by Scott Speer
When she caught a glimpse of him again, Mitch was pulling him away toward their waiting car. Jacks’s face was still shell-shocked. Expressionless. Blank.
Maddy yelled his name over and over, but Jacks was gone. All that was left was an ocean of strangers screaming and reaching for her. Her head snapped back as a hand behind her yanked at her hair.
“I want a picture!” a little girl demanded.
Maddy turned and ran.
She pounded out the tunnel and into the now-empty lobby. Behind her she could hear dozens of feet and glanced over her shoulder to see a literal crowd of people running behind her.
“Wait! We’re your fans!” a middle-aged woman yelled. “Will you sign my T-shirt?!”
Maddy didn’t dare look back again. She pelted out the front entrance and saw Kevin already there, idling at the curb in their station wagon. Maddy said nothing as she tumbled into the passenger seat and closed the door on the horde of people. Kevin quickly put the car in gear and drove away from the station, wordless.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Maddy had thought she would never see her room again, and now here she sat on her bed, back as if nothing had happened at all. Her eyes stared unseeingly at the wall. She listened to the tick of her old alarm clock on the nightstand. If not for the throbbing in her back and the lingering headache, Maddy might have convinced herself she was dreaming and any moment she would wake, back at the train station. With Jacks.
The drive back had been silent, Kevin looking straight ahead at the traffic while she sat numb and bewildered in the passenger seat. At home she had gone straight upstairs. On her way through the living room she realized the house was much less damaged than she had imagined. It appeared only the windows and the front door had been destroyed beyond repair, along with some picture frames and dishes, and, of course, the old TV, which Maddy was kind of glad had finally been put out of its misery. Otherwise, the house was fine. Kevin must have cleaned up most of the mess in the morning, and some company had already been by to cover the window frames in plastic sheeting in preparation for new glass. In a day or two, the house would be back to the way it had always been. Normal.
Maddy wondered vaguely if that’s what would happen to her too. Kevin and Gwen and maybe even Ethan would clean up the emotional mess, and then the irreparable wounds, the memory of breaking Jacks’s heart at the station, would simply be covered in plastic until the damaged parts could be replaced. Time would do its job eroding the memories, dulling the sharp edges and fading the once-vibrant colors. And pretty soon she would be back to the way she had always been. Habitual, average, routine. It was a terrifying idea, she thought. Some wounds were meant to be remembered. Some scars should never disappear.
After an hour of sitting motionless on the bed, Maddy startled at a knock on the door. It was Kevin, in his plaid robe. He sat on the edge of the bed.
“I ordered a pizza. It’s downstairs if you want some.”
“I’m okay,” Maddy said.
“You did the right thing,” Kevin said after a moment. “I just want you to know that.”
“I do know that.”
He sighed and started to explain something about healing, but Maddy couldn’t focus on the words, and eventually she tuned him out. Her eyes drifted to her book bag on the floor. It was Saturday. Monday would she be expected to go to school like she had almost every morning of her life? She wondered if she really could just get up, work the morning shift, and then go to class like nothing had happened. Was she capable of that?
Suddenly something Kevin said caught her attention, breaking through the thickness of her thoughts.
“What?” Maddy said.
“I’m just saying, I know you think you’re in love with him, but—”
“I’m not in love with him,” Maddy said, quickly defensive. She saw him flinch at her tone and immediately wished she could take it back. He looked at her with helpless eyes, then shrugged.
“Well, like I said, pizza downstairs.” His parenting now done the best he knew how, Kevin got up and shuffled out the door.
His words hung meaningfully in the once-again silent room. In. Love. With. Him.
She knew it was true, despite her knee-jerk rejection to hearing the words out loud. She was in love with him. Could it be possible that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life?
Her gaze drifted around the room, looking for any distraction, any escape, and came to rest on her bedroom window. There to greet her, as always, was the sign. She thought about what Kevin had told her on that first morning of school. That their luck was going to change. He had been right, she reflected bitterly, he just didn’t realize it was going to change for the worse. That’s the funny thing, she thought. You always want things to get better, but you never know how good you already have it. Maddy certainly hadn’t. She hadn’t realized that she was happy, with an uncle who loved her, a loyal best friend, and a chance at a good life. It was more than a lot of people could say.
