The stars were out in droves. One, far in the distance, was particularly bright. It flickered, then seemed to go out altogether before returning even brighter than before.
"That's them, isn't it?" she said. "The Fall?"
"Yes," Francesca said. "That's it. It looks just like the old texts say it would."
"It was just"-Luce furrowed her brow, squinting-"I can only see it when I-"
"Concentrate," Cam ordered.
"What's happening to it?" Luce asked.
"It is coming into being in this world," Daniel said. "It wasn't the physical transit from Heaven to Earth that took nine days. It was the shift from a Heavenly realm to an Earthly one. When we landed here, our bodies were...different. We became different. That took time."
"Now time is taking us," Roland said, looking at the golden pocket watch that Dee must have given him before she died.
"Then it is time for us to go," Daniel said to Luce.
"Up there?"
"Yes, we must soar up to meet them. We will fly right up to the limits of the Fall, and then you-"
"I have to stop him?"
"Yes."
She closed her eyes thought back to the way Lucifer had looked at her in the Meadow. He looked like he wanted to crush every speck of tenderness there was. "I think I know how."
"I told you she would say that!" Arriane whooped.
Daniel pulled her close. "Are you sure?"
She kissed him, never surer. "I just got my wings back, Daniel. I'm not going to let Lucifer take them away."
So Luce and Daniel said goodbye to their friends, reached for each other's hands, and took off into the night. They flew upward forever, through the thinnest outer skin of the atmosphere, through a film of light at the edge of space."/>
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