It worked. She looked up as he stood before the class and announced, “My theme is love.”

  The class groaned, but he paid them no mind. When Cam had fallen in love with Lilith in Canaan, Solomon had not yet been king of the Israelites. He’d been a boy of eighteen, newly in love himself with a girl from a neighboring village. Cam and Solomon had met in a Bedouin tent one night, both of them traveling in different directions. They’d shared only one meal together, but Solomon had recited to Cam the lovely words that would later become famous as the Song of Songs. Now, Cam gazed at Lilith and started reciting the poem by heart. When he got to his favorite part, he slipped out of English and into the poem’s original language, ancient Hebrew.

  “ ‘Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away,’ ” he said.

  At her desk, Lilith dropped her pen. She stared at him, her mouth open, her face ghostly pale. He wished he could know what she was feeling. Did she remember anything?

  By the time Cam reached the end of the poem, the bell was ringing. The classroom grew chaotic as students leapt up from their seats.

  “Did you hear that?” a girl with rosy cheeks and a huge red backpack giggled to her friend as she walked past. “He switched to gibberish when he forgot a line.”

  Her friend snorted. “He does look old enough to have Alzheimer’s.”

  “Nice job,” Mr. Davidson said. “That’s one of my all-time favorites. And you know the Hebrew!”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Cam said, pushing out of the room and racing after Lilith. He spotted her at the end of the hall, talking to Jean and Luis. They were looking at a poster taped to a classroom door.

  “Lilith! Jean! Luis! Wait up,” he called, but by the time he had fought through the crush of students to reach the end of the hall, Lilith and the boys had turned the corner and disappeared.

  Cam sighed. He couldn’t catch a break. And now he might not see her again all day.

  He stared at the poster she’d been reading.

  ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!

  He’d seen it before. It was advertising the same gig he’d tried to invite Lilith to his first day at school. The Perceived Slights were opening for a local band called Ho Hum. It was taking place that night at a fancy coffee shop a couple of miles away.

  Was Lilith planning on going now? She hated Chloe King. So did Cam, for that matter. But on the off chance that Lilith did go to scope out the competition, Cam would be there.

  As the sun went down that evening, Roland, Cam, and Arriane crunched through the grass to cross High Meadow Road, forcing cars to swerve around them. Cam was deep in thought. He barely noticed the screeching tires and blaring horns.

  “I don’t know how we stuck around Sword & Cross as long as we did,” Roland said as a motorist flipped him off. “I can’t get kicked out of these atrocious mortal high schools fast enough.”

  “Get out of the road!” a woman shrieked over her horn.

  “Did you know that almost all car horns are tuned to F-sharp minor?” Arriane asked. “That’s why you should always listen to music in the key of A when you’re driving in a city. Or sing a song in A.”

  “She’s a kind-hearted woman, she studies evil all the time,” Roland sang.

  “Where are we going again?” Arriane asked.

  “A coffee shop called Alfie’s,” Cam said, distracted. He had Lilith on his mind. He had to make up with her tonight in order for his plan to work.

  “And why is that again?” Arriane patted Cam’s stomach. “Cammy’s hungry? Wants some crumb cake? You might want to watch your carb intake. Do they even make tuxes your size? Which reminds me, have you asked Lilith to prom yet?”

  “Not yet,” Cam said. “Not yet. I’m going to need your help tonight,” he told his friends as they rounded the corner to the front of the café. “Don’t forget the plan.”

  “Yes, right, the secret plan!” Arriane said, stopping to touch up her lipstick. “I love secrets. Almost as much as I love plans. Put us to work, boss.”

  Cam walked into the coffee shop and held the door open for his friends. The entrance was crammed with shelves of knickknacks and trinkets, little metal trees meant for holding jewelry, coffee mugs painted with cheesy slogans for sale—all to make room for a small stage that had been set up at the back of the café.

  The walls were mirrored, so Cam tried to avoid looking almost everywhere. He couldn’t stand to see the way he looked now. He was indisputably ugly.

