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She slowly opened her cabin door and looked down the corridors. Everyone was running around, preparing for this final battle.
No one had noticed her slip away. Her silhouette had been barely visible as she flew, skimming the waves toward Angel City and her destiny waiting beyond.
• • •
Maddy was still having difficulty focusing on a single frequency—even one she knew as well as Jackson’s. The panic, terror, and chaos of Angel City was overpowering her ability to control her gift, so she had to make do with brief moments and those slivers of time when she could feel Jackson’s presence, his location, even his mood.
And she knew he was in danger—mortal danger. More than he could possibly know.
As she flew near the heart of the battle, Maddy could tell she was getting closer to Jacks. But it was as if she were walking blind in the dark, hearing only
muffled, far-off voices call out every few minutes, and then stumbling in that direction until she heard the call again, this time coming from a different direction. It was frustrating, but she had no choice. The alternative was to just give up. And that was no alternative at all.
Maddy peered into the distance, toward the heart of Angel City, where she’d spent her entire life. And where her uncle Kevin still was. Still safe. The demon attacks hadn’t made it that far.
Yet.
And if she had anything to say about it, she wasn’t going to let them. And that meant saving Jacks first.
Suddenly, Maddy heard a heart-stopping scream. It was like nothing she’d ever heard before in her life—high-pitched, but deep and booming like a roar. A proclamation of death. And it was headed directly toward her.
In her peripheral vision, Maddy saw it: black and terrible, its shape shimmering with dark flames, its wings and horns melding together in a blur as it bore down on her. A Dark Angel. Its scream was a war cry.
Before she even had time to think, Maddy set her wings and banked straight down, soaring toward the Angel City rooftops. The demon followed, its eyes burning iridescent and unblinking in its dark form. Maddy put on as much speed as she could, then veered sharply right.
The Dark Angel screamed again as it followed her. The smoky wind of the burning Angel City whipped against Maddy’s face. Her famous wings strained as she flew as fast as she could. But looking back for just a second, she could sense the demon was getting closer by the second. Maddy’s heart pounded faster and faster in her chest, adrenaline spreading all through her body.
She dipped down farther, below the rooflines, ducking under power lines and shooting down alleys. And yet the demon stayed on her. There was going to be no outrunning him.
She reached back to feel for her sword.
As she grabbed the hilt and pulled up, the force of gravity was incredible, like the slow climb after a huge drop on her favorite roller coaster, except about five times more intense. Every muscle in her body strained to hold her weapon as she climbed . . . climbed . . . climbed.
Below her in the dark air, she saw the demon overshoot her. He was trying to recover, flapping his shimmering, scaly, massive wings to follow her up. She would only have a few seconds. . . .
She reached the peak of her climb. For a moment Maddy was entirely weightless—her body, clothes, and hair hanging in midair. Then she began pitching backward, and she let gravity pull her down again. She simultaneously began shooting back like a loop-de-loop, while reaching behind her and pulling the sword from its sheath.
Jackson had been right! The once-cumbersome sword suddenly felt easy and nimble in her hand, now that she needed it.
As she got the Dark Angel in front of her in her sights, Maddy let out her own battle cry. It may not have been as terrifying as the demon’s, but it made her feel better.
With her backbreaking climb, she had managed to loop back on the Dark Angel. Furious, the demon realized what had happened and screamed as it tried to turn around in midair. It sensed the sword, but it was too late. Maddy’s blade and Divine Ring grew brighter and brighter as she sped toward the demon. She raised the sword and swung it down with all her might, catching the demon’s right arm and wing.
A flash of light shot across the black-vermillion sky as the blade connected. The demon howled, leaving Maddy’s ears ringing as she flew past, drawing the sword close to her body again. The Dark Angel began tumbling downward, but then managed to slow its descent. She had winged it, and it was now far, far below her. The creature dropped farther and farther down into the dark streets until it disappeared completely. She heard a crunching smash below her as it landed on the top of a parked car.
Panting from the chase, Maddy stopped and circled in the air, looking at the spot below where the Dark Angel had disappeared. The sword suddenly felt incredibly heavy again, and she grunted as she shifted her grip on it. She couldn’t believe she had done it! All those agility drills during Guardian training had definitely paid off. If she ever saw him again, she’d have to thank her teacher, Professor Trueway. And Tom, of course. With a pang, she thought again of Tom, whom she’d abandoned on the aircraft carrier. She had broken her promise. But then again, she knew in her heart that she’d simply had to. She owed it to Jackson.
Maddy chased these thoughts from her mind; she had a half-dead demon to think about. Flapping her wings to hover, she peered down from her perch but could see nothing among the buildings below.
Was it dead? Would she have to go down and find out? It seemed to Maddy that it would take more than just a few blows to the body to kill a demon. And wouldn’t a wounded Dark Angel be even more furious and dangerous than a healthy one?
Under normal circumstances—or, at least, as “normal” as circumstances can get in the midst of an apocalyptic demon battle—she’d certainly go down and check it out. But she had more important things to think about now.
Maddy began rising again, flying in the direction where, before the demon had interrupted her, she’d last been able to sense Jacks’s frequency. All around her in the distance, Angels and humans were waging battles. Were the demons winning? She couldn’t tell, and part of her didn’t want to know. She just kept rising, her wings glowing purple in the hazy, dark sky.
Suddenly, unbidden, a flood of relief washed across her as she began to realize that she had just not only survived a demon attack, but had also taken out a Dark Angel. Maddy could barely believe it. She felt that sensation of lightness and near-giddiness that comes when you survive a traumatic event. She almost felt like laughing. She had faced off against a Dark Angel and had won.
Relishing these thoughts in the sky high above the smoke and chaos, she drew in a deep breath of crisp air. It felt fresh—she felt alive. It was a grateful breath and she was thankful for every second of it.
