Immortal City

mirror. At this point, she nearly despised that face.

“You’re such a coward, Maddy,” she mumbled as she turned on the faucet and splashed some water on her face. If she was being honest with herself, though, she knew it had nothing to do with courage. Or even with Ethan. She grabbed a hand towel and dried off. Her heart was still pounding, and she rubbed a hand on her chest to calm it.

She had made a promise to herself — a promise to start fresh.

Her fingers inched up and touched her mother’s necklace.

The past was the past. She looked at herself again with re-newed determination. “You can do this, Maddy,” she whispered. She switched off the light and headed out.

The house was large and easy to get turned around in, and soon Maddy was sure she was lost. She went down a long, bare hallway and ended up at the back of the house, facing two doors she thought were probably bedrooms.

Great, she thought, and was just turning around when something caught her eye. The door on her right stood slightly ajar, and inside, she could just make out something in the middle of the floor.

“Hello?” she asked.

No response. Her curiosity piqued, she went to the door and pushed it open a little farther. It was a bedroom, but clearly not the master. Maybe it was a guest room. A cardboard moving box sat in the center of the floor. The box was open, and she could just make out the glint of light off a stack of picture frames.

So that’s where all the pictures are, she thought, a little amused. She stepped inside the room and went to the box.

The photos were crowded together and stacked on top of each other. Maddy picked one up. It was a picture of a man in his early forties, standing with a young boy who looked like Ethan. The man must be Ethan’s father, she thought. They were in a backyard, next to a smoking barbe-cue. The man had a spatula in his hand. Maddy picked up another picture. A slightly older Ethan playing football with his dad at the beach. She fingered through the rest of the photos. They were all of Ethan and his father, until she reached the last frame, which was blank.

“Maddy?” a questioning voice asked from just over her shoulder. Maddy nearly shrieked as she swiveled and saw Ethan standing right behind her. He looked down at the photo in her hand.

“You scared me, I—” Maddy could feel the hot blood rushing into her cheeks. She had been snooping around and got caught. “I got lost coming back from the bathroom and thought you might be in here. Then I saw the pictures. .

I’m really sorry.” She had started to put the picture back in the box when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Here,” Ethan said, reaching forward. He didn’t seem angry or upset at all. Maddy turned slowly to face him and handed him the picture. His eyes grew distant as he looked at it. A sad smile passed across his face as though he were witnessing a fleeting memory. Finally, he spoke.

“My dad.”

Maddy nodded, understanding.

“He’s not—” Ethan broke off when his voice shook.

“He’s not with us anymore.”

“I’m so sorry.” Maddy didn’t know what else to say.

“It still just gets to me sometimes. Especially when I think about how he died.”

Maddy’s heart thudded in her chest. She felt terrible.

“Ethan, I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” he said. Maddy watched him as he ran a finger over the picture. She didn’t dare speak.

“There was time to save them both, Maddy,” he said.

“It would have been easy. It’s effortless for them, you know.

But my father, well—” He looked up from the photo and met Maddy’s gaze. His eyes were full of unshed tears. “He didn’t have coverage.”

Maddy’s heart was in her throat. She ached with sym-pathy. No wonder Ethan disliked the Angels. It was a wonder he wasn’t as aggressively anti-Angel as Tyler. Ethan set the photo back in the box along with the others.

“That’s what they told my mother. That’s what they told us both.” He gestured around them at the empty house.

“No amount of insurance money can buy my dad back. They could have saved him, but they didn’t.”

Maddy thought about their conversation in the stairwell at school, and at the diner before that. She thought about what Ethan must have read about her online. And how he had supported her and been a friend to her anyway.

Almost without being aware of it, Maddy took a step toward him.

“Ethan. .” Her voice was almost a whisper. “I’m so sorry.” She placed a hand on his chest and felt his heart pounding furiously under his shirt. They were face-to-face again, inches apart now.

“I’m glad you told me about him.”

Ethan swiped at his eyes with his hand and let out a pent-up breath. He looked down at his feet. “I really know how to set the mood, don’t I?” he said, smiling. “Going on about dead people. Real smooth.” He laughed, but it was shaky.

Maddy smiled and looked into his eyes. She felt his hand on the small of her back and let him pull her close.

She held his gaze. For the third time, it was as if his eyes were asking a question. This time, she nodded. Letting her mind go blank, she tilted her mouth up toward him and closed her eyes.

She needed this. She wanted this. She felt his breath on her cheeks and then, ever so gently, the brush of his lips.

It happened in that instant. An image exploding in the blackness of her mind so vivid and clear it could not have come from her thoughts.

It was Jacks’s face.

Suddenly, it was as if Jacks was there in the room with her. She could touch him. Smell him. Feel his presence.

Maddy pulled herself away from Ethan.

“I’m so sorry, Ethan. . I can’t do this,” she gasped, her face twisted and confused. She ran out of the room and rushed down the hallway blindly, fighting tears, Jacks’s presence still lingering in her ears, in her nose, and on her tongue. She could hear Ethan’s footsteps behind her after a moment, hustling to catch up.

“Maddy, wait!” he called after her.

She found the living room and pushed through the crowd. People glared at her as she shoved past, but she didn’t care. She needed to get out of the party before anything else happened, before she embarrassed herself any further. She reached the front door and fumbled with the knob.

“Wait, Maddy, I’m sorry, did I do something?” Ethan panted, finally catching up to her. “You don’t have to go!”

“Yes, I do,” she said as she threw the door open. “It’s not your fault, Ethan, I just need to go.” She grabbed her hoodie off the rack and stuck her arms in the sleeves.

Ethan sighed. “Okay, if you say so. I’m really sorry if I rushed things. At least let me drive you home? It’s getting dark out.”

“No, honestly, it’s all right,” she said, zipping up her sweatshirt. “Besides, you can’t leave your own party.

“Bro, she’s right,” a drunk voice called. “You can’t leave your own parrrry!”

It was Simon again. He came over and threw his arm sloppily around Ethan’s shoulders. “We’ll drive the famous Maddy Montgomery home, right, Jordan?”

The boy with the buzz cut sat up from where he had passed out on the couch.

“What? No!” Maddy said, alarmed. “I’m going to walk.”

“No no no, we totally got you,” Jordan slurred.