Prologue

Anne Ride stood by the window, awaiting her grandmother's arrival.

"Come eat your dinner, honey," her mother called from the kitchen.

"I'm not moving until Grandma and Grandpa get here," she said.

"But six year olds need vegetables to be healthy. Eat before they get cold," she said sternly.

Anne shoved the food down her throat, then resumed her position by the window. Finally, a car drove up the driveway.

"She's here!" Anne exclaimed.

Grandma Maxine burst through the front door, leading Grandpa James through. He was blind, but he still found his way around pretty well.

"Grandma Maxine!"

"Hello, child," she said sweetly.

"Mother, my little Annie's been dying to show you something. She won't even tell me what it is," Anne's mother said.

"Yeah! Back up, everybody!"

Anne took off her jacket to reveal that she had slit two vertical holes in the back of her blouse.

"Honey," her mother said, her smile fading into a grimace. "If this is what you wanted to show us, then I'm sorry but you can't go around cutting holes in your best… ah-"

Her mother gasped for air as she saw what her daughter did.

Anne unfolded her wings from her back.

"You… have…wings?" Then her mother fell in a dead faint.

Grandma Max stared. And stared.

"What? What happened?" James asked.

"Honey, she has wings!"

"What? But Nicole didn't!"

"Maybe it skips a generation," Maxine murmured.

Anne noticed the shocked faces of her grandparents. "But… I have wings," she said. "Doesn't that mean something?"

Maxine bent down to her eye level.

"Honey, you have something that you're mommy doesn't know exists. You need to let her know that they're not real. Convince she imagined them."

Anne was puzzled. "So… mommy doesn't have them?"

"No, child."

"So then… why do I?"

"Well…"

"Does this have anything to do with Monique?" she asked. Before Maxine could reply, she said more. "Does this have anything to do with Gabriel? Or Angelica? Or Dylan? Or Fang?"

Maxine paled. "How… how do you know who they are?"

"I heard you talking about it in the car."

"In the car? But how?"

"I can hear far away things. Can… other people not do that or something?" Anne asked innocently.

"What did she say she can do?" James asked.

Maxine ignored him.

"Honey. Don't tell anyone about this. We'll talk later. Okay?