushion she had slept on. Oblivious to her close encounter, Mallory was at the door, his palm pressed flat against the wood and a look of concentration on his face. It soon dissolved into a smile and he threw the door open, his arms wide.
    The man on the other side was considerably shorter than Mallory. He was younger, too. He pushed a pair of sunglasses up on top of his head and threw an arm around Mallory’s shoulder, speaking in a language that sounded familiar, but which Alice could not understand. Mallory cleared his throat and looked back at her. “Sorry. Cantonese. Vin spends most of his time in Hong Kong.”
    “This her?” The newcomer switched to English, pointing at Alice as he stepped into the room. “Excellent. Pleased to meet you, Alice. I’m Vin.” He held out a hand.
    “So which kind are you?” Alice shook his hand, and he grinned.
    “Gets straight to the point, doesn’t she? I like her,” he said over his shoulder to Mallory. Turning back to Alice, he pocketed his sunglasses. “You want to know? Why don’t you tell me?”
    Alice looked him up and down. His jeans were frayed at the hems, trodden down under the heels of his trainers, and his jacket was faded. She pursed her lips. “You’re an Earthbound, aren’t you?”
    He smiled back at her. “Got it in one. He was right, you’re just like her. The eyes. So tell me, if you’re so good at seeing things: is there