Looking up, I read first his hope, then Nakita’s doubt. On the table, Grace was silent, listening. “In time?” I asked. “Before Ron flashes forward and sends someone to stop us? I don’t think a light reaper will believe I’m trying to save this guy with Nakita standing beside me, ready to kill him if I can’t make him change his mind. Would you?”

Barnabas darted a glance at Nakita, and her grip on her red purse tightened. “Sure I would,” he said, but he was lying. “Madison, don’t worry. We’ll find him. It’s just first-prevention jitters.”

“It’s a reap,” Nakita said, looking at her black nails, and then at the Goths. “Not a reap prevention.”

“It’s whatever Madison makes it,” Barnabas shot back, his face turning red.

“Well, I gotta go!” Grace said, the soft glow that was her wings rising up and sending the scent of strawberries to me. “I was told to get you here, then back off.”

“You’re leaving?” I asked, worried, but then something in Grace’s words caught my attention. “Back off?” I repeated, and her glow above the table turned almost a sickly green. “Not leave? Darn it, Grace, are you spying on us?”

Barnabas sat up in concern, and a high-pitched groan came from Grace. “Don’t be mad!” she exclaimed. “The seraphs are confused, and they want some reassurance that changing a mark’s path is even possible. That’s why you got this reap, Madison. There’s always a shift in policy when a new timekeeper takes over, but there’s never been one as big as what you want. They don’t think a reaper can open a human’s mind to choosing a different path while remaining anonymous, especially if it takes both light and dark reapers working together to do it. If Barnabas and Nakita can’t do this with you helping them, how are they expected to do it together when you’re not with them?”

I’m helping Barnabas and Nakita? I thought, confused. All I’d been thinking about was how I was going to save this guy, not set a precedent for others to follow. But even I had to concede that Ron didn’t handle reaps himself but sent his light reapers out and moved on to the next soul.