by Scott Speer
“Now, I know a lot of you may have some personal opinions about the Immortals, especially right now. But today I am ordering you to check those opinions at the door. And I want you to remember that Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Godright is on our side, always has been. So put aside any prejudices and let her help us. We have to trust her. She might be our best hope.”
He turned to Maddy, gesturing for her to stand up.
“You can take it from here, Lieutenant Commander.”
“I, um . . .” Maddy scanned the eyes in the room, most of which eyed her back with distrust. She felt panicked, and was reminded of how she felt the first time she went to a red-carpet Angel event. All those expectant faces, not all of them friendly. Finally she spotted Tom, nodding reassuringly and mouthing, “You can do it.”
She took a breath, thinking about what Susan Archson had taught her about concentration and staying in the present moment whenever she felt nervous. Maddy looked around the room and met each mistrustful gaze with pure grace.
“I know a lot of you are wondering, What can this girl teach us? And you’d be right. I can’t teach you much. You’ve had years of military training, and I’m just an Angel. Well, a half-Angel, anyway. And to many of you I’m probably just a kid.” She paused to let her words sink in. “But I know about your recent losses. The friends who died fighting in the first wave.”
And of course, just when she needed to stay focused the most, she thought of Jackson, the Angel she’d just lost.
“I know what it’s like to lose someone you care about,” Maddy continued, avoiding Tom’s conflicted gaze. Did he know whom she was talking about? “I get it. You want revenge. But that’s what the demons want you to feel. So they can feed on your anger. They’re counting on you to make mistakes in your grief. And if we make too many mistakes, they’ll win. They want to sow chaos, evil, and hatred, to make their job even easier.
“We can’t let that happen. We all bear the pain of losing someone. But we can’t let that get to us. Because by that point, they’ll have already won.
“I know I’m not one of you, not really. I don’t know how to fly an F-Eighteen. I don’t know the difference between one missile and the next. But, like the captain said, I can tell when the demons are coming, and where they’ll be coming from. I don’t know the strategies and attack methods—that’s what all of you are here for. But I can help the forces coordinate so that we can attack them before they have a chance to attack us. All I want is to help.” Maddy paused and scanned the room, making sure to meet each pilot’s gaze and show that she was sincere. “And I hope you’ll let me.”
As Maddy sat down, she was met with a room full of approving nods, and a smiling Tom giving her a thumbs-up. Well, at least she hadn’t crashed and burned.
• • •
After the briefing, Tom and Maddy made their way belowdecks. Maddy felt the rush of adrenaline dissipating in her body after having faced, and survived, the group of skeptical pilots.
“You did great, Maddy,” Tom said. “You won them over.”
Maddy tried to smile confidently.
But she still felt uneasy. Everyone had so much faith in her, more than she had in herself. What if she didn’t see the demons before they came? What if this was all part of a big joke, dressing her up in this flight suit, giving her an important title, and then all of a sudden the demons attacked and she hadn’t even had a clue?
Maddy knew she was just caught in a spiral of negative thinking and she should focus only on the task at hand. But still, she couldn’t shake it.
As if he sensed that she doubted herself, Tom said, “Maddy, you have nothing to worry about. You’re amazing. And we’re all so grateful for your help. Don’t you realize what it means to have that extra edge of time? It’s crucial. It’s the difference between life and . . . between winning and losing.”
She nodded unconvincingly, her steps slowing as they neared the end of the narrow hallway of the ship where her cabin was.
Suddenly, as they reached her cabin door, she felt something in her stomach. It wasn’t exactly a premonition. But what was it? It stayed there, lodged in her belly. Her uneasiness grew, as the carrier lurched slightly sideways in the waves.
An unexpected flash crossed her mind. An image, like a garbled message. A dark wing blotting out the sun.
“What is it?” Tom said, studying Maddy’s face, which had lost its color and turned a pale, waxy hue.
“They’re coming,” Maddy said, breathless.
Suddenly the Klaxon of an alarm began ringing across the carrier.
Maddy cursed under her breath. What good was she?