  “Come on, I need a mocha,” Arriane said, taking Cam’s hand and squeezing them through a narrow space between two bookshelves so they could join the audience.

  There were probably a hundred kids there, most of whom Cam recognized from Trumbull. It was the popular crowd and some of the second tier—and most of their necks swiveled when the fallen angels entered the scene. Cam and Roland were the only guys not wearing khaki shorts and polos. Arriane was the only girl who didn’t look like every other girl. Cam watched a dozen high school guys scope her out.

  “Jeez, fellas,” she said. “Leave my drawers on, will ya?” Then she leaned in close to Cam and whispered, “I’m not wearing any drawers!”

  Roland scooted off to get some drinks while Cam and Arriane grabbed seats at one of the high tables by the window.

  “This is dreadful,” Arriane said, looking around at the snobby group of students. “I can’t believe you’ve suffered through two weeks here. All for Lilith. It’s almost like you like her or something.”

  “Or something.” Then Cam spotted her. “There.” He pointed across the room.

  Lilith was sitting in the third row with Jean Rah; his girlfriend, Kimi; and Luis. Karen Walker joined them after she finished tuning Chloe’s guitar.

  Lilith was all dressed up. She had on glossy lipstick, and her short velvet dress was black as coal, setting off her fire-red hair in thrilling contrast.

  “I think I’m starting to understand your dedication,” Arriane said, and whistled. “Girl is fine.”

  Cam agreed, of course, Lilith looked beautiful, but she didn’t look radiant the way she had at the bowling alley. That was the day Cam had felt closest to her, just before Lucifer spread the word about the suicide. Tonight, sadness softened Lilith’s edges, and Cam knew it was because of him.

  “What are we talking about?” Roland said, plunking coffee cups before Cam and Arriane.

  “Hottie alert,” Arriane said, and nodded in Lilith’s direction.

  “She’s still got it, even after all these years.” Roland turned to Cam. “What’s your strategy, man?”

  “I don’t have one yet,” Cam admitted, watching Luis crack a joke to Lilith that he yearned to hear. “I’m hoping one will come to me.”

  “Basically,” Arriane said, and swigged her drink, “he’s screwed.”

  Then the audience started cheering, and Cam watched as Chloe King and her band took the stage. They wore short black leather skirts, corseted tops, and big hoop earrings. The whole band was wearing silver lipstick, but Chloe was the only one who could pull it off.

  “Sup, y’all,” Chloe said as she picked up her guitar and the rest of the girls grabbed their instruments. “We’re the Perceived Slights, but you already know that.”

  “Give it to us, Chloe!” one guy yelled out.

  “Show me how bad you want it,” Chloe said.

  The audience went wild.

  Chloe grinned. “This is a special preview of the song we’ll be playing at prom,” she said into the mic, and winked at the audience. “Only the cool kids will be able to sing along tomorrow night.”

  Cam watched as Chloe scanned the audience and her gaze fell on Lilith. He readied himself to lunge if Chloe fired off some nasty insult about Lilith being there, but then, to his amazement, Chloe nodded subtly at Lilith and smiled.

  “Two, three, four,” she shouted as her band began to play a song called “Rich Bitch.” It wasn’t anything like Cam had expected—no pop, all melancholy, leaning heavily on the recorded backbeat, with Chloe’s guitar screaming feedback the whole time.

  Chloe’s band members had all obviously had years of expensive lessons. They played their instruments well enough, their voices never strained, and they looked good. But they had none of Lilith’s glittering rawness. Even sitting down in a crowd, Lilith made these girls look boring.

  Chloe’s face was red and she was out of breath when she released the final note. Lilith was the first to rise from her seat and cheer, whooping and clapping her hands.

  Cam had assumed Lilith came tonight to scope out the competition, but clearly something deeper was going on. He hated feeling so distant from her that he couldn’t even guess what she was thinking. He sat through three more songs of the Chloe show before the first set was over and the band took five.

  “Can we flee yet?” Arriane whined.

