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Watching the headlights bear down on her, Maddy suddenly knew one thing more absolutely and completely than she had known anything in her entire life: she had just foreseen her own death. And unless she did something in the next second to change the outcome of events, she was, without any doubt, going to die.
Light blazed at her, but from the other direction now. She snapped her head around and saw the headlights of the Range Rover. There it was, like the carriage of death itself. Like the reaper’s coach. The SUV’s horn roared, and she watched helplessly as it swerved in her direction and the tires jumped the curb. With almost detached clarity, Maddy knew it was already too late. It was over for her, and there was nothing left to do but watch it happen. Once again she saw her reflection in the windshield, but this time her face wasn’t surprised, or even horror stricken. It was strangely calm. Peaceful even. She closed her eyes and waited for the impact.
She was hit hard.
Pain shot through her body, but not from the direction she was expecting. Whatever struck her didn’t feel like the grill of the SUV. What it felt like simply didn’t seem possible.
It felt like a hand.
The next thing Maddy knew, she was lying on the pavement looking sideways across the road as the Range Rover plunged into the light pole. The scream of collapsing metal filled the air as the hood exploded, sending deadly pieces of car and windshield tearing through the night. The back end of the Rover jumped off the pavement, fishtailed around, and sailed in her direction.
“No,” commanded a voice above her. A voice? There was a sound like a hole hammered straight through the night, a flash of all-encompassing white light, and then, silence. When Maddy opened her eyes, what she saw was beyond anything she could have possibly imagined.
The world had frozen.
Everything had just stopped. It was as if Maddy had been watching a movie of her death and had simply pressed pause. The Range Rover hovered in front of her with its back end off the ground like some kind of automotive ballerina. Pieces of exploded hood and windshield swam like a sea of destruction all around her. Shards of broken glass hung like twinkling stars. The world held its breath, poised on the knife tip of time, and waited.
Maddy lifted her gaze. In the hard cast of the streetlamp she thought she could make out the silhouette of a figure crouched over her, shielding her with his body, holding onto her hand. Pain was radiating through her now, dimming her already reeling consciousness. She felt her eyes start to close again, but just before they did, she looked at the silhouette and thought she could make out the distinctive outline of wings.
She went into shock. Everything went black.
• • •
Maddy didn’t know if she was alive, dead, or simply dreaming. She had the vague sense she was flying; the wind and the cold on her face were almost unbearable. A jumble of strange, inexplicable images swirled in her head like pieces of a nightmare. Charging headlights and distorted screams, a floating car and a mysterious, shadowy figure. She didn’t know if it was real or imagined. About the only thing she was sure of was the pain. A terrible ache throbbed in her lower back, and there was an intense burning in her left shoulder. In the murky neverland of her semiconsciousness, Maddy tried to find something real to hold on to. She forced her eyes to open and focus.
She saw wings. She watched the way the raindrops hit them and beaded instantly off, the lightly glowing wings staying dry. Whatever kind of hallucination she was having, it was undeniably vivid. Then the cold numbed her mind into unconsciousness, and she blacked out again.
The next time Maddy opened her eyes, she found herself sitting with her back against some kind of concrete wall. It was raining, the smell of it everywhere, and she listened to its steady patter on a canvas awning over her head. Not ten feet beyond her shoes the floor ended, and the lights of Angel City glowed in the soggy night. She had to be sitting on the roof of a tall building. She looked up and saw the words DIVINE RECORDS glowing on a huge curving sign. Above that, a white spike reached up thirty feet up into the air and pierced the churning sky.
She tried to sit up, and only then did she become aware of the heavy arms wrapped around her. They were so hot they were almost searing. She turned and her eyes trac
ed the contours of a perfect, dripping face. She saw his pale blue eyes.
“How do you feel?” Jackson asked.
It was impossible. He was sitting there with her, drenched, and what remained of a white robe hung in tatters over his body. She must still be hallucinating. Or perhaps she was dreaming. Maybe her mind had escaped her death and taken her here, to some kind of fantasy? She was sure she wasn’t experiencing reality, but then again, she could feel the intense heat of his embrace. She could feel the heave of his chest through her wet clothes. Most inescapable of all, she could sense his distinct presence. She was getting to know it now, like the scent of a familiar person. It was undeniably him.
Maddy realized the Angel was looking at her intently, waiting for her to say something.
“What?” Maddy croaked.
“I said, how do you feel?”
“I . . . hurt,” Maddy said, realizing it as much as saying it.
“I know, I’m sorry,” Jacks said gruffly. “I didn’t have much time and there wasn’t any other way. You hit the ground pretty hard.”
“What . . . am I doing here?” she said weakly. “What . . . happened?”
“You were almost in a very bad accident. But you’re safe now.”
“An . . . accident?” The memories flooded back. For several seconds she was seized by panic as the sequence of events rushed upon her.
“It came out of nowhere. It came right at me!” she said, suddenly panicked. “It all happened so fast . . . I tried to get out of the way—”
“You wouldn’t have made it,” Jacks said quietly. His tone was absolute. “It would have crushed you.”
Maddy felt adrenaline rush into her system. Mortal fear rose in her throat like bile. He was right. She knew she was going to die. She had foreseen it. She had closed her eyes, waited for the impact, and . . . she remembered waiting for the collision of the SUV’s grill with her body and instead being knocked sideways and out of the way. Or pulled sideways, she realized. She felt pain in her shoulder flare angrily. It must have been him standing over her, protecting her. The reason she was alive.
