Emily was written in seductive pink cursive, right above a picture of her face. “There’s no way the Angels won’t come,” the T-shirt girl was chirping. “They’re just trying to teach us a lesson because humans were being mean to them. If you’re out there watching, Jacks or Emily, or Chloe, or even Archangel Godspeed, please come back! We need you! OMG, we love you!” She shrieked until she was practically swooning.
The next interview was with a middle-aged man holding a sign depicting both an Angel and a UFO, with a big green question mark painted between the two. A conspiracy theorist, Maddy figured. “Where are the demons?” he asked. “Have we actually seen them besides on specially staged television broadcasts?” He was getting more and more worked up. “This whole ‘war’ is just a diversion to distract us from what’s really going on in the government with Senator Linden. It’s a cover-up. A conspiracy to turn America against the Angels, and people are swallowing it hook, line, and sinker. Just like the supposed ‘moon landing,’ as if anyone believes that. Save the Angels!” Behind him, the group of Angel conspiracy theorists howled and cheered.
The image cut and Tara was back, spinning toward the camera with a dramatic flourish. “Also out of the spotlight is Maddy Montgomery.” Maddy bolted upright on the couch. “Since her public announcement in support of the Immortals Bill, we have heard nothing from Angel City’s newest Guardian. What are her thoughts on the impending demon attack? Has Jackson abandoned her to be with the Immortals, wherever they are? Will we ever see those famous Maddy Montgomery wings flying over Angel City again?” Footage
of Maddy in flight, her luminous purple wings outstretched, hair cutting across her face, filled the screen, and she flipped the station.
On the Angel News Network, a grave-looking anchor was in the middle of a story. “There are even some global experts who say that despite so-called demon sightings, the sinkhole off the coast of Angel City will not develop further.” The shot cut across the news desk to a bespectacled man in a sharp suit.
“The Angels are playing a game of chicken. A very, very sophisticated game of chicken. It’s all about who blinks first. They’ll come to our aid, but they want to teach the entire world a lesson first. It’s not as if they would simply abandon us, would they?” He chuckled nervously, and Maddy felt bad for him.
She flipped and flipped again, only to land on more of the same. Every channel was reporting either on the attack or on the growing crowd in front of the Temple of Angels. A! seemed to be the only network that had given up running anything about the demon attack. In fact, it had switched to a rerun of Chloe’s reality show, Seventeen and Immortal, to be followed by a marathon of old Angel Commissioning ceremonies.
“It’s just more of the same,” Kevin said as he entered the room and handed Maddy a mug.
“Thanks,” Maddy said, and smiled at her uncle through the steam. “This is great.” And it was. The warmth of the tea radiated through her chest as she drank. Kevin just shrugged, but Maddy could see the intensity in his face, and she could tell he wanted to say something to her. He looked down at his tea.
“We’re all in this together, Mads,” he said, finally looking up at her. “Even if the Angels really have left us, I’m still here. And so is Tom. And President Linden. He’ll know what to do.” Maddy smiled a little and wrapped her arm around him, pressing the side of her face against his chest. She could feel his heartbeat against her cheek. She felt Kevin’s hands fumble for a hug, which was a bit awkward, but warm all the same. Suddenly Maddy felt herself being pulled back into thoughts of the pier, but she stopped herself before she could get started. There were more important things at hand, she told herself.
“I know there are a lot of people who don’t think this is real,” Maddy said. “But, Kevin, we need to assume the demons are coming.” Maddy looked at her uncle.
“I know what you’re trying to tell me,” Kevin said. “And I’m not leaving. They’ve already closed down the freeways for emergency vehicles only. All the chaos earlier today blocked everything. No one’s getting out now.”
“I could make a call—” Maddy started to suggest. Kevin stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder.
“When your mom and dad left you with me, I made them a promise. I promised that I would protect you, no matter what,” Kevin said. “Nothing about that has changed.” He looked at Maddy. “I know you, Maddy, and I know what kind of young woman, and Angel, you are. I know you aren’t leaving like the rest of them. You’ll stay here and fight. And I’m not going anywhere, either. We’re going to get through this together, just like we always have. Even a Guardian needs someone to look after her.”
Tears started to form in Maddy’s eyes, and they hugged again. Kevin’s eyes welled up a bit as well, but he quickly wiped them dry. He looked out the living room window. “Besides, who’s going to be here to reopen the diner after everything’s over if I’m out in Kansas somewhere with a bunch of refugees? No. I’m staying right here.”
• • •
Maddy took a long, hot shower, willing the steaming water to wash away the day’s events. When she was finished, she wrapped herself in a towel and walked into her old room, the one she grew up in. Kevin had more or less kept it the same way Maddy had it while in high school, but it looked much different now compared with her new glass condo. By contrast, this room was old and worn, yet somehow that was comforting. Maddy sat on her bed, which, as Kevin had promised, was neatly made. She couldn’t help thinking it was a different person who used to live in this room. A different young girl, with different dreams, who was going to live a different life. Maddy felt like an impostor.
On the bedside table sat Tom’s flight wings. She picked them up and felt the weight of them in her hands. Their heaviness always surprised her, considering how small they were. As she held the wings and sat in the quiet of her old room, the thoughts began to flood her mind. Thoughts she had tried to push away since leaving the dock, and there was no stopping them now. She replayed a string of decisions in her mind, as if going over them again would convince her that they were, in fact, the right ones.