  Roland raised an eyebrow. “Cam?”

  “Give me a minute,” Cam said. As the audience went to grab more coffee or hit the bathroom, he made a beeline for Lilith. She was heading toward the coffee bar. He swooped in right behind her and touched her shoulder.

  “Hi, Lilith.”

  She spun around immediately. The sight of Cam seemed to drain her of energy. “Why are you here?”

  “I wanted to see you.” Cam stared at her lips. They should never go this long without being kissed. “What can I do to make things right?”

  “Did you make a bet with Luc that you could get me to fall in love with you?”

  Cam opened his mouth. He rubbed his jaw. How did she know that? This was not a conversation to have in public. “Can we step outside?” he asked.

  “Does that explain the band, and your interest in me in general?” She paused, swallowed. “The bet, Cam. Did you make it?”

  “No,” he said. “Yes.”

  Just then the girl taking coffee orders leaned over the counter and raised her voice. “Next? Hey, redhead. You want something or not?”

  Lilith stepped out of line. “I just lost my appetite.”

  “Lilith, wait,” Cam said.

  “What are you trying to do, Cam? Drive me to suicide like that other girl?”

  He reached for her. Everyone was staring at them now. “It’s not what you think.”

  “I’m done being played.” She shoved him away and headed for the door.

  A bunch of kids from school oohed in Lilith’s wake. Cam closed his eyes and tried to tune them out. He sensed Arriane and Roland at his side.

  “That did not look good,” Arriane said.

  “You’re cutting it close, Cam,” Roland said. “I know you like to live dangerously, but you’ve got one more day. I don’t see this ending well.”

  The café door swung open, and in swanned Luc. “Hello, old friends.” He shot them all an incredibly fake smile. “Talking about my favorite subject, Cam’s inevitable doom?”

  Cam couldn’t stop himself: Without thinking, he pitched his coffee cup in the devil’s face. The plastic top popped off, and the sizzling brown liquid splashed across Luc’s skin. Cam heard the students’ gasps, but he was more concerned about Lucifer’s reaction. That had certainly been a very dumb thing to do.

  The devil took out a handkerchief and wiped his face, then leaned in close to Cam, his face strained with rage.

  “I gave you an out,” Luc said. “You should have taken it.”

  He spoke to Cam in his true voice, quietly enough for the kids around them not to hear it, though they certainly felt the rumbling of the earth beneath their feet.

  “And you two.” The devil turned to Arriane and Roland. “You were allowed in for one reason and one reason alone. Do your job. Talk some sense into your senseless friend. Or face me.”

  “We’re working on it, sir,” Roland said. “You know how stubborn Cam can be.”

  “This is between me and Lucifer,” Cam said. “And it’s not over yet.”

  “It was over before it began,” Lucifer said, motioning to the door Lilith had fled through. “You’ve managed to make her hate you even more now than she did before you got here.” He let out a low laugh. “Yes, it is definitely over.”

  The devil stepped closer, until he and Cam were inches apart. Cam could smell the rot of Lucifer’s breath, the stench emanating from his skin. “By the end of the day tomorrow,” Lucifer said, “you’ll be mine. Forever.”

  Approximately 1000 BCE

  Cam sat on the deck of a wooden boat anchored in a small marina.

  He was shirtless, with his ankles crossed, gazing out at a low moon. For the past two hours, he’d been trying to teach himself to play the lyre he’d stolen from a man selling saffron at the market. Surely if he could conquer Lilith’s instrument, he could conquer the Lilith-shaped hole inside him.

  So far, it wasn’t going well.

  “Cam,” a sultry voice purred, “put that thing down and come over here.”

  He turned to the young, olive-skinned girl behind him. She was propped on an elbow, her long legs folded behind her. Her golden hair undulated in the breeze.

  “I’ll be there in a moment,” Cam said.

  Since he’d left Lilith, Cam had surrounded himself with a series of girls, hoping in vain that they would distract his broken heart.

