He opened his eyes and looked out at a sideways world. The lights of the Immortal City twinkled all around. The moon, pale and bloated, had begun to rise. He must be on a rooftop. Then he realized he was not alone. The presence of the demon surrounded him. He could feel the heat of its horrific body and make out its shimmering presence.
It was only then that he noticed the other figure standing silhouetted against the moon, framed by the enormous rising disk. The figure stepped forward into the light and smiled.
“You . . .” Jacks murmured in disbelief.
“Yes,” the figure said. “Me.”
• • •
Maddy paced back and forth in the claustrophobic elevator car, listening to her pounding heart and the mechanical whir of her seventy-three-story ascent. The mirrored walls created endless reflections of her. She looked around at all the Maddys staring back. Their hair matted, their faces lined with fear and determination, pain and guilt. Jacks’s Divine Ring dangled near her heart. She hit the palm of her hand against the gleaming steel of the compartment’s wall.
“Come on, come on!”
Trapped in the elevator, there was nothing to do but face her racing thoughts. No matter who, or what, was up there, they wanted Jacks mortal and dead. She made her decision. It really wasn’t a hard choice at all. She would offer herself. Her life in exchange for his. Instead of making Jackson mortal, she would offer them a mortal life. On some strange level, it seemed to make sense . . . She had never imagined the end coming this way, and this soon, but she was surprised to find she was okay with it. Really, what else was there for her?
She was kidding herself if she thought she could go back to her old life of high school and Kevin’s Diner. Not with the knowledge of what really happened to her parents, who she really was. Yet there was no going forward, either. To the Angels she was a perversion of nature, a revolting half breed, and to everyone else she was a now-infamous tabloid joke. It was a bitter truth to face: she could never be accepted by anyone. Maybe she really was an abomination. If the world was better off without her, at least she could cause some good with her death.
Without warning the whir of the elevator quieted. Maddy’s stomach leapt into her throat as the car slowed and came to a stop. The floor numbers paused at 60 and the doors slid open. Maddy punched the button for 73 again and again, but the car didn’t move, and the button would no longer light up. The elevator chimed and the doors began to close. The top floors must be restricted, she thought in a panic. It’s going to take me back down to the lobby. With a gasp Maddy leapt forward and slid between the doors just as they clamped shut.
The hallway she found herself in was dark, cool, and quiet. Motion- sensor security lights blinked on with her presence. Her eyes searched wildly for a stairwell door as precious seconds ticked by. Nothing but drab, unmarked office doors. She bounded down the hall and around the corner. More office doors, but at the end of the corridor she saw the green glow of an exit sign. She sprinted toward it and threw her shoulder into the door, nearly falling into the dark stairwell. Then she steadied herself with the handrail and began to climb.
• • •
The burning pain was everywhere, indescribable. The demon was engulfing him, smothering him in flaming arms. Jacks screamed as he felt his wings emerge from his back and catch fire. The licking black flames left no burns. The fire wasn’t consuming his body. It was consuming his immortality. It was literally eating the Angel inside him. The pain was like glass coursing through his veins.
The beast threw him back down on the roof. He crumpled against the concrete, helpless. He could suddenly feel his mortal body. It felt feeble. Breakable. Even the ground underneath him was all of a sudden hard and uncomfortable. He watched as the figure approached, eyes dark and pitiless.
“What’s the matter, Jacks, aren’t you going to resist? Aren’t you going to fight back?” Jacks said nothing.
“You surprise me, Jackson. I thought you had more in you, but, I guess, well . . .”
The fist smashed into Jacks’s face, sending his head violently against the ground. Something wet dripped from his nose. Then he felt the kick of a boot up under his rib, snapping it. He cried out. He couldn’t help it. He had never felt his body break.
“The great Jackson Godspeed.” The figure laughed. “Look at him now.”
Jacks’s eyes grew distant as he was beaten. His mind left this place, left this rooftop, and went to the only place he wanted to be. With her. He imagined they really had gotten out on that train. He imagined they had escaped. He thought about sitting next to her, watching Angel City slip away outside the window. He would have joked about getting used to life without his Ferrari, and she would have rolled her eyes and given him a hard time. In the end she would just look into his eyes like she always did. She would look into his eyes and only see him. Not the famous celebrity, just him.
White-hot agony finally broke through the fantasy. His head was being pushed into the concrete again and again. Blood streamed from his mangled lips. He let the pain flow freely though him now. Welcomed it. Yearned for it. It wouldn’t be much longer now. The end would come soon.
He was pulled onto his knees, and the figure stood over him, a brutal grin on his face.
“Don’t worry,” the voice said. “Despite your really pathetic performance tonight, I’ll still make sure your wings get to your star.” Jackson looked up through blurred eyes and saw a vicious-looking knife. The ten-inch blade glinted in the moonlight.
• • •
Maddy sprinted up the stairs as fast as her feet could move, her sneakers skipping up the concrete steps. Adrenaline rushed into her veins as she saw a pale shaft of moonlight filtering down from up ahead. She was close. Finally, she saw a door at the top of the stairwell with a sign that warned ROOF ACCESS. CAUTION: HELIPAD. No time to think now. No time to imagine what might be waiting for her on the other side of the door. She reached for the door handle and exploded out onto the rooftop.
She saw the moon, pale and huge as it rose behind the tower. Then her eyes adjusted, and she saw Jacks. He was on his knees, as if praying or kneeling before an altar. What was left of his clothes hung in tatters around his shattered body, and his wings were draped limply across his back. Their beautiful blue luminescence had almost totally faded to nothing.
“Jackson!” she screamed.
He didn’t move. He didn’t even seem to hear her. The Jacks she knew had gone out of him. Then she saw the shadowy figure standing over him. As she watched, the figure turned and looked at her.
Maddy was so shocked it took her several seconds to speak.
“Ethan?” she finally gasped uncomprehendingly.
Ethan straightened, and the cast of the moonlight fell fully on his face. He was wearing his usual ripped jeans, and his sandy hair whipped in the wind. Maddy’s mind reeled. The puzzle pieces refused to fall into place. She couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing.