Immortal City

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Crickets chirped steadily in the grass. Palm trees stood motionless, watching.

“Here?” Jacks asked, looking at the slumbering Angel City High.

“Yes, here.” Maddy laughed. “I can’t imagine anyone would think to look for you at a public school.” Their feet squished in the wet grass as Maddy led Jacks around the classrooms to the side of the school. They came to the unmarked maintenance door, and Maddy slid Ethan’s key in the lock. Holding her breath, she turned it. She heard the click as the dead bolt retreated.

The hallway was dark and quiet. Homecoming posters hung sleepily from the walls. The only light came from a vending machine down the corridor, a soft red and blue fluorescent glow. She looked around and got her bearings.

“It’s this way,” she said.

Maddy ran her hand along the banks of lockers as they walked. She had strolled down this hallway a thousand times before, but now it was different, and it wasn’t just the dark. Everything had changed. She came to her locker and paused. She thought about herself at that locker just days ago. That simple, comfortable life she’d known for so long.

One day you return to your normal surroundings and everything just feels different, she thought. Except the surroundings aren’t different. You are.

“What is it?” Jacks asked.

“It’s nothing,” Maddy said. In truth, it was everything, because she had just realized nothing would ever be the same again. The lockers and the scuffed linoleum and Gwen gossiping about the Angels, it all seemed irretrievably gone now. Even if things did somehow go back to normal, there’d be no forgetting the truth of her parents’ identities or their horrible deaths. There was no escaping it. Whether she was ready for it or not, her childhood was, officially, over.

“It’s not much farther,” Maddy said, and started to walk again.

Then she froze.

She could hear a voice. It was coming from down the hall, from inside one of the rooms. Her eyes darted to Jacks.

He was already listening intently.

“We should go,” Jacks said, his voice low.

“Wait,” Maddy said, and listened again. She recognized the voice. It was a girl, a girl she knew. The voice gave her a strange, sinking feeling she couldn’t place. Who could possibly be there with them? And at this time of night? She gave Jacks a look, then crept forward, staying close to the wall. Up ahead a faint light filtered out through the frosted window of the teachers’ lounge. With her heart galloping in her chest, she noiselessly turned the handle and cracked open the door.

The room was empty. There were a few half-drunk mugs of coffee still sitting on the table. And a glowing TV

left on in the corner. Someone must have forgotten to turn it off. Maddy registered the face on the screen.

It was Vivian Holycross. She was radiant in a silver sheer Alexander McQueen dress as she sat on a couch across from the irrepressible Tara Reeves. It was an ANN exclusive interview. Even though a tear streamed down her cheek, it was a perfect tear. Hair and makeup had done a great job making her look sufficiently distraught.

“It’s a big misunderstanding,” Vivian said, taking a tissue she was offered from Tara and wiping her eye. The scrawl on the bottom of the screen stated “ANGELHUNT on for suspected serial murderer Jackson Godspeed. ”

“Would you like to say something to Jacks, if he happens to be watching?” Tara asked. Vivian sniffed.

“Come home, Jacks, and we’ll get this all worked out.”

Even crying, she looked amazing. Maddy watched the screen, and jealousy twisted through her. She had almost gotten used to the tempting idea of Jacks’s affection. Vivian’s perfect image was an icy reality check. How could she ever compete? She, an abomination. How could she have ever let herself think Jacks would truly have feelings for her when he had Vivian to come home to?

Jacks gazed at Maddy, seeming to guess what she was thinking.

“Come on,” he said, walking to the television and punching a button. It turned off with a slight buzz. “I’m sure Vivian made a great appearance fee to do that.”

Maddy looked at him uncertainly.

“Before I collapse right here in the hall, why don’t you show me where we’re going?” Jacks said, leading her out of the room.

The faded mural painted on the side of the gymnasium depicted a muscled, red-and-white cartoon Angel dribbling a basketball under its wing. The banner read This Is WINGS Territory!

Maddy tugged on the handle. The door opened with a metallic clang. The gym was dark and cool and smelled of hardwood and cleaning solvent. Their footsteps echoed in the dark as they entered. Jacks walked forward and sat heavily on the floor. Maddy groped along the wall until she found a metal control panel and a row of switches. She threw the switches on one at a time, and slowly the gym lights started to glow. Jacks sat there in the half-light, his arms resting on his knees and his head bowed. Even for an Immortal he looked utterly exhausted. Maddy knew well enough the school was only a temporary solution, that on Monday teachers and students would be streaming into the halls again. But for now it would do — it simply had to. Jacks needed to rest. Even Maddy herself was too exhausted to think straight anymore. They could plan their next steps in the morning.

She found a stack of gymnastics mats in the corner and pulled the top one down. Awkwardly unfolding it, she dragged it to half-court.

“Come lie down,” she said.

He walked over and fell hard on the mat.