Before, she hadn’t ever hurt anyone, and she hadn’t known what it was like to care for someone and then have them taken away just as quickly. And she didn’t know anything of her own traumatic past. Would she truly be able to live with the knowledge of who her parents were and what really happened to them? If nothing else, there was some small, bittersweet satisfaction in knowing the truth now. Her hand reached up and felt for her mother’s necklace. When she touched it, she discovered something heavy hanging against her chest, near her heart. She pulled the necklace out from under her shirt.
There, dangling from her neck, was Jacks’s Divine Ring.
For a moment she just stared at it in numb disbelief. In everything that happened, she had completely forgotten about it. She held the ring in her hand and inspected its exquisite beauty. She watched the way the light reflected onto her palm and how when she turned the ring, those reflections danced. It was the only thing he had ever wanted, and he had given it to her. Seconds ticked by while she fought to keep her fracturing emotions together. Was she feeling sadness? Yes. But was it also regret? And despair?
Maddy made a decision. He deserved to know. Although she could never be with him, and even though she would never see him again, he deserved to know the truth about how she felt. After what she had done at the station, she owed him that much. Getting up, she rummaged through her dirty jeans on the floor until she found her old flip phone. She turned it on, navigated to the recent call log, and dialed Gwen’s number.
The phone rang three times, then picked up.
“Maddy?” Gwen asked skeptically. Her familiar voice caused Maddy’s throat to tighten.
“Hey,” Maddy got out.
“OMG! Where are you?”
“I’m back home. Gwen, I have a favor to ask.”
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line.
“Yeah, anything. What do you need?”
Maddy looked at the Divine Ring in her hand.
“I need to drop off something. Do you think you could borrow your mom’s car and drive me?”
“I can’t,” Gwen said.
“Oh,” Maddy said, her heart sinking, “okay, then—”
“But I can drive you and then return it before my mom finds out, how about that?”
Maddy smiled in relief.
“That sounds perfect. Can you wait down the street?” She didn’t know if Kevin would let her go, so she wasn’t going to take any chances.
“No prob,” Gwen said. “I’ll come right now.”
Maddy flipped the phone shut. She dropped the necklace and the Divine Ring back under her shirt and felt the ring thump lightly against her chest.
Rifling around in her drawers, she found some old stationery and a pen. She thought only for a moment, then wrote:
Jacks, I’m sorry for being stubborn and impossible, and I’m so sorry for what happened. I know now that I am drawn toward you just as much as you are drawn toward me, and without you, I will always feel incomplete. I lied in the sta
tion, but I did it for a good reason. The truth is . . . I care about you very much. Please know that—and please never try to find me or contact me again.
—M
Fishing out a blank envelope from the desk, Maddy stuffed everything in her pocket. Then she stopped.
She didn’t know where he lived.
He had never taken her there, and she didn’t even know where to begin looking—beyond the assumption it was somewhere in the Angel City Hills. She paced back and forth for almost a minute before something occurred to her. She got down on her knees and looked under her bed. It was too dark to see, so she stuck her hand out and swept it back and forth across the carpet. Hair ties, old homework, her iPod box. Then her fingers curled around a folded crinkled pamphlet, and she pulled it out. Bingo. She threw her hoodie back on, stuffed the pamphlet in her pocket along with everything else, and slipped as quietly as she could out her bedroom window.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“We’re going where?” Gwen’s tone was incredulous as she drove. She had just picked up Maddy in her mom’s blue Volvo, greeting Maddy with a crushing BFF hug. She was wearing a Team Maddy shirt that she had perfectly distressed to match her denim skirt and high-heel sandals.
“Relax,” Maddy said, “I know how to get there.”
“Oh, really? And how’s that?”
