Finding the time lines was easy, and with hardly any effort, I found the bright glow of the present, shifting off into infinity. Now all I had to do was find Tammy on it.

Everyone’s life had a different color or aura. I couldn’t see auras, but Barnabas had gone over them countless times as we sat on my roof and waited for the sun to rise. For most people the color was a reflection of their age and state of mind and could change with the seasons, but for reapers, it was a reflection of what side of the fate or free-will fence they were on. Light reapers tended to be a dark red in color, and dark reapers, violet, and those in the middle a neutral, greenish yellow. When I’d first met Barnabas, his amulet had been a respectable dark red. Now, though, it was clearly moving up the spectrum, showing more certainly than actions that he was starting to doubt his own beliefs. Doubt in an angel was a scary, unexpected thing, like finding out rocks were really made of water.

My original aura had been blue, or so Barnabas had once told me. Now it was violet, so dark it was basically black thanks to my timekeeper amulet. It was easy to find my aura in the bright time line, looking almost like a sinkhole. Beside me was Nakita’s cheerful violet glow, her thoughts weaving among mine. Barnabas was absent, but if I looked down the fabric of time into the past, I could see where he had been with us. Josh, too. As I settled myself, Josh’s aura jumped from somewhere else, joining mine and Nakita’s. He was back from the mausoleum, and I didn’t need to open my eyes to know it.

“Is she flashing forward again?” I heard him whisper.

“No,” Nakita said softly. “She’s searching the time lines for the mark’s, uh, Tammy’s aura.”

“Really?” Josh said, and I heard him drop his gym bag. “What color is my aura?”

“Blue,” she said tersely. “Shhh.”