“I’m too late!” she shouted over the alarm, desperate. She started running down the hall, then stopped and looked back at Tom.
Tom put his hand to his lips and pressed it toward Maddy. With tears in her eyes she grabbed the kiss and put it to her heart. Sailors were scrambling on all sides of them, and just like that they both disappeared into the chaos of the forces getting ready, Maddy running to the bridge and Tom sprinting to the pilot ready room. Maddy bounded up the metal stairs, her feet clanging as she swung her body around a corner, gripping onto the metal railing and taking them three steps at a time.
It was madness in the control room when she arrived. People shouting coordinates, running around, radios squawking.
“Where the hell have you been?” Captain Blake yelled. “You were supposed to see this coming!”
“I—I did!” Maddy spat out.
“But not in time. We’re caught with our pants down. We’ll be lucky if we can get one bird up in the air before they reach us!”
“I—” Maddy started.
“Just stay out of the way!” the captain angrily said as he reached for his radio and intercom microphone. “That’s the least you can do.”
The captain began screaming orders over the intercom, his officers dashing around madly. Up on the deck, Maddy saw Tom emerge from below. He ran toward his jet, holding his white helmet with one hand and fastening his flight suit with the other. Spouts of steam poured out of hydraulic lifts across the chaotic deck.
Maddy looked to the horizon but could see nothing. Yet the radar clearly showed a battle line moving toward them. It was only a matter of a minute or two.
How could she have failed so miserably already? Why did they ever send her here in the first place? Maddy wasn’t a soldier, no matter what the others said. And now she’d maybe made things even worse, because people thought they could count on her. Turned out they could only count on her to make a mess of things, she thought to herself miserably.
A deafening roar erupted as an F-18 fired off the deck of the aircraft carrier.
“At least we have one jet up,” the captain said. He grabbed the mic. “Get out there and raise some hell.”
Suddenly the line of demons on the radar shifted rapidly.
On the radio, one of the battleships started shouting. “They’ve come around on us! They’re flanking us from the south! Mayday! Mayday!”
“What the hell happened?” one of the radiomen yelled at Maddy.
“This is it! This is it!”
Drops of sweat formed on Maddy’s forehead as she looked out toward the horizon. Why couldn’t she get a read on them? With the first wave of demons, she’d been almost clubbed to the ground with her premonition. Had they figured out some way to avoid her?
A panicked voice crackled through the radio from a jet’s transmission. “Tower, we have bogies everywhere—everywhere! I can’t even count them. They’re all over my radar.”
“Hold. Hold. Hold!” the captain yelled. “Wait until you have a clean shot and we have a lock.” Maddy could tell the captain was trying to keep his voice calm. Everyone on the bridge was frozen in anticipation, just waiting, motionless, for a full formation of demons, ready to destroy them all.
; Suddenly the black line of demons appeared on the horizon, emerging from wispy clouds. So close. Dark silhouettes against the sky, the demons rushed inevitably toward the carrier and the rest of the ships.
Maddy felt sick.
The demon shapes made sharp black silhouettes against the bright sky, moving with menace toward them, gathering speed as they approached. A cold-sweat sheen broke out on the radarman’s forehead.
“They’re everywhere!”
The shadowed wings were almost there, blocking out the very sun. Searing toward them with dread certainty. This was the moment everyone had been fearing. The Darkness was coming.
“Prepare to open fire on the enemy,” the captain said.
“We have missile lock,” the pilot of the jet said. “Engaging, in three, two—”
Maddy jolted straight up, as if electrified.
With all her strength, Maddy shoved the captain out of the way and grabbed the microphone from his hands.
“Hold your fire—that’s a direct order!” she screamed.
Maddy slid down onto the floor, tears streaming down her face, utterly overwhelmed with what she had seen. The stunned captain was picking himself off the floor, staring at Maddy in utter disbelief and rage.
“You just have to trust me,” she said through sobs.
The captain looked to the horizon as the demons drew nearer and nearer. In the tussle, the microphone had toppled over and slid to the other side of the floor. It was too late, anyway. He watched the messengers of death emerging from the clouds. He crossed himself. This was the end.
