He shrugged. “Not really. Amy thinks her sweat doesn’t stink. Len is a bully I wouldn’t let pound me in third grade—we have a weird truce in which we pretend to be friends so he doesn’t have to try to beat me up again. Parker…I think they let him hang around because they need someone to pick on, and he’s so desperate to belong that he lets them.”
I took a sip of my drink, shivering as the icy soda slid down. If this was who Josh hung with, no surprise he liked me. I was starting to feel better, though, especially when I heard a muffled yelp from the parking lot and saw Amy step back from Len’s truck, her hand over her face. She was yelling something about her nose. Beside me, a haze of light giggled.
“Thanks,” I said shyly to Josh. “For sticking up for me, I mean.”
Josh’s smile made my heart flip-flop. “Forget it,” he said as he picked at his fries.
But I wouldn’t. Ever.
His blue eyes met mine as he put his glasses back on. “And you can go invisible.”
“Ye-e-e-ep,” I drawled, suffused with a feeling of satisfaction. Leaning back, I laced my fingers and extended my arms, cracking my knuckles. It was hard to stay upset with jerks when you could go invisible. “Kairos doesn’t have a chance. All we have to do is find a quiet spot, you distance yourself enough from me that black wings can sense you, Kairos shows up, and I slip in invisible-like and lift his amulet.” I smiled. “Then we run away fast, and he’ll have to leave until he can make a new amulet.”
He laughed at the running-away part, and I felt good. Finishing his fries, he glanced at his watch. It had more buttons than a calculator. “So, we doing this?”
I glanced out the windows at the lengthening shadows. “Yup. Not here, though. Do you know of an alley or something?”
“Mmmm, how about Rosewood Park?”
Grace’s hum grew louder, and she dropped down from the light fixture to hover inches before my face.
“Madison, I’m just a first-sphere angel and all, but don’t do this. Don’t go invisible again. Wait for Barnabas. Please. It feels dangerous.”
Waving her away, I said, “I can’t wait for Barnabas. Besides, if you can’t see me, neither can Kairos.
You can’t catch what you can’t see.”
“What about other things, Madison?” she asked, worried. “Thereare other things. If I can’t see you, maybe something else can.”
That was a nasty thought, and I sat back against the hard seat, pondering it.
“What did she say?” Josh asked, trying to see her by following my eyes.
I sighed dramatically to downplay her concern. “She doesn’t want me to go invisible because she can’t see me. Thinks it’s dangerous.”
An indignant harrumph filled my ear. “It’s not that I can’t see you. It’s that something else might be able to.”
Josh’s eyebrows went higher. “I didn’t know it wasn’t safe.”
“It’s safe enough,” I protested. “Besides, if we don’t face Kairos now, what happens tonight? It’s not like you can spend the night at my house. My dad’s cool, but telling him we need to stay together so my guardian angel can keep you safe isn’t going to work. Personally, I’d rather face Kairos now than my dad after I break curfew.”
Josh made a face. “I don’t especially want to get in trouble, either.”
Frustrated, I took a sip of pop. I’d be grounded for a month if I didn’t show up for dinner—if I was lucky. But Josh wouldn’t make it through the night if we didn’t do something. “Breaking curfew one too many times was how I got shipped up here,” I said softly, almost to myself. “Besides, what will that get us? Come morning, when they track us down, you’ll be yanked to the other side of town and I’ll be locked in my room. Fat lot of good that will do us. No, we face Kairos now, while we have some choice of how and when.”
“Madison, no,” Grace protested, her wings going so fast I think Josh could almost see her glow. “Wait until Ron or Barnabas gets back. Do it then.”
An exasperated noise slipped from me. “If either one of them were here, I wouldn’t have to do it at all.
That’s the whole point!”
“But I don’t think you’re doing it right,” she said, backing up slightly. “I should be able to hear your soul singing even when you go invisible, and I can’t! Please don’t do this.”
“Either we do this thing now,” I said, hoping Josh was getting the gist of this, “or we break curfew, buying us only the time between now and when our parents catch us. I’m not willing to risk Josh’s life in the hope that Ron will be back by then. So unless you want to stay with Josh tonight, we have no reason to wait for Barnabas.”
I froze and Josh looked up at me, wonder in his eyes.
“Hey, that’s not a bad idea,” I said, pulling forward in the seat as Grace hovered backward. “My guardian angel could go with you tonight. You’d be safe and neither of us will get in trouble.”
“Huh?” It was a tiny utterance, sounding odd coming from a ball of light. “No. I’ve been charged to watch you. Ron himself set me the task to keep you out of trouble. Safe.”
“Yeah, well, if you don’t go with Josh, then I’m going to find Kairos and get into major trouble.”