She's holding Stevie but I can't see her face.

"Tana?"

She doesn't turn. I step forward and touch her shoulder.

"Tan?"

She turns and I freeze. Over her right cheek is a white mark the shape of a skeletal hand.

"Tana?"

I brush my fingers over it. I can see the fingers, stark and bright against her fur.

"What happened?"

"Mistress Death thought I had overstepped."

"What did she do?"

"Slapped me. Death's hand marks me."

"How do I fix it?"

"You don't. I made my choice then. As I made it when I became the Malach Hamavet."

"Yes. You owe me an explanation."

She sighs and places Stevie back down, then turns to me.

"I was thirteen. And I was supposed to die. But a…friend taught me to fight and I survived. Azrael, the other Angel of Death, turned up to take me, but my friend sold… She sold a lot and got Mistress Death to offer me a job."

"A…job?"

"I would serve her. I would become…angel is the only word in English. I suppose… A bit like the Surfer for Galactus? Her Herald. I did the jobs she couldn't be bothered to turn up personally for. I only had a few jobs to do. People who accept death. Those who sacrifice themselves for the good of others. And those to whom death is a release. I was scared. I was a child who had just watched her guardians being brutally murdered in front of her and then had killed every single one of the raiders. So I said yes. And I changed."

"What was that when fighting the Worthy?"

"That was the Malach Hamavet. It's in me, somewhere. A part of me, but not. The purest part, not entirely human, but with my memories and soul."

"So…"

"I'm still me Steve. I am always Etana and I am always the Angel of Death. I can't be anything else."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's not exactly something you can bring up in a normal conversation. You didn't need to know when we first met, then I never saw a good time to bring it up!"

"I don't know! You could have mentioned it on one of our dates!"

"And how would you have reacted? I suddenly come out with; by the way, I'm Death's Angel; how would you react!? Truthfully? How?"

"I… I don't think I'd have believed you…"

"I had hoped to shield you from that. I hoped you would never have to know what I truly am."

"You lied, Tana!"

"And I have to live with that. I have lied to everyone, Steve! All I love and hold dear! None have ever been told the truth! Not even Logan or Max!"

I stare at her for a long time before turning away.

"Tell them."

And I leave her, knowing that she needs time to think, time alone. The price of being an angel…

She comes to me three hours later, her faced streaked with tears and the white hand still fresh on her face. And I know she's told Logan and Magneto. We don't say anything. I just hold my arms open and she hugs me as she cries. And I gently rock her back and forth, like she would rock Stevie.

"It's okay, Tan… It's okay…"