Maddy wiped the tears away from her cheeks and looked out the window.
She recognized the sleek white angles of the wings. These were no demons.
They were Angels.
And leading the charge was Jackson Godspeed.
“Jacks,” Maddy said under her breath, still gasping on the floor. Suddenly she woke from her stunned state. “They’re Angels. Angels! They’re here to help, not to attack!”
The captain took one look at her face and decided to trust her.
Panicked sailors on the deck of the carrier scrambled for their guns as the Angels neared the ship.
“Hold your fire! Goddammit, lower your weapons!” the captain screamed.
Jackson was at the head of the formation. He landed first, his folding cybernetic wings distinctly larger than the other Angels’ and glistening metallic blue under the morning sun. In one hand he held a large, glowing sword, the same kind of sword Maddy had seen when the Angels had descended on the library tower rooftop and battled with the demon. Jacks held up the sword in a sign of nonaggression as more Battle Angels slowly began to drop gracefully down onto the deck behind him, each of them with a sword. Mitch was among them, as were Steven Churchson and even Vivian Holycross’s boyfriend, Julien Santé.
Maddy descended the stairs, and Jackson looked up at her.
Maddy hadn’t even noticed that Tom had landed until, just then, he climbed out of the cockpit of his jet, pulling his oxygen mask off. Stunned, he looked at Jackson and the Angels, then up at Maddy.
Maddy’s knees shook as she walked down the bridge stairs, wavering under the emotional weight of everything that was happening.
Jacks had come.
Of course he had.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Maddy dizzied under the shock of Jackson’s arrival. Just moments before, the entire battle group had been steeling themselves for the arrival of the demons, and now everyone stood silently, in awe at the sight of upward of forty Battle Angels on the aircraft carrier. A distinct glow glinted off the swords each Angel held, the perfect Immortals looking formidable in their black battle armor. Jackson turned his pale blue eyes up to Maddy.
Maddy had thought that the dark wing she saw for a split second in her premonition had belonged to a demon, but of course she should have known. It’d been Jackson’s new wing in shadow against the sun.
Maddy took a few steps down toward the flight deck, where Jacks and the other Angels had landed, but she had to stop for a moment, holding herself up by the railing. Her head spun.
He had come to save Maddy. Just as he always had.
Tom jumped out of the open cockpit, tossing his helmet to a crewman nearby.
Making it the rest of the way down to the deck, Maddy approached Jacks. But Tom beat her to it, putting himself right between Maddy and Jackson.
“What are you doing here?” Tom said bitterly. “Haven’t you done enough damage? Go back to whatever hole your kind is hiding in and leave us to our fate.”
“I’m not here to talk to you, Tom,” Jackson said, trying to stem his anger.
“This is just some kind of Angel trick,” Tom said. He stepped up close to Jackson and looked him in the eyes. The Angel and the man faced each other eye-to-eye. A little thrill seemed to run down Jackson’s body. “Isn’t that right, Godspeed? What are you going to do this time?”
“Tom!” Maddy pulled at his arm, trying to get between the two of them. “Calm down!”
“I didn’t come to fight you. I came to help,” Jacks said, his nostrils flaring. Maddy still tried, unsuccessfully, to separate them. “But I will if I have to. Fight you, I mean. With pleasure.”
“And I’ll be glad to dirty my hands with some Angel blood!” Tom said.
“Please!” Maddy shouted, pushing them both away from each other. Captain Blake intervened and helped pull Tom back, and Mitch approached to stand next to Jackson, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“They said they’re here to help!” Maddy said.
“If you even knew the danger these Angels put themselves in by coming here, you’d be a little more welcoming,” Jacks said.
“Ensign, get the lieutenant downstairs and cool him off!” the captain shouted to a sailor. He turned to Jacks. “And you, Godspeed’s the name, right? You have thirty seconds to explain what you and your people are doing on my flight deck without prior authorization.”
