Once Dead, Twice Shy

"Nakita?" I said as I opened my locker again. "We need to work on your people skills."

"He touched me," she said, scowling. "He's lucky he is still living."

My eyebrows rose, and I wondered if the seraph's idea of Nakita teaching me how to use my amulet and me teaching her how to live with her new gift of fear was such a good idea. "Right, but if you want to stay in school, you have to be more subtle."

"Subtle," the reaper mused, her expression easing. "Like a knife up under his ribs?"

Barnabas leaned close. "Change that to a finger, and yes, that would work."

From above me came a tinkling voice at the edge of my awareness. "There once was a girl who had grace."

My attention shot up, and I smiled at the ball of light. "Grace!" I called, hoping no one would think I was talking to the ceiling. The first time a seraph had tried to contact me, I'd passed out from the pain. Now everything came by way of messenger angel, but this was the first time I'd seen Grace.

The angel hovered to land atop the door to my locker. "Hi, Madison. I've got a message for Nakita." Glowing brighter, she added, "What's Barnabas doing here? You're the dark timekeeper, and he's—"

"Not with Ron," Barnabas said, face tight as he crossed his arms over his chest.

The light brightened even more until I had to believe she was visible to everyone. "You went grim!" she exclaimed, and I winced at the pain in my head from the force of her voice.

Barnabas ran a hand over his curls as Nakita sniggered. "I don't know what I am, but I couldn't stay where I was. I don't trust Ron, but I still don't believe in fate."

Nakita flipped her hair back and put a hand on her hip. "You would dare stand in defiance of seraphs?" she almost growled.

He came back with, "I would use my eyes to see and thoughts to think," and Grace hummed impatiently.

Stepping between them, I said, "Okay. Fine! I don't believe in fate, either, but I respect Nakita." And that big scythe she showed me she could make last week. "When I'm in school, I'm safe from whatever you guys are worried about. Why don't you both wait outside?"

Immediately they backed down. "I need to be here," Nakita said, eyes lowered. "For myself. I need to understand. The seraphs are unsure how your being dead will touch upon your ability to read time. And I don't feel right among my own anymore. They think I'm flawed," she finished, and I winced at the shame I could hear in her voice.

Barnabas looked out over the surrounding, excited people, his gaze vacant. "I need something to do. I'm…alone too. And you're familiar."

That's nice. I'm familiar. Like an old pair of socks.

"You're both guarding Madison?" Grace asked. "Someone needs to. She wouldn't let me do it."

I felt bad about that, but then she landed on my shoulder and whispered, "Thank you, Madison, for naming me. I thought they were going to take my name from me, but they finally agreed that if I was assigned as a messenger to you permanently, I could keep it."

"Grace, that's great!" I said, truly pleased. It was good to see Grace, but the last time a message had come for Nakita, the dark reaper had excused herself, coming back with a satisfied smile and a new notch on her scythe.

The tiny angel rose high, and I felt a familiar presence behind me. Nakita looked away with her lips pressed together, but Barnabas smiled, and I wasn't surprised when Josh slipped out of the crowd and into our small eddy in the hall traffic.

"Hi, Madison," Josh said as he banged knuckles with Barnabas.

"Hi, Josh." I was nervous, and that made me all the more embarrassed, especially when Grace hummed happily. He looked good, completely recovered from his brush with death. He didn't like Nakita, though, and the feeling was mutual, from what I could tell of her dark expression aimed at the floor.

"Madison is my responsibility," Nakita muttered, continuing our previous conversation. "You failed. Twice. I think you're a spy," she accused Barnabas, ignoring Josh.

The light reaper gone rogue was affronted. "I am not!" he said loudly. "Look at my amulet. Does that look red to you anymore?"

It was true. Much to Barnabas's chagrin, the glow in his amulet had shifted up through the spectrum and was now the bright, neutral gold of an inexperienced reaper. He was no longer tied to Ron. He was tied to me and growing…darker.

"If you aren't a spy," Nakita said, her finger pointing, "then why are you here, Barney?"

"Because I don't trust you. And don't call me that."

She hissed something at him, and when Grace went to referee, I turned away, sighing. "They are like little kids," I complained, then smiled. "What lunch do you have?"

"Second," Josh said as he dug out his schedule.

"So do I!" I said, delighted. "I'll meet you at the front water fountain. Unless…"

He smiled, making my breath catch. "Unless nothing. I'll be there."

Beside us, Nakita shouted, "I will rip out your tongue and feed it to my hellhounds!"

Josh winced, and a wider space opened between us and everyone else. "Can't you get rid of them?"

Beaming, I shook my head. "Nope. I've tried."

He shifted his book to his other hand. "I think I hear Grace. Is she here? I kind of miss her."

I leaned back against my locker and nodded to Nakita and Barnabas, who were still arguing. People were giving them odd looks, and I wondered if I'd started a new clique. A weird and noisy one. "She brought a message for the almighty 'Kita."

He laughed. It was a nice sound, and I wondered if he would drive me home after school so I wouldn't have to take the bus. That would really melt Amy's retainer.

Josh glanced at Barnabas and Nakita, who had finally stopped arguing so they could listen to Grace. "Are you doing anything after school?"

Not anymore, I thought, but then shrugged. "I don't know. Nakita might have something going on."

"Shut your singing hole," Nakita said to Barnabas, then shook her hair back to find her composure. Facing me, she said, "There's a situation. Barney will watch you for a few…hours."

It was as I thought. She had a scything. "Nakita, I don't like this," I said as Barnabas bristled. "Scything people who make bad choices is wrong. It's easy, but wrong."

Her eyebrows arched up. "That's not why they're chosen, and you will feel differently after you have seen enough human atrocity. By the time you learn how to use your amulet, you'll understand. Until then, what you want will make no difference."

That was as about as patronizing as it could get, but she was older than everyone here except Barnabas. "What about your domestic studies?" I said, knowing how badly she wanted to fit in, seeing as her own people didn't understand her anymore.

Jaw tight, Nakita handed her class schedule to Josh. "He can do it for me."

Josh's eyebrows went up. "Uh, Nakita. School doesn't work like that."

Barnabas grabbed the paper from Josh and shoved it back at her. "If you go, I go. I'm not going to let you take another soul, so you may as well stay."

"I'd like to see you try to stop me!" she said, starting it all back up again.

Grace dropped between us, a faint shimmer in the air. "All the love in this building! It makes me giddy. I'm out of here. Nakita, are you taking the scythe or not?"

"Yes," she said, and Grace popped out of existence with a burst of inward-falling light and the scent of roses.

Nakita pulled me to her, our heads almost touching. "You should come with me," she said, eyes glancing sideways at the surrounding people. "Perhaps then you will learn how to look forward and see the atrocities this human's choices will bring about. I know you'll agree then."

"It's the first day of school!" I said as Josh started talking to Barnabas to get the scoop on what was going on. "I can't skip the first day of school."