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room was empty expect for Eli and me. The angels were gone. Or were they?
    The nurse stormed into the room, making a beeline for the hospital bed. “What’s wrong, honey? Have they done something to scare you?”
    The kid sat with her back pressed against the high stack of pillows, clutching the sheet and blanket under her chin. Her wide, dark eyes darted from one point in the room to another, occasionally settling on a point high above the foot of her bed. Was she still seeing angels crowding around her, Fred towering above?
    “Are you family?” the nurse asked, turning to face us, a protective hand on the girl’s leg.
    Eli stepped forward, his hands slipping into the pockets of his slacks as he narrowed his eyes, reading her name tag. “Hello…Teresa. We’re here to help the girl. Our presence will ease her fear.”
    The pudgy, fortysomething nurse looked Eli over from head to toe, then glared my way for half a heartbeat and huffed. “I see. Well…okay.”
    Just like that she believed him. I don’t know why I was surprised.
    She turned back to the girl, fishing out the call button from where it had fallen next to the mattress and laying it within reach. “Just push this button if you need anything, okay sweetie? I’m sure your mom and dad are on their way.”
    Nurse Teresa patted the girl’s leg, smiling, and then turned that smile toward us. “Not too long. She’s still in shock.”
    Eli nodded, slipping his arm around the nurse’s thick shoulders, escorting her out of the room while I moved in to talk with the kid.
    I scanned her chart for her name. Nenita . “Hey, Nenita. You remember me?”
    “What are they?” Her small voice was barely a whisper, her eyes wide—pupils huge. She was staring at where Fred had perched on the end of her bed. I glanced that way, but there was no one there. Did he think I didn’t know he was still hanging out, terrorizing her?
    “You don’t know?” I asked.
    Nenita tugged the clutch of blanket and sheet up to her nose and shook her head, sinking deeper under the covers. I held out my wrist, turning it so she could see the tattoo-like illorum mark.
    “You know what this is?”
    She hesitated for a moment, as though she didn’t want to tear her eyes from the man I couldn’t see hovering at the end of her bed. Couldn’t say I blamed her. She finally glanced at my wrist and nodded, then showed me her mark. It was still red and raw. I grimaced at sore skin, remembering the pain, then flattened my expression as realization dawned.
    “How long have you been an illorum, Nenita? When were you marked?”
    Her terrified eyes swung to meet mine. “Today.”

Chapter Four
    She was so new. My chest squeezed, pity weighing heavy, making it hard to breathe. So new, so young. She had no idea that this was just the beginning—and that there was no going back. “What happened to you and your magister, Nenita?”
    The girl didn’t answer. She just stared straight ahead at where the invisible Fred stood balanced on the thin rail of her bed’s footboard.
    “Don’t be afraid,” I said. “He’s…he’s an angel—like your magister.” Only way more bigoted .
    The young girl shook her head. “Ain’t no angel. No wings.”
    “Yes there are. They have wings. Sort of. They just…they just don’t show them.”
    She shook her head again and sunk lower. The nurses had cleaned her up, washed off most of the blood, but there was still some crusted inside her ear and a spot at her temple and more under her nails. Her hair wasn’t as black as it had looked in the alley, more of a dark brown with reddish undertones, tight waves frizzing around her head. With big brown eyes peering from under the edge of her covers, she looked closer to twelve years old instead of the sixteen her chart confirmed.
    “Angels got wings,” she said.
    Eli stepped up behind me, his nearness setting off a quick tingle at the back of my neck. I resisted the urge to look at him.
    “I’m sorry your