Battle Angel (Immortal City 3)

“You should probably get going,” Maddy said. Her heart was racing, and she was practically breathless.

Jacks looked down toward the departing Angels. “I probably should.”

But neither of them wanted to say it. The final parting words. They lingered for a few more moments.

At last, Maddy spoke.

“Goodbye, Jackson,” Maddy said.

“Maddy,” Jacks said. “I will always be with you.” He put his hand up to her cheek and rubbed away a tear with his thumb.

His famous pale blue eyes sparkled, the way they had when he first started winning her heart, bit by bit. He was still the perfectly handsome Angel who had swept her off her feet, after all, even if he had changed so much during the course of the demon war.

“I have to go now, Maddy,” Jackson said. He gave her a bittersweet smile. “No regrets.”

“Jacks . . .” But there was nothing left to say.

Jackson leaned down and gently pulled Maddy close to him. He pressed his lips to hers, and she felt the same blissful shock that had jolted through her the first time he touched her hand in the diner. For just that moment, nothing in the world existed except their kiss, their beings fused. Their entire history born into this act. Anything that ever needed to be said, or could be said, was said at that moment, silently, through the kiss.

Jackson pulled back.

“Goodbye, Maddy.”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Maddy sipped from her cup of tea, steam rolling up and out of the brown mug as she placed it back down on the table and sank into the comfortable booth of Kevin’s Diner. Outside, plentiful sunshine poured down on the palm trees, and from where Maddy was sitting, she could almost pretend the Battle of Angel City had never happened. One day, it would all look like this again.

Kevin’s Diner was doing brisk business again after its grand reopening. Chatting customers filled the tables and booths, drinking coffee and tucking into plates of blueberry pie and triple-decker club sandwiches.

Maddy watched as the new girl, Sophie, rushed plates of hot food around to the customers. Kevin kept complaining that poor Sophie was hopeless, that she didn’t know her ham omelets from her hamburgers, and that she still couldn’t remember what was in a Maddy Special, but Maddy knew that her uncle had a soft spot for the new waitress. He did sometimes proclaim from the back of the kitchen that Maddy could “never be replaced,” which was usually followed by a no-strings-attached offer for Maddy to come back and wait tables anytime she wanted. He knew she had a new job, though. She had a city to help rebuild.

Jackson and the Angels had departed. Just as Jacks had promised, when Maddy woke up the next morning, they were gone. There were competing stories around the city, traded in cafés and bars, about how they had left. Some claimed they had seen a blinding white light at dawn that overtook the city. Others claimed that the Angels had wandered out into the desert. And some especially fringe conspiracy theorists insisted that they were on a UFO with Elvis and Steve Jobs. To Maddy the “how” didn’t matter. And yet, they—and Jackson—were gone, regardless.

Taking another sip of tea, Maddy looked out at the hill beyond the gleaming window of Kevin’s Diner, up to where the Angel City sign used to be.

The Angel City sign hadn’t been so fortunate during the demon battle. A demon had crashed through the A and the N, setting the remaining G, E, and L on fire. They had been charred on the hill above the city. And shrapnel from an exploded bomb had sliced the I and T in “City” right down the middle.

They’d taken down the destroyed sign, leaving what looked to Maddy like an open wound. It was the sign that signified you were in the great Immortal City. But the Angels were gone. It was no longer “Angel City.”

After the crews had taken the sign down, the city officials found themselves asking, “What did this place used to be called again?”

They had to dig out some dusty books from the stacks of the Ventura County Library, but eventually they found the information they were looking for.

The workers were putting up the new letters, one by one. Luckily the two names held the same number of letters, so it wasn’t going to be too extensive of a job. The city officials had bigger things to worry about. But the people felt it was important to start fresh, and Maddy agreed with them. The people would never forget the Angels, but they needed to think of themselves now.

The city workers up on the hill had already gotten most of the letters up. They shined bright and clear in the sunshine of a beautiful day: H O L L Y W O

“Hollywood.” Maddy tried saying it aloud. It sounded strange. Didn’t really have the same ring as “Angel City.” But she guessed she could get used to it. She’d have to. They all would.

Her senses became sharpened as she shifted slightly in the vinyl of the booth, the sun reflecting off the plate-glass window of the diner, sending a shaft of light across her hands and the cup of tea in front of her.

Maddy’s phone beeped, and she pulled it out of her bag. It was a text from Gwen, the best friend she’d reconnected with after the battle.

The text read: Here are the pics from last night. but something must be wrong with my camera. check it out.

The phone beeped as a few photos came in. They were pictures Gwen had taken when they were just messing around at the diner the night before. There was Uncle Kevin in his apron, smiling. A picture of Gwen that Maddy had taken. And then Maddy saw what Gwen was talking about in her text. In all the pictures of Maddy, there was a strange blue light glowing around her.

Maddy zoomed in on the photos and focused on the glow. It was somehow very familiar. Why wasn’t the light around Gwen or Uncle Kevin in the pictures?