“Are you really going to be okay?” she asked.

“I will be, I just need some time,” he said wearily.

Maddy sat beside him and pulled her knees up to her chest. She listened to Jacks’s deep breathing. Vivian’s crying face still played in her mind.

“Can I ask you a question,” Maddy said finally, “if I promise not to be stubborn about it?”

“Sure,” he said.

“What you said on the rooftop,” she said, her voice small. “About being. . meant to be together. Was that really the truth? I mean, do you really believe that?”

Jacks looked at her. Maddy was very still, her eyes at her feet. “I just don’t understand. Why would you go through all this trouble when you have someone like her?”

She huffed in defeat. “I’m not blind, Jacks. She’s. .incredible.”

“Vivian?” Jacks asked. Maddy nodded.

Jacks studied her for a moment in that way he did, scrutinizing her, then lay down slowly on the mat and looked up at the lights.

“When I got home that night after you and I met, things were chaotic in my house. The police were there, my mom was crying, Mark was yelling, but my mind, Maddy, my mind kept returning to you. I couldn’t understand why. I went and sat on the deck outside my room and searched the city lights until I found your uncle’s diner. I watched the sign until it went off.”

Maddy’s expression had turned incredulous.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I don’t believe your room has its own deck.” She groaned.

Jacks laughed a little.

“I was thinking about our conversation. I didn’t even understand why. My mind just kept returning to that flash in your eyes, and what I had felt when we touched. I’d never felt anything like it before in my life. I had to see you again.

So. .” He paused, suddenly embarrassed. “The next day I did a little research and found out where you went to school.”

“I was wondering how you found me.” Maddy laughed.

“Angels have their ways,” he said, grinning. “I went, expecting you to be thrilled to see me, but you pushed me away. No one had ever done that to me before. It made me crazy — and only more determined. I went to your window that night, not knowing what I was doing there, almost unconscious. I just had to. Then you woke up, and we started talking. I told myself I was there because I just wanted to win, you know, I just wanted you to say you forgave me.

Then it would be over. But then after I took you flying, you pushed me away again.” He shook his head. “And every time you pushed me away, Maddy, it only made me more. . fascinated by you. More interested.”

“That’s hard to believe,” Maddy said. “Even I have to admit I was being impossible. I tried hinting so many times that I wanted to be left alone, but you didn’t even seem to notice. Or care.”

“You were dropping hints?”

“Sure. Girls do that. I guess you don’t have much experience in the rejection department, but every girl knows how to get rid of unwanted boys. I think it’s part of our DNA.”

“Ouch,” Jacks said in a mock grimace.

“You know what I mean,” Maddy said, and felt her cheeks flushing.

“You have to understand how predictable people are to me. Every day, everyone does whatever I say. They smile and say yes to everything I want. They’re either scared of me, or Angelstruck by me, or paid by me. So once I got over being furious about it, and I was furious — you get used to getting what you want from people all the time — I realized something. You were acting that way because you weren’t treating me like a celebrity. You were just treating me like anybody else.” He paused. “No one had ever seen me for me, Maddy, not Vivian, not anyone.”

Maddy shrugged. “I didn’t do it consciously. I’ve just never understood what the big deal was about Angels.”

“I know,” Jacks said, and laughed. “You’ve already made that point very clear to me.” He rolled on the mat, trying to get comfortable, and winced.

“Are you scared?”

Jacks’s open eyes looked up into the darkness of the gym’s roof. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Maddy sat up slightly. “Maybe we can just somehow find out who the real killer is and prove you’re innocent.

And I’ll explain I wasn’t kidnapped. They’d have to believe me. I’d make them. This could all go away.” Hope edged her voice.

“It wouldn’t work. There’s still the unsanctioned save.

They won’t stop. The NAS would come up with something else. They always do.”

“But it could be. . less bad somehow, if they knew part of the truth at least. You’re not a killer, Jacks.”

He silently nodded.

“Who could it be?” Maddy asked.

Jacks’s thoughts immediately cast back to the strange thing that Sierra Churchson had said to him at the party he had taken Maddy to—“can’t wait for your star.” And the way the twins had looked at him at the Commissioning, malice in their eyes. Was it more than just jealousy? The twins had always been a little intense. And then there was what Jacks had learned tonight about Mark’s past and the stained blazer that his mind wouldn’t let him forget. How could he trust Mark about anything? Something much bigger was going on, and Jacks’s brain tried to get hold of something, anything that would make things clear. But it eluded him.

“I don’t know, but does it really matter?” Jacks said, sighing. “For now the world thinks it’s me.”

“Vivian’s right, though,” Maddy said, unsure again.

“None of this is your fault. It’s mine.”

Jacks shook his head.

“No, it’s not. I went along with the decision to go see your uncle.”

