Battle Angel (28 page)

M
addy sipped from her cup of tea, steam rolling up and out of the brown mug as she placed it back down on the table and sank into the comfortable booth of Kevin’s Diner. Outside, plentiful sunshine poured down on the palm trees, and from where Maddy was sitting, she could almost pretend the Battle of Angel City had never happened. One day, it would all look like this again.

Kevin’s Diner was doing brisk business again after its grand reopening. Chatting customers filled the tables and booths, drinking coffee and tucking into plates of blueberry pie and triple-decker club sandwiches.

Maddy watched as the new girl, Sophie, rushed plates of hot food around to the customers. Kevin kept complaining that poor Sophie was hopeless, that she didn’t know her ham omelets from her hamburgers, and that she still couldn’t remember what was in a Maddy Special, but Maddy knew that her uncle had a soft spot for the new waitress. He did sometimes proclaim from the back of the kitchen that Maddy could “never be replaced,” which was usually followed by a no-strings-attached offer for Maddy to come back and wait tables anytime she wanted. He knew she had a new job, though. She had a city to help rebuild.

Jackson and the Angels had departed. Just as Jacks had promised, when Maddy woke up the next morning, they were gone. There were competing stories around the city, traded in cafés and bars, about how they had left. Some claimed they had seen a blinding white light at dawn that overtook the city. Others claimed that the Angels had wandered out into the desert. And some especially fringe conspiracy theorists insisted that they were on a UFO with Elvis and Steve Jobs. To Maddy the “how” didn’t matter. And yet, they—and Jackson—were gone, regardless.

Taking another sip of tea, Maddy looked out at the hill beyond the gleaming window of Kevin’s Diner, up to where the Angel City sign used to be.

The Angel City sign hadn’t been so fortunate during the demon battle. A demon had crashed through the
A
and the
N
, setting the remaining
G
,
E
, and
L
on fire. They had been charred on the hill above the city. And shrapnel from an exploded bomb had sliced the
I
and
T
in “City” right down the middle.

They’d taken down the destroyed sign, leaving what looked to Maddy like an open wound. It was the sign that signified you were in the great Immortal City. But the Angels were gone. It was no longer “Angel City.”

After the crews had taken the sign down, the city officials found themselves asking, “What did this place used to be called again?”

They had to dig out some dusty books from the stacks of the Ventura County Library, but eventually they found the information they were looking for.

The workers were putting up the new letters, one by one. Luckily the two names held the same number of letters, so it wasn’t going to be too extensive of a job. The city officials had bigger things to worry about. But the people felt it was important to start fresh, and Maddy agreed with them. The people would never forget the Angels, but they needed to think of themselves now.

The city workers up on the hill had already gotten most of the letters up. They shined bright and clear in the sunshine of a beautiful day: H O L L Y W O

“Hollywood.” Maddy tried saying it aloud. It sounded strange. Didn’t really have the same ring as “Angel City.” But she guessed she could get used to it. She’d have to. They all would.

Her senses became sharpened as she shifted slightly in the vinyl of the booth, the sun reflecting off the plate-glass window of the diner, sending a shaft of light across her hands and the cup of tea in front of her.

Maddy’s phone beeped, and she pulled it out of her bag. It was a text from Gwen, the best friend she’d reconnected with after the battle.

The text read:
Here are the pics from last night. but something must be wrong with my camera. check it out
.

The phone beeped as a few photos came in. They were pictures Gwen had taken when they were just messing around at the diner the night before. There was Uncle Kevin in his apron, smiling. A picture of Gwen that Maddy had taken. And then Maddy saw what Gwen was talking about in her text. In all the pictures of Maddy, there was a strange blue light glowing around her.

Maddy zoomed in on the photos and focused on the glow. It was somehow very familiar. Why wasn’t the light around Gwen or Uncle Kevin in the pictures?

Practically in a trance, she quickly opened up Instagram and looked at some other photos of herself that had been taken on different cameras.

In each one, she was haloed by the strange blue tinge.

And then she knew how it was familiar. It was the same color of Jackson’s famous wings.

Maddy looked at the photos of herself and then around the diner for something she knew she would never be able to see with the naked eye. She felt something deep inside her. It was a sensation she’d never experienced before. She could feel a presence. Right there, next to her.

“Jacks,” Maddy said, tears spilling from her eyes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
mmortal City has been such an amazing journey over the last four years. I am so grateful to everyone involved. Those who encouraged, those who opened doors, those who worked side-by-side with me, and most of all, the amazing fans that welcomed Maddy and Jacks into their hearts. The acknowledgments for book 3 are a bit of a curtain call, so I apologize in advance. Thanks to both my amazing editors, Laura and Liz, my agents Claudia and Simon, and my team at PPY, Allen, Brian, and Susan. Thanks to my publicist at Penguin, Elyse, the entire team at Razorbill, and the supportive folks at Penguin Young Readers Group. Thanks for the Tweets! Brian, thank you. Thanks to my parents Brad and Janet, my sister Julia, and brother-in-law Bill. And Mike, thanks for the tech consulting. Oh, and thanks to little Frankie, who isn’t so little anymore. Drew, Desmond, Mike, guys, thank you. Both Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop and Once Upon a Time bookstore have been relentless supporters; thank you guys for always having me in!