Maddy produced the crinkled, dusty Angel map from her back pocket, the one Gwen had bought last summer that had almost gotten them both grounded.
“This thing really works, right?” They took the turn onto Outpost Road from Franklin and wound their way up into the Angel City Hills.
“And how did you even know about those shirts anyway?” Maddy asked, looking again at Gwen’s outfit.
“Duh!” Gwen chirped. “You tweeted about it.”
“That’s not me, Gwen.” Maddy groaned. “It’s someone pretending to be me.”
“Really? OMG, you have, like, impersonators? That is so cool!”
As Gwen navigated with the map, Maddy took out the envelope and placed the note in it. She unclasped her mom’s necklace from around her neck and slid the heavy ring off it.
“Is that a Divine Ring?” Gwen gasped in disbelief.
“I’m returning it,” Maddy said, dropping the ring in the envelope. “I’m just going to leave it at the front gate.” Gwen looked like she might hyperventilate, but seeing Maddy’s expression, she did her best to stifle her excitement and nodded solemnly. Maddy turned the envelope over and wrote JACKS on it.
They had nearly reached the top of the hill when a tall, ivy-covered fence came into view. Beyond it, Maddy could just see the spires of a breathtaking mansion. The fence ran almost a full block before a gated drive appeared. Gwen looked at the map, then squinted out the windshield.
“I think we’re here.”
They parked, and Gwen cut the engine. Being so close to Jacks again, Maddy was surprised she didn’t feel the painful emotions she was expecting. She still sensed the despair and the regret, the pain of what had happened, but these were crowded out by an altogether different, new emotion. She was uneasy. She had expected to find the street full of people by now, swarms of paparazzi and live television reports, a grand homecoming for the prodigal son. Instead, the street was empty, almost eerily so. Had Darcy forgotten to tip off the media that Jacks was coming home? It was possible, but still, it bothered Maddy.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Gwen asked. Maddy shook off her anxiety.
“That would be great, thanks.”
Getting out of the car, they walked toward the looming gate. It was quiet. Maddy reached the mailbox and discovered it was locked. She should have figured that. What now? She looked at the gate, not really expecting to find any solution there, and paused. She stared. The gate had been left open. Maddy’s intuition flickered again. Why would the gate be open? Someone could have forgotten to close it, but that was silly. She was sure Jacks’s family had a staff that monitored the grounds.
Maddy walked toward the gap between the ironwork doors and peered through it. It must have been left open on purpose, she thought. But why would you leave a security gate open? The answer came quickly: so someone could get in.
“Just leave it inside the gate, Maddy, and let’s go.”
Maddy looked at the envelope in her hands.
“I’m sorry, Jacks,” she whispered. “Goodbye.”
That’s when she heard the scream.
It echoed down the long drive and seemed to die just inside the gate. Had she not been standing so close, she was sure she wouldn’t have heard it at all. It was a woman’s scream, one of sorrow, not of pain. A wretched sound that sent a shiver down Maddy’s spine.
“Did you hear that?” Gwen asked, startled.
Maddy hesitated only a moment before squeezing through the gate and motioning to Gwen.
“Come on,” she whispered. “Follow me, and stay quiet.”
They stayed low against the wall of the driveway and crept noiselessly up the curving drive.
“Wait,” Maddy whispered, and pulled Jacks’s Divine Ring out of the envelope and threaded it back around her neck for safekeeping. They moved forward, and the spectacular estate came into view, nestled in immaculately manicured gardens.
“OMG, his house is amazing, right?” Gwen whispered behind her.
“Shhh!” Maddy hissed. She stopped where the wall was just high enough to conceal them and looked at the house. Jacks’s Ferrari was in the driveway, but there were also three black Escalades with tinted windows parked in front of the house. They stood, ominous. The front door to the house had been left open. She could hear an argument coming from somewhere inside.
“I need to get closer,” Maddy whispered. Scrambling forward, she ducked down behind a circular fountain next to the SUVs that sat directly in front of the house. Maddy could make out the words of the argument now. She flinched at their hostility, their agony.