  When he’d fled Canaan on his wedding day, he had sought out Lucifer in the clouds. Since the Fall, Cam had had little to say to the devil. Every century or so, Lucifer proposed a deal—Cam’s allegiance for a dominion within the underworld—but Cam was never interested.

  That time, though, when Cam turned up, Lucifer smiled knowingly and said, “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Now, a second golden-haired girl interrupted Cam’s memory as she walked the plank from the marina to the boat. “I thought I’d find you here,” she called.

  “What are you doing here, Xenia?” the first girl demanded. She looked at Cam. “Did you invite her?”

  “Korinna?” Xenia exclaimed. “Why are you on Cam’s ship?”

  Cam set down his lyre, glad of the distraction. “I see no introductions are required.”

  Hands on hips, the two girls glared at him and each other.

  He took a breath and forced a smile. “You’re two beautiful girls on a beautiful moonlit night. Unless you prefer fighting, why don’t we have a little fun?”

  He dove into the sea. When he surfaced, he floated on his back, looking toward the boat. Maybe they’d join him. Maybe they wouldn’t.

  He didn’t care either way.

  “Still want to go through with this?” the boy asked from the helm of a cedar rowboat anchored at the edge of the marina. Lilith had discovered his name was Luc, but otherwise had learned very little about her companion.

  Lilith listened to the splashing and the laughter from the water near Cam’s boat. She swallowed, a lump in her throat.

  She had come all this way to find him. It hadn’t occurred to her that he might already have moved on to the next girl, and the next. She ached inside, but she would not leave Lesbos without trying to know his heart once more.

  Soon, Lilith spotted Cam crossing the marina, walking along the shore. His wet hair shone in the starlight.

  “This is your moment,” Luc said. “Take it.”

  Lilith dove into the sea and swam toward Cam, her white gown billowing around her as she kicked.

  Behind her, Luc looked on from his boat with a smile.

  Near midnight, Cam was climbing a steep slope, lyre in hand, seeking a new kind of distraction. A voice warbled in the distance, accompanied by rich notes from a lyre. He saw a scrubby desert bush marking the entrance to a cave and angled himself toward it.

  Inside the cave, in a narrow space between two tall rocks, an old man was playing an intricate song. His beard hung to his navel, and his hair stood out in filthy strands. His eyes were shut, and a flagon of wine sat at his feet. He seemed unaware of Cam’s presence.

  “You’re very good,” Cam said when the man’s song ended. “Will you teach me to play?”

  The man slowly opened his eyes. “No.”

  Cam tilted his head. Ever since he had aligned himself with Lucifer, he had discovered a new layer of persuasion in his voice. He was learning how to use it to his advantage.

  “I will take you flying, far above the clouds, if you will teach me. You can bring your wine and drink among the stars.”

  The man’s eyes widened; he was clearly affected. “Begin,” he said, and strummed a chord.

  Cam quickly brought his lyre into playing position.

  The man kicked the instrument to the ground. “Piece of driftwood shit,” he said. “Sing.”

  Unprepared to improvise, Cam found that Lilith’s song, the first one he’d ever heard her sing, rose to his lips. She’d stolen his heart, he reasoned. Now he would steal her song.

  “Where love spurs me I must turn

  my rhymes, my rhymes…”

  The man squinted at Cam, impressed. The melody he played on his lyre complemented Lilith’s lyrics perfectly. He handed the flagon to Cam.

  “I will teach you, and you will stay with me.” He wrapped his arm around Cam. “Now,” the man said, leading Cam toward the entrance of his cave, “can you really fly?”

  Cam stepped back into the night. He was just about to release his wings when a shadow moved behind the desert bush.

  Lilith? Was he dreaming?

  She was still wearing her wedding gown. It was filthy by now, green with moss and dripping with seawater. It clung tightly to her body. Her hair was wild and wet, trailing halfway down her back, and her skin looked pale and bright in the moonlight. She looked into his eyes, then at his bare chest, then at his hands, as if she could see how much they ached to hold her.

  But Cam and Lilith did not embrace. They faced each other like strangers.