She looked at him uncertainly. “Does it have to be, Jacks?”
“Maddy, under the GAC ban, if you or I even flew right now, we could be taken by the police or military. Technically if we even had our wings out. Do you understand what that means? We can’t be Angels. This is about Angel rights.”
Jacks paced again, then stopped by Maddy’s side.
“I came here for one reason and one reason only. To get you. I cut a deal. For you, Maddy. So you could stay with us. I can guarantee your safety. Amnesty with the Angels. The unsanctioned save forgotten.”
Maddy was stunned. It took her a moment before she could find herself, but her response was sharp. “No one asked you to do that!”
“I knew you wouldn’t. So I had to do it myself, I. . .” Jacks trailed off, leaning forward and putting his hand on the guardrail. Maddy came closer to Jacks. His energy, which she always felt so clearly, and which was normally so calm to her, was abrupt, scattered. She reached a light hand towards his muscular shoulder to calm the pain.
He turned at her touch, and before they knew it they were kissing, his lips smashing against hers in the overwhelming moment. Jacks locked Maddy in his strong arms and she pulled up against him, running her hand behind his neck.
She pulled back. “No, Jacks, I. . .”
Jacks looked at her incredulously. “What’s wrong, Maddy?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” She ran the back of her hand across her lips. “Nothing’s wrong, Jacks. I just need to think. It’s hard to when we’re doing . . . that.”
“Maddy, I’m offering you a chance to be saved. To be safe with us. You have no idea what could happen,” Jackson said darkly. “This is your chance.”
She looked at the Angel she had loved for a year, his perfect features contorted with anguish as he looked down on her.
“A line has been drawn in the sand, Maddy. You belong on our side,” he said. “There have been problems, but we can fix them. Together, Maddy. The Council and the Archangels are willing to do that. But humans are greedy, impatient, jealous. You belong on the side of good. On the side of Angels.”
“But, Jacks . . . I don’t know what side I’m on,” Maddy said with doubt.
“Maddy, you swore to uphold the ideals of being a Guardian. You made an oath. Don’t forget that!”
“But am I really an Angel? Or just an ‘abomination’?”
She turned away, watching as a calico cat surreptitiously dashed across the empty street, its paws barely touching the asphalt.
Jacks walked towards Maddy, tiny pebbles crunching under his feet. He took her face in his hands. “Maddy, you are the best Angel I’ve ever seen. I watched the footage of your save. The skill there. There’s no doubt in my mind: you have more Angel skill than they could ever imagine.
“Don’t you see? Doesn’t the Angel in you see? We can bring Angels to a new era – there must be reforms. But you’re an Angel. They’ll turn against you, the humans. You’re too much of an Angel now.”
“How do you know you’re right, Jacks?” Maddy pulled away again, studying the grooves in the asphalt at her feet. “I finally realized what becoming a Guardian made me. What I had become. You tried to warn me, but I couldn’t hear you. The whole time I thought I was somehow keeping true to my purpose, but I was getting further away. And I would have let her die for a fashion line and the cover of Angels Weekly.” Maddy turned her face up to Jacks. It was a bitter mask of anger and regret.
“I don’t love you because you’re an Angel!” Jacks said. “I love you because you’re Maddy. But you are an Angel now. It’s no longer a choice. It’s a fact.”
He took Maddy’s hands in his, and she felt the jolt of electricity, the same she had felt the first night they met, in the back of the diner.
“What would I have to do?” Maddy asked.
“Come over to our side, in support of the Angels.” Jackson squeezed her hands in his. “I know it’s difficult, almost unthinkable. But you have to make a decision: do you stand with us or the mortals?”
Jackson was so close as he looked down at her, their hands clasped, that she could feel his intoxicating breath on her. His face was expectant. Waiting for an answer.
“I don’t know, Jacks,” Maddy finally said, breaking away. “I need to think . . . it’s just . . . I need to think.”
“We have only days, maybe only hours.”
Maddy knew it was true. She nodded.
“I need until tomorrow morning. Can you give me until then?”
After sneaking back home – this time through the back door of the diner – Maddy went directly upstairs and shut herself in her room. She saw she had a missed call from Tom, but she just had to ignore it for the time being. Maybe for ever.