“It was the only way to bring him in quietly,” a deep, authoritative voice barked.
“He’s your son! You promised! Do something!” It was the woman again, her voice jagged like broken glass.
“I’m just doing my duty, Kris,” the deep voice retorted.
Maddy felt her heart twist. Kris. Jacks’s mother. Then someone was coming out of the house, or being led out of the house. Maddy froze.
It was Jacks. Four broad-shouldered men in black suits led him. They had chiseled, flawless faces. Not men. These were Angels. One of them had his hand on Jacks’s shoulder. Another turned to say something over his shoulder, and Maddy saw a split tailored into the back of his jacket. For wings. Angel Police, Maddy thought. Her heart sank.
It had all been a lie. Kevin couldn’t have known, or Jacks’s mom, but they all three had been fooled by it. The “deal” must have been nothing more than a trick to get Jacks to turn himself in so he could be quietly dealt with. No big Angel battle with the whole world watching. No black mark against the Immortals. No scandal. Sylvester had been right, Maddy thought. The Archangels were willing to do whatever it took to protect themselves.
And she had helped them. She had delivered Jacks.
They were walking in her direction now, headed toward the waiting SUVs. Jacks’s face was expressionless. His eyes had turned colorless and gray. His arms hung limply at his side.
“Fight,” Maddy whispered furiously. “Dammit, Jacks, fight.”
But he didn’t. He let them take him. His face was the same blank mask she had seen at the station. Maddy fought back a paralyzing despair. She had taken the fight out of him. Once again, everything was her fault.
Maddy focused all her energy on overcoming the paralysis. She had to think. Because she had to do something. She watched carefully as they loaded Jacks into the middle vehicle, and made a note of which seat, which side. All three Escalades started up and began to move. Already leaving.
A new commotion erupted from the house. Maddy’s eyes darted over. A middle-aged woman was struggling against he
r husband and another Angel in a suit. She was trying to leave the house. If she hadn’t been screaming with her hair tangled in her face, she would be strikingly beautiful. Regal, even. It had to be Kris Godspeed. Behind her, in the hall, Chloe stood helpless and crying, her face wrought with grief.
Suddenly, as Maddy watched, Kris’s wild eyes darted in her direction.
Maddy froze. She watched recognition dawn on Kris’s face. She knew Maddy was there, crouching behind the fountain, and she knew who she was. Maddy fought the urge to turn and run. Would Kris give her away? Sic the Angels on her? Instead, something flickered in Kris’s eyes. An unspoken message. Some understanding had just passed between them, but in the adrenaline-fueled rush of the moment, Maddy wasn’t sure just what.
Kris pulled hard against the two Angels holding her and, with a small cry, sent all three of them slamming into the wall just inside the foyer. Maddy heard the unmistakable sound of keys dropping to the floor as the three Angels collapsed to the ground in a chaotic tumble. Kris’s eyes narrowed in concentration. Her free leg kicked. The keys, which she had knocked off the wall next to her, jingled across the tile and came to rest in the open doorway.
Maddy didn’t think. She didn’t have time. She leapt to her feet and ran toward the front of the house. She heard Gwen yell behind her, but the rushing wind and pounding of her heart drowned out the words. She hit the doorway at a full sprint, more running into it than stopping, and flattened her body against the outside wall. Kris had done enough flailing to keep her captors occupied. Maddy slid down onto her knees, reached her arm out into the doorway, and grabbed the keys. The ignition key with a prancing horse on the yellow shield looked right at her.
Kris’s eyes shot over and fixed Maddy with a meaningful gaze.
Go.
In an instant Maddy was on her feet again and sprinting toward the Ferrari. She fumbled with the smart key while she ran, finding the unlock button. The Ferrari chirped to life. She hazarded a quick look down the driveway. The SUVs were already turning out the gate. In another moment, they would be gone. She saw Gwen running out from behind the wall. She must have seen Maddy’s frantic dash for the keys. Gwen reached the car first, jumping into the driver’s seat just as Maddy arrived.