Mitch stepped up. “I can do that, sir,” he said, winking at Jackson. “We’re here to kill some demons.”
• • •
The crewmen showed the Angels to their temporary living quarters. As everyone began to clear from the deck, Jacks caught up with Maddy in one of the hallways just one level down. Maddy had been trying her best to avoid his gaze ever since the Angels had arrived.
“I need to talk to you,” Jacks said, catching her by the wrist.
“Oh, Jacks . . . ,” Maddy said, looking over her shoulder for Tom. “I don’t know.”
“Maddy, come on,” he said.
“I made a promise, Jacks,” Maddy said.
“A promise to him,” Jacks said. “But what about the promises to me?”
“I’ve kept all the promises I’ve made to you, Jacks. Don’t be unfair.” Maddy stared intently at him. “I’m not just some waitress anymore, Jacks,” she said.
“And I’m not just some red-carpet Angel,” he said.
“What do you want from me?”
“I’m not here to change your mind. But I needed to come. I realized, this is my real duty. Detective Sylvester helped show me,” Jacks said. “And . . . Gabriel,” he added cryptically. “You may find it hard to believe that this isn’t just about me trying to get you back,” he went on. “But I feel it somehow. It’s somehow different.”
Maddy could tell Jacks was serious.
He put his hand up to Maddy’s cheek and lightly brushed it. She allowed it to rest there for a moment before turning away.
“Tom might see us,” Maddy said.
“Seriously?” Jackson said. “You were my girlfriend for how long, Maddy?”
“I don’t want any more problems,” Maddy said. “Jacks. It’s . . . it’s too late for this.” Maddy burned with guilt. “If this isn’t about . . . you and me, then why are you and Tom sti
ll fighting?”
“I can’t . . . help it,” said Jacks. “Even just seeing him near you, I start to feel crazy.” The Battle Angel sighed. “But I know this is bigger than either of us, Maddy.”
“I know,” Maddy said, somehow not able to look Jackson in the face. She was afraid of what would happen to her, inside, if she did. She thought of Tom’s warm embrace around her, and the promise she’d made to him.
“After you saw me, Detective Sylvester found a way to come see me in the underground sanctuary.” A darkness cast over Jacks’s face. “To persuade me to join the humans.”
“Sylvester convinced you?” Maddy asked. “And what’s a sanctuary?”
“There’s a lot you need to get caught up on,” Jacks said. “And he didn’t convince me right then. Although, he did help widen the crack of doubt I first felt when you and I met at my house. I was so angry when you met me.” He paused, and Maddy remained silent. “I was almost blind with rage. But our abandoning humanity, no matter how right it may be for the Angels, it didn’t feel right to me. Deep down, if I admitted it, I had doubts all along.
“In the end, to be honest, I did come because of you,” Jackson went on. “But not why you’re thinking. Gabriel wanted me to do something. . . .” The Angel’s expression turned inward for a moment. “I almost did it. I was so close. But then I thought about you, Mads. Your face came up. And I was ashamed.
“I realized how far I’d gone. Toward hate. Because of hurt. Or whatever it was. And I knew I couldn’t do what Gabriel had asked. He wanted me to take another Angel’s life.” Jacks paused, and Maddy looked at him with deep concern. “And not only that. But I knew I needed to help the humans. And protect you. Even if you were with . . . him. That it was the right thing to do. That it was my real duty. No matter what Gabriel and the Council would think. How much they would damn me and defame me to the rest of the Immortals.
“I remembered something my mom said to me: to not forget what kind of Guardian I was. And I had,” Jacks said, his voice coloring with emotion. “So I approached those other Angels I thought might want to come with me. Guardians I knew who would follow me. And others came, too, those I didn’t even ask. They believed in me. It was a strange feeling, after so much doubt and anger about you turning me down and turning away from the Angels. To have these other Guardians believe in me, to want to follow me.” His gaze drifted back to the coastline. “We left before the Council even knew what was happening. I had to do it; no matter how much I may agree with Gabriel on other issues, this isn’t one of them. And these Angels came with me.”