Immortal City

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.