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They were coming, more than ever. The Angels had been reinforced by the entire battalion of Battle Angels, but compared with the demons, which were getting replenished from a seemingly endless supply of evil emerging from the ocean, they were still outnumbered.
“Mark! Take some around to the other side!” Jacks cried out as he saw a line of demons moving along the rooftops and streets to the west. Mark formed a loose group of Battle Angels, and they tore off toward the enemy, swords ready.
Reassured by Mark’s action, Jackson and his warriors turned and faced their foes again. The demons were moving hard, some of them even avoiding the Angel air patrols by breaking into buildings and smashing through room after room only to ambush Angels from a window above.
Jackson was dispatching one of these very demons when he heard a shout. A young Battle Angel fresh from the sanctuary cried out as a demon crushed his shoulder in his claw, holding him firmly. Jacks was too far away to help.
Suddenly a human emerged from a doorway with an AK-47 and sprayed the demon with bullets before running back again for cover. Jackson tried to get there in time to save the wounded Angel, but it was too late. The demon recovered and reached for the Immortal’s legs, then ripped him in two like a rag doll. His Divine Sword clanged to the ground as he took in his last breath. Then, as if it had been nothing, the demon was up and flying away after the brave human. The demon’s blow knocked the human down and did its bloody work before Jackson saw the beast fly off again.
Jackson picked up the Divine Sword from his fallen fellow Angel and looked down at the man with the AK-47. These two brave souls just sacrificed everything in this battle.
He stared forward into the ever-growing mass of demons, his blue eyes sharpening. The Dark Ones looked back at Jackson. If it’s possible for demons to feel fear, then that is what they felt at this moment.
“Jacks!” Mitch called, surely having seen the look in his friend’s eyes. But Jacks paid no attention.
Jackson Godspeed charged into the carnage with a sword in each hand, hewing death and destruction among the demons as he expertly swung the blades back and forth.
The Dark Angels screeched and the Divine Swords pulsed with pure white light with each demon life they took, leaving a trail of severed, smoldering black limbs and the lifeless remains of slaughtered demons.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Maddy watched the battle unfold below as she flew above the city. Jets screamed by, rockets exploded, and down on the ground the demons were waging a devastating battle against Angels and humans. All she saw was a panorama of destruction, and she just hoped she would not be too late, when the time came.
Maddy’s mind flitted guiltily back to the aircraft carrier, to the moments when she was still in her cabin, before she slipped away. Just before she and Tom were supposed to leave for safety in the helicopter, to join President Linden and form a resistance in the East.
She’d had no intention of joining Tom in the helicopter. What he didn’t know, what no one knew, was that right after Jacks had left her, Maddy had been overwhelmed by another vision. She didn’t get many details—the vision had been delivered and then destroyed in her mind like a stealth bomb. But she did see one solitary detail that had been immediately branded on her brain as if with a hot poker.
The one clear thing she saw was that Jackson Godspeed was going to die.
And she could not let that happen.
Maddy had picked up the Divine Sword from the corner of her cabin and examined it once again. Again, she could almost hear it talking to her, whispering.
The intricate engraving around the gilded hilt told an ancient story in ancient Angel symbols she could not read. It was the story of her family, the Godrights. She hoped that, one day, she would be able to read the story. But she of all people knew that survival was not guaranteed.
At that moment, when she was pondering her ancestors and her legacy, she had her vision.
Her ring and the Divine Sword grew luminous as she held the weapon in her hand. The sword was heavy, but Jackson had assured her it would feel light and nimble if she ever needed to use it.
Maddy guessed she would find out soon enough.
Suddenly she knew what she needed to do.
Maddy didn’t know what she’d be facing, where she’d be going. She just knew she had to go. She had to save Jacks. Merely a fragment of a fragment of a vision had entered her mind, but it had overwhelmed her with the force of a tsunami. It had been strong enough to stem the swelling tide of guilt she was already feeling about Tom, the one she would be leaving up on the flight deck.
Maddy sheathed the sword and roped the sturdy leather sling over her shoulder, tightening it diagonally across her chest like a sash. The sword rested firmly against her back, and all she had to do was reach across in one quick motion to pull it out and fight. She practiced drawing the weapon a few times, but it felt clumsy. She tried a few more times, and it was a bit smoother. It’d have to do—she didn’t have time to become an expert.
Then Maddy pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen.
Tom:
I don’t know how to begin . . .
Maddy stared at the paper, but the words didn’t come. She crumpled up the letter and tossed in the wastebasket. There was nothing to say, no way for her to explain to him why she needed to do what she was about to do. She pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and wrote her two-word note to him. That was all she could write, and it ripped her heart in two. But she was compelled by something almost beyond her control. She had to save Jackson, even if it meant losing her own life and breaking Tom’s heart.
She folded the note and left it where an officer would find it and bring it to Tom. She knew he wouldn’t understand.
Her only hope was that maybe one day he could.
