Natural Born Angel (Immortal City 2)

Emily burst into laughter, but then cut it short as the instructor gave her a sharp glance.

Maddy blundered and fumbled her way through her first agility flying class; she soon found out the floor, ceiling, walls and obstacles were made of very soft foam as she crashed, miscalculated, and generally looked like a fool out there. Her wings, which had felt kind of OK the night before, now seemed not to want to listen to orders as she tried to make turns and quick changes in elevation to fly between a gap or through the hanging hoops.

Luckily, Emily had to leave for a class pretty soon after Maddy started training, so she didn’t have the glare of the Australian Angel beating down on her every mistake the whole time – just the stern face of the instructor, who may have looked pitiless, but who actually had some encouraging things to say to Maddy. But also, to her embarrassment, she’d seen that Professor Archangel Archson had walked into the room and was watching how things were going from the back of the space; Susan had seen how clumsy Maddy had been.

As Maddy stood, out of breath from the exertion, looking at the course before trying one more time, she thought of Kreuz’s snide comment about her flying ability. I will master this, she vowed.

Leaning forward on the balls of her feet, looking left then right to check the width of her wings, Maddy was about to start the course again when the instructor put a hand on her shoulder.

“Maybe that’s enough for today,” he said, giving her his first smile of the day. “You’ve made a lot of progress, yes?”

“I can go one more time . . . but if you insist,” Maddy said, secretly grateful she could take a break.

As she walked towards the exit, she was met by Professor Archson. Maddy’s face turned red for the thousandth time that day.

“I was terrible,” Maddy blurted out miserably.

A look of compassion passed across Susan’s beautiful face. “You were great, Maddy. For your first day, you were wonderful,” Susan said, smiling warmly. “But— ”

“But?” Maddy’s stomach plummeted further.

“But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t use a little help. Angels, we’re born with wings. But you need to learn to fly, just like humans do in planes. It’s not totally natural for you, and I think it will take you a lot of practice.” Maddy’s professor looked at her. “And maybe some training.” Professor Archson took her smartphone out and pulled up a contact. “I’m going to email you the contact info for a pilot I know,” she said, fingers flying. “His name is Thomas Cooper. He’s very talented. He might be able to help your technique.”

“OK,” Maddy said, feeling defeated and wondering how a human pilot could do anything to help her fly as an Angel. But she guessed if her teacher was suggesting it, she might as well try it.

“Good. I’ll tell him to expect your call,” Professor Archson said, smiling. She put a friendly hand on Maddy’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, it will get better.”

Once outside the training facility, the warmth of the afternoon sun penetrating her skin, Maddy started rubbing all her sore spots – she’d taken a beating in there. But she’d kept it up. She craned her face towards the sun, closing her eyes behind her sunglasses, letting the rays of California sun soak in.

She checked her email on her phone and saw that Gwen had sent her a link on SaveTube through her college email account.

“Can you believe this???” Gwen had written.

Maddy watched the clip on her phone: it was breakneck HD Angelcam footage of a female Angel Maddy had never met bursting through the cab of a Porsche Cayenne and pulling a girl to safety just as the SUV tumbled over a freeway median into the path of a semi truck. Maddy watched the footage again – it already had a million hits – thinking about her lame showing in agility flying training and wondering how she would ever be able to do something like that.

“Maddy?”

The voice startled her. She opened her eyes and turned.

It was Mitch, Jackson’s best friend, stockier and more square-faced than Jacks. If he’d been a bit cool towards Maddy when they first met, that had been forever wiped away when she saw him help attack the demon on the library tower. Among this year’s class of nominees, only Mitch was friendly towards her.

“I heard about your wings. That’s pretty cool. How’d it go in there?” he said, motioning towards the massive white hangar behind her.

“Oh, you know . . . pretty good,” Maddy said, trying not to let the truth colour her voice, but it quavered a bit.

Mitch clapped a big hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sure you did great. Everybody has to start out somewhere. Plus, don’t worry, you have Jacks to give you some tips. Has he ever shown you his awards?”

“Awards?”

Mitch laughed. “He always is try

ing to be all modest. But he’s got a cupboard full of awards and citations somewhere, best flying this, best flying that. He has, like, five records in the agility course, and almost all of them in the speed course. A lot of instructors said he might be the best flyer they’ve ever seen.”

“Oh,” Maddy said, nodding slowly. “I don’t think I really knew that.” She thought of the doctors, specialists, everyone working to repair his wings. And the lack of progress.

“You and Jacks coming to the Angels Weekly party next Thursday? It’s the biggest event before Commissioning. Everyone’s going to be there. Maybe even Vivian – I know how much you miss her!” Mitch said, grinning. “But, seriously, you guys should come.”