“I mean everything,” Maddy said. “I shouldn’t have gone to Ethan’s party, I shouldn’t have said yes to that date with you, and I definitely shouldn’t have taken you into the back room with me at the diner.” She played with the drawstrings of her hoodie. “Every decision I’ve made has been wrong, and now look what’s happened.”

“Why did you go to Ethan’s party?” Jacks asked, his tone curious.

Maddy shrugged. “I only went because I was upset at you. I was trying to. . forget you.”

“Really?”

“Really. Girls do that too.”

“Well. He seems nice. Even if it kills me to admit that.”

Jacks rolled again, trying to get comfortable.

“Here,” Maddy said. She sat closer to him and leaned back on her elbows. “Rest your head on me.” She delicately placed a hand on the back of his neck and pulled his head against her shoulder.

Jacks’s head moved heavily from her shoulder to her chest. She could feel the weight of it as she inhaled. Maddy leaned back all the way and wrapped her arms around him, holding him against her. He lay there quietly, as if listening to her heartbeat. Neither spoke. Neither wanted to. After a few minutes, the heave of his chest quieted.

Maddy looked at his face against her chest, at the divine, flawless features that still took her breath away. She reached out and, with the tip of her finger, touched his forehead. Then, as if it were a healing instrument, she traced the finger along his skin, across his temple, and down the line of his jaw, feeling the stubble of his beard. Finally, she traced up his chin and brushed his lips.

Jacks’s eyes opened. He sat up and faced her, his wings expanding behind him, bathing the two of them in faint blue light. She watched him carefully and waited for him to stop her. He didn’t. She touched him again, this time on his arm. She traced her finger along his forearm, up past his bicep, to his shoulder. Then, after hesitating only a moment, she moved her finger delicately onto the ridge of his wing. Jacks let out a heavy sigh, and suddenly, faster than Maddy could see, his powerful hands were on her arms. The grip was almost painful.

He kissed her fully and deeply. She pressed herself in-to him. The electricity began to thud like a hammer between them, back and forth, growing. Their bodies entwined in the dusty light of the gym, at half-court, the empty bleachers their only witnesses. Maddy drew a gasp of pleasure as Jacks lifted her onto his lap. He wrapped his wings around her body and she wrapped her legs around his.

Then suddenly, he stopped.

“We can’t,” he said, pulling himself away from her.

“What’s wrong?” she said through gasps.

“It wouldn’t be right. Not here. Not like this,” he said.

Maddy’s heart was racing in her chest, her breathing quick and erratic. She had to concentrate on taking slow, controlled breaths before she could speak again.

“You don’t want to?” she said at last.

His eyes flashed.

“Of course I do. It’s just more complicated. . for us, Maddy. There’s a lot more to it.” Then softly, almost to himself, he murmured, “Or so I’ve been told.”

Maddy nodded, feeling the excitement begin to bleed out of her. She sat back on the mat, feeling suddenly cold and alone without his touch.

“I’ve never done anything like that,” she said with an embarrassed smile.

“Me neither,” Jacks said. He was thoughtful again. He looked down at his Divine Ring and ran his fingers over the sacred inscription. Then his eyes flickered back to Maddy.

“I want to give you something.” He slid the ring off his finger. “Up until this week, I’ve never wanted anything more in my life than to wear this ring. Not as a piece of jewelry, but because I thought I could find meaning in saving others, in being a hero. But the meaning I’ve finally found in my life is from meeting you.” He set the ring on the palm of his hand and held it out. “I want you to have it.”

Maddy looked at the ring. The light created a million tiny reflections that danced around his palm.

“I can’t take it,” she said, and closed his fingers back around it.

“I’m not asking,” he said.

He took Maddy’s hand and slid the ring onto her finger. It was stunning, but far too heavy for her to wear. She reached up to her neck and unclasped the simple chain necklace that hung there.

“This was my mother’s,” she said, taking the chain and threading the ring through it. “It’s one of the only things I have to remember her by.” She pulled the chain back around her neck and clasped it. The ring rested heavily in the basin of her chest, just below her collarbone. She looked into Jacks’s eyes.

“Will you explain it to me sometime?” Maddy asked in a quiet voice. “What else there is to it. For. . you.”

Jacks smiled. “I promise. Later.” He contracted his wings, wincing as he did.

“They’re sore,” he said.

“Come here,” Maddy said. She sat cross-legged and held out her arms. He laid his head on her lap.

She sat there holding his head, playing lightly with his hair with her fingers. In response he lifted a hand and ran it along her back.

“Doesn’t it feel strange?” he asked.

“Doesn’t what?”

“Not having wings.”

Maddy considered.

“I guess if you’ve never had them, you don’t miss them.”

Jacks smiled at her. “I guess.”

His breaths became slow and measured. After a minute, Maddy realized he was asleep. Even Angels have to sleep, she thought. Then, before she was even aware of it, her head had dipped, her eyelids closed, and she slept too.