Why had she chosen Tom? Because he needed something to fight for. He was going up against an enemy he could not possibly beat, and the least she could do was give him a reason to survive. Fear welled inside her as she pictured Tom aloft in a fiery sky, fighting for his life against supernatural creatures that couldn’t be killed by bullets or bombs. In a moment like that, Maddy thought, death might feel like a welcome escape. If the future he saw for them together could keep him alive, then so be it. Her love was the best weapon she could give him to use against the demon army. And so she had done what needed to be done, just like she always tried to do. It was her job as an Angel. Sacrifice. Tom was her Protection now.
But—what about Jacks? She let herself fall back in the bed and listened to it creak like it used to with her weight. Her eyes traced the familiar edges of the room. Did she love Jacks? Of course she did. She always would. But she would have to forget about Jacks. Not just for herself, but also for Tom. She had made a promise to Tom, and she intended to keep it. The only question was, could she?
Could she forget two years in which she and Jacks had been inseparable, in which Jacks had been a part of her? She knew exactly how they fit together, and could so vividly recall the way she would reach for his hand and lace her fingers with his, like it was the most natural thing in the world. She thought of the way he would bend his head and kiss her slowly, and could practically feel the pressure of his lips on hers. They had each other memorized. How could she just erase it all? An aching chill started in her throat and radiated through her body, and suddenly she was freezing. Shivering against her wet hair, she realized it wasn’t the temperature in the room making her cold. It was the dawning of the idea that, from the very beginning, she knew this could never work out. She’d been a fool. She had known from their very first date, when Jacks had taken her flying over Angel City, and yet she had let herself be pulled into this whole misadventure, this emotional black hole.She willingly let herself be lulled into a dream because she so badly wanted it to be real.
It was this same blind desire that had driven her to train as a Guardian Angel, and to believe that she and Jacks could actually have a life together and be happy. She didn’t want to see that she and Jacks were too different, that they came from different worlds and had different values. Just like she didn’t want to see that Jacks’s injuries were as severe as they were after his fight with the demon, or that he would withdraw from her as her own star rose. Just like she didn’t want to see herself becoming swept up in the glamorous lifestyle of a Guardian—the money, the fame, the adoration—so she just closed her eyes to the world while it all washed over her, while she let herself be sucked into everything she used to hate about the Angels. Maddy thought back to the moment she received her rich, entitled Protections, the same moment she realized she had lost herself and become just another Angel. The memory turned her stomach. That wasn’t who she was, but it was who Jacks was. She had wanted the dream of the two of them together so badly that she couldn’t see that was all it was ever going to be: a dream, a fantasy. They were just too different to ever work. How often, Maddy wondered bitterly, do people really see things for what they are? How often do we instead just see a version of things—the version we want them to be? Here she was, two years later, and things were exactly the same as they’d been on that first night. And now she really had to face it: Maddy Montgomery and Jackson Godspeed just weren’t meant to be.
She turned over and looked at the flight wings in her hand. If she somehow survived the demon attack, if she could help Tom and Kevin and everyone she loved to survive, then it didn’t matter what happened to her afterward. If she and Tom could have a life together, wouldn’t that be enough? Maddy’s smile was slight, bittersweet. There’s a strange sense of freedom and calm in letting go of your own desires and giving in to the path that fate has placed before you. She pictured her life up until this point as standing waist-deep in a swiftly moving river, straining and fighting against a relentless current but getting nowhere. Now she was finally letting go and was ready to let the current take her. There was something beautiful about it. Maybe the current would take her to the place she was always meant to go. Maybe everything was going to be okay. She felt a weight lift off her chest, one that she hadn’t even realized was there until now.
Yet, deep inside her, the flame that still flickered for Jacks had to be snuffed out. She conjured up an image of Kevin in the claws of one of the demons, crying out for help—crying out for her—and white-hot anger raced through her veins. Even if she was the last thing standing between Kevin and an entire army of monsters, she would never abandon him. Jacks knew the kind of danger her uncle was in, the danger everyone was in, and yet he was content doing nothing. He was actually going to stand by and leave those weaker than him to their fate. Tom, on the other hand, was out there right now, preparing to go up against impossible odds without a second thought for himself. The anger came to a boil inside Maddy, replacing her blood with bitter water and filling her. Consuming her. She erased those pictures of the Jacks she loved, of the impeccable Angel she had memorized, and replaced them with the new Jacks. This was the Jacks in battle armor, worn to attack humans. That armor and those robotic wings were all that was left of him now. She let herself think through her next realization very slowly. If the Angels wouldn’t help the humans against their enemy, then the Angels were the enemy, too.
She sat up and looked out her window to the Angel City sign that stood on the hill, still gleaming and white, like a beacon. H
ow she hated that sign and everything it stood for. How she hated the city and everything it had done to her.
In a low voice, Maddy said aloud, “Nonaction is complicity.” She thought of the Emergency Broadcast on the radio. That broadcast was like her life now. This was not a test. This was really happening. The Angels were the enemy. The logic was irrefutable. And that could only mean one thing.
Jackson Godspeed was now her enemy, too.
CHAPTER FOUR
Nestled in between the trees in the Angel City Hills, the ostentatious glass cube building was perfectly under the radar. In Pittsburgh, Plymouth, or Podunkville, USA, it would have stuck out like a sore thumb. But here up off Mulholland it was just another display of Angel taste, wealth, exclusiveness, and prestige. The front entrance was the site of what would likely be the last public Angel televised appearance for some time. Archangel William Holyoake had stepped out with Jackson and other Guardians at his side to state that the Guardians would not be taking part in the demon war. And all just before the first demon scouts had been sent into